Subject: (whorl) Bye Silk! ... fusion ... and Escape from the Airship ...

From: Greg Neyman <greg.neyman at gte.net>
Date: Mon, 02 Nov 1998 19:33:54 +0000

Hy ... Wolfe foreshadowed to that much when silk was on the airship deck ...
Silk said that if he fell at that moment, he wouldn't really die, not in the
eyes of the people on the airship ... he'd just disappear, and who's to say
what that means ... anyhoop, that DID happen at the end of exodus ... silk
just DISAPPEARED ... an enigmatic ending for an enigmatic hero
    BTW - silk as the "positively beautiful man?" ... I can see that
happening.

    Rostrum - Hammerstone said in Lake that making a child takes at least
two years, and maybe as long as twenty (as they get the parts, presumably)
... does the couple enter the "love-trance" for twenty years?  there's no
way they could be productive citizens and produce children simultaneously if
that were the case.
    And even if it was the case, I'd imagine that black mechanics would be
able to find a way to circumvent this.
    BTW good call on that water vapor bit ... I'm kicking myself for not
having thought of it.

    Alex ... thanks for respond RE: Quetzal ... it's nice to know that I
didn't miss something that important ...

    New question:  Anyone else shaking their heads at the way Silk escaped
the airship cell ... didn't it seem too easy?  I just can't believe that the
Trivis would be caught with their skirts down like that.  Input would be
appreciated, as always.

    /\/\     Greg Neyman               Greg.Neyman at gte.net
___/____\___ http://www.trailerpark.com/siesta/thehat/
  |HE  HA|

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From: Alex David Groce <adgroce at eos.ncsu.edu>
Date: Tue, 03 Nov 1998 12:39:20 +0000

Greg Neyman wrote:
>     Alga- I think (sniff) that's that last anyone will ever see of Silk -n-

Yes, it's a nicely evocative connection.  I'm not sure Silk is gone--it's
possible, and the airship suggests it, but it seems at least possible that when
Horn & co. head back to the Whorl, they will indeed find Patera Silk.  But I do
agree it's at not unlikely we've seen the last of him.

> .... does the couple enter the "love-trance" for twenty years?  there's no

Well, it wouldn't have to be a "trance"--humans don't necessarily go into a
trance to make a kid, but don't have conscious access to the workings of it.
But it does seem odd the black mechanics can't get at this if they can mess
with programming as much as they seem to be able to (maybe Pas had this a lot
better guarded, especially the fusion pack part--as that would seem to be the
really dangerous part.)

-- 
"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free." - John 8:32
--
Alex David Groce (adgroce at eos.ncsu.edu)
Senior (Computer Science/Multidisciplinary Studies in Technology & Fiction)
'98-99 NCSU AITP Student Chapter President
608 Charleston Road, Apt. 1E (919)-233-7366
http://www4.ncsu.edu/~adgroce

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From: Michael Straight <straight at email.unc.edu>
Date: Tue, 03 Nov 1998 13:58:51 +0000

> agree it's at not unlikely we've seen the last of him.

I predict that if we see Silk at all in the Short Sun books, it will be as
part of a Silk/Pas amalgram residing in Mainframe.

-Rostrum