{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/732", "note": "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.", "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'" }, "archive": "whorl", "thread": { "id": 732, "subject": "Corn Silk?", "messages": 1, "voices": 1, "first": "1999-11-16T22:58:38+00:00", "last": "1999-11-16T22:58:38+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "William H. Ansley", "address": "wansley at warwick.net" }, "date": "1999-11-16T22:58:38+00:00", "subject": "(whorl) Corn Silk?", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "\"Roberson, John\" (Ram) wrote (back on 5 Nov 1999):" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Once again, Gene is playing identity games with us regarding Horn. Yes,\nhe's definitely been back to the Long Sun Whorl after being hijacked to\nGreen and my impression is, as a reminiescing narrator from the future,\nlooking back, he'll lead us through his adventures on Green in IGJ and then\nwrite about his one-and-only trip back to the Whorl in RTTW. He's dropped\nthe hint in OBW to the effect that a surgeon talked about \"Pas-silk\",\nintimating that Silk's physical body had Pas' (Typhon program's) head\ngrafted on it in the \"real world\" during his stay on the LS Whorl. He also\nmentioned that he was pretty sure Silk was scanned into mainframe and\npotentially merged with the Pas program as Kypris suggested, in the \"virtual\nworld\". Horn also affects Silk's attitudes frequently, dresses in augur's\nrobes, and is apparently mistaken for Silk by Oreb and occasionally refers\nto himself as though he's Silk. So...I get the dfistinct impression that,\nunable to leave the LS Whorl, the Silk program had Horn look into the\nmonitor at it and transferred some of Silk's essence into him, \"possessing\"\nhim to the extent of giving him some of Silk's identity. This would be the\nonly way Silk could provide New Viron and Blue with his leadership (or the\nleadership of someone possessing---no pun intended---similar abilities)\nwithout actually leaving the LS Whorl. This would explain Horn's\nreferences." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "and later (16 Nov 1999):" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "1. As mentioned before in this column, there are numerous cases of identity\nconfusion with Silk, on Horn's part, after he returns from the Long Sun\nWhorl. There's also mention of what we'd suspected for a long time: the\npossibility of Silk being scanned into Mainframe and probably merged with\nthe Pas program (as well as mention of a surgeon who has perhaps grafted a\nPas-Silk in the physical world?). Could Horn's identity problems result\nfrom the Pas-Silk amalgram program having transferred some of Silk's\nidentity into Horn via \"possession\", in a similar way to that which turned\nMaytera Mint into the \"Sword of Echidna\"? This might have been the program\nSilk's only way of sending \"Silk\" to New Viron as a leader. This would\nexplain the identity confusion." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Ram,\n\nDon't feel bad that there was little response to your earlier posting; this\nlist has been quite dead, considering a new Wolfe book is out. I am not\nsure why; perhaps we are all waiting, breathless, to see if Wolfe is going\nto be able to keep all these balls in the air, while adding several new\nones and then catch them all safely without letting us see where some of\nthem go or quite how he does it.\n\nI think your \"Silk program downloaded into Horn\" hypothesis is good as far\nas it goes, and something like this probably happened, but it doesn't\nexplain the apparent physical transformation of Horn into a simulicrum of\nSilk.\n\nFortunately \"Kieran Cleary\" has done all the work for\nme, so I'll just quote his post:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "EVIDENCE OF A METAMORPHOSIS\n\n1. \"Marrow is...balder even than I was then.\" [p.21]\n2. \"At thirty-five, only a little taller, thick bodied and nearly bald..\"\n[p.65]\n3. \"My own height...was three cubits and two hands at that time - a good\ndeal less than it is now.\" [p.196]\n4. \"..explaining that I...was half blind.\" [p.225]\n5. \"Yet they cheered for the one-eyed man with white hair.\" [p.289]\n6. \"Saw my own reflection...wild white hair and empty socket, lined and\nworried old face.\" [p.281]" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Points 1 and 3 seem most telling to me. Horn seems to have grown\nconsiderably taller and less bald since his trip to _The Whorl_. I believe\nthere is a passaged where Horn talks about his bad ankle, as well. (As for\nthe missing eye, I have my own thoughts on that, which you can read in my\npost, \"An eye for an eye?\" on 19 Oct 1999 in the archives.\n\nThis makes it seem as if Horn's mind/program has been transferred to Silk's\n(discarded?) body. Well, it will undoubtedly be much more complicated than\nthis.\n\nWilliam Ansley\n\n\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun." } ] } ] }