# Bye Silk! ... fusion ... and Escape from the Airship ... *The Whorl list — 3 messages, 3 voices, 02 Nov 1998* > Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright > in each message remains with the person who wrote it. > Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original > archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than > retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact. --- ### Greg Neyman *02 Nov 1998, 19:33* Alga- I think (sniff) that's that last anyone will ever see of Silk -n- 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| *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun. --- ### Alex David Groce *03 Nov 1998, 12:39 · follows Greg Neyman* > Greg Neyman wrote: > Alga- I think (sniff) that's that last anyone will ever see of Silk -n- > 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. 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. > 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. 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 *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun. ``` --- ### Michael Straight *03 Nov 1998, 13:58 · follows Alex David Groce* > On Tue, 3 Nov 1998, Alex David Groce wrote: > 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. 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 *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun. ---