prophecy in a novel, Q's coming for dinner
The Whorl list — 2 messages, 2 voices, 21 Jun 2000
https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/849

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Michael Andre-Driussi — 21 Jun 2000, 12:59

Re: the prophecy thing.  I'd like to point out that TBOTLS is a novelistic
construct even within its own context.  A historical novel written by Horn
to capture the lost world of his youth; like Twain or Proust, if you will.
More than usual, even with Wolfe: after all, this is part of the deep
tension in the Short Sun series (or so it seems to me); the clash between
the "realistic historical record" and something that seems (or is wanted to
be) larger than that (the seed of a new religion, among other
possibilities); the gap between talking the talk and walking the walk.

Re: Pike's ghost as Q.  Not to give new life to this notion, but now that
we know an awful lot more about inhumu and how they come to be like people,
well then, it makes it seem (possible/probable/essential) as if Q bit Pike
and got some of his essence (must be embarassing for an old codger to
suddenly start skipping like a wee girl, after all); thus no surprise that
Pike an Q look alike (more alike than, say, any two old white guys).

=mantis=



*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.

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Michael Straight — 21 Jun 2000, 16:28
  follows, by subject match Michael Andre-Driussi

> On Wed, 21 Jun 2000, Michael Andre-Driussi wrote:
> Re: the prophecy thing.  I'd like to point out that TBOTLS is a novelistic
> construct even within its own context.  A historical novel written by Horn
> to capture the lost world of his youth; like Twain or Proust, if you will.
> More than usual, even with Wolfe: after all, this is part of the deep
> tension in the Short Sun series (or so it seems to me); the clash between
> the "realistic historical record" and something that seems (or is wanted to
> be) larger than that (the seed of a new religion, among other
> possibilities); the gap between talking the talk and walking the walk.

Good point.  I left off "Horn embellishing" from my list of possible
explanations for the dreams/prophesies.  That whole ambiguity regarding
Horn's role as the storyteller is one of my favorite things about the
series.  I gather there's more good stuff to come in OBW in that regard.

-Rostrum


*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.

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