{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/871",
    "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": 871,
    "subject": "Does Horn Know He is Silk?",
    "messages": 2,
    "voices": 2,
    "first": "2000-07-24T10:29:44+00:00",
    "last": "2000-07-24T11:08:22+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<whorl-v0010-0416@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Alice Turner",
        "address": "pei047 at attglobal.net"
      },
      "date": "2000-07-24T10:29:44+00:00",
      "subject": "(whorl) Does Horn Know He is Silk?",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I think he does and he doesn't. Horn practically worshipped Silk as a\nboy, wrote a book about him, has invested much of his life in\nperpetuating his myth and doesn't feel up to \"walking in his shoes.\" He\nknows that it is his--Horn's--personality in this body, however much\nOreb may squawk. Nevertheless, parts of Silk are left, just as you can\nnever erase a program completely from your computer.\n\nWhen the \"astral projection\" trips are taken, the people at the other\nend appear as filtered through the mind not only of Silk/Horn, but that\nof the inhuma who he is partnered with (this is not something he can do\nalone). That is why he looks more like the old Horn, whose face he saw\nin the mirror when he shaved for decades, why the vampires are \"real\ngirls,\" why Oreb is so large and so human looking.\n\nBut something else is going on too. Horn is the first of Wolfe's\ncharacters ever to grow. The two-dimensional \"plain man\" of the first\nbook, whose weaknesses were evident enough--just think Sinew, Krait,\nSeawrack--is slowly becoming more extraordinary than any other Wolfe\ncharacter (not surprising, as we realize that he incorporates Silk and\nis an aspect of the Conciliator--you realize that his astral trip to\nUrth will be remembered as a visit from the Conciliator). This is the\nfirst Wolfe book that has ever made me cry, and I can cry all over again\nthinking of his silent and near-deadly heroism in cradling the dying\nFava in his arms while they embark on one last adventure together. Or\nthe last paragraph of the book, which is extraordinary. Horn is the best\nof Wofe's heroes, the deepest, the most human, the most adult.\n\n-alga\n\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun."
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<whorl-v0010-0417@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Kevin J. Maroney",
        "address": "kmaroney at crossover.com"
      },
      "date": "2000-07-24T11:08:22+00:00",
      "subject": "Re: (whorl) Does Horn Know He is Silk?",
      "in_reply_to": "<whorl-v0010-0416@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Minor spoiler for _In Green's Jungles_: "
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "At 10:29 AM 7/24/00 -0400, Alga wrote:\nI think he does and he doesn't. Horn practically worshipped Silk as a\nboy, wrote a book about him, has invested much of his life in\nperpetuating his myth and doesn't feel up to \"walking in his shoes.\" He\nknows that it is his--Horn's--personality in this body, however much\nOreb may squawk. Nevertheless, parts of Silk are left, just as you can\nnever erase a program completely from your computer."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Remember that Silk was genetically programmed to be an exceptional leader.\nOnce Horn took over Silk's body, he apparently gained that ability, too,\nwhich is why the Gaonese made him Rajan, swore eternal loyalty to him, and\nso forth. \n\nBefore his \"death\", Horn can't buy a break. After his rebirth, he's a\ndemigod. Whatever genes Silk had, they're the pure product. "
        },
        {
          "kind": "sig",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Wombat, a.k.a. Kevin Maroney kmaroney at crossover.com\nKitchen Staff Supervisor, New York Review of Science Fiction\nhttp://www.nyrsf.com\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun."
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}