{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/911", "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": 911, "subject": "Silk's body or another?", "messages": 2, "voices": 2, "first": "2000-08-08T13:03:08+00:00", "last": "2000-08-09T23:29:04+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Fernando Q. Gouvea", "address": "fqgouvea at colby.edu" }, "date": "2000-08-08T13:03:08+00:00", "subject": "(whorl) Silk's body or another?", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "**** On Tue, 8 Aug 2000 17:29:09 +0100, \"Ian Smith\" said:\n\nIan> would be that bloke from 'the book of Silk'. Yup, I'm proposing that\nIan> both Horn AND Silk are occupying a third (unknown) body at the\nIan> 'present of OBW and IGJ, which would explain both the narrator's lack\nIan> of recognition of being in Silk's body and also his circling a\nIan> physical description of Silk out of Gaon in order to 'locate' him. As\nIan> I said I'm reading through again to check, and anyone with evidence\nIan> against please step forward.....\n\nCould someone cite chapter and verse about this business of a physical\ndescription of Silk being circulated by Horn? I just reread OBW, and didn't\nfind it. It's always possible I was momentarily distracted, but I think the\nclosest passage is this, on page 18:\n\n\"Silk may be here on Blue already, after all. I have dispatched letters to\nHan and some other towns, and we will see. It is convenient, I find, to\nhave messengers at one's beck and call.\" \n\n...and so on. Nothing here about a physical description, though he says\n\n\"... I write new letters subtracting some facts and adding others,\ncomposing flatteries and threats I hope will bring this town and that to my\nassistance...\"\n\nOne can almost read this passage as if he's trying to convince other towns\nto acknowledge *he* is Silk... though I don't think that's what it really\nmeans. Note also, that on page 25, he says:\n\n\"No more letters. What farce!\"\n\nI still think the likeliest reading of all this is that Horn knows he is in\nSilk's body, but it's clear that for complete clarification one must know\nwhat happened in the Whorl, and we don't at this point. It would be useful\nfor someone to collect all the references we have so far about this. For\nexample, there are references to Pig, to Olivine getting him the augur's\nrobe and giving him her eye. There seem to be references to some contact\nwith the head of the chapter in the Whorl (Incus?). Has anyone tried to\ncollect all of these?\n\nFernando" }, { "kind": "sig", "depth": 0, "text": "Fernando Q. Gouvea \nDepartment of Mathematics Editor, FOCUS and MAA Online\nColby College Mathematical Association of America\nWaterville, ME 04901 http://www.maa.org\nfqgouvea at colby.edu \n==========================================================\n\nYesterday upon the stair\nI met a man who wasn't there.\nHe wasn't there again today --\nI think he's from the CIA.\n\n\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Adam Stephanides", "address": "adamsteph at earthlink.net" }, "date": "2000-08-09T23:29:04+00:00", "subject": "Re: (whorl) Silk's body or another?", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Fernando Q. Gouvea wrote:\n\nCould someone cite chapter and verse about this business of a physical\ndescription of Silk being circulated by Horn? I just reread OBW, and didn't\nfind it. It's always possible I was momentarily distracted, but I think the\nclosest passage is this, on page 18:\n\n\"Silk may be here on Blue already, after all. I have dispatched letters to\nHan and some other towns, and we will see. It is convenient, I find, to\nhave messengers at one's beck and call.\"\n\n...and so on. Nothing here about a physical description, though he says" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I think I'm the one who started the \"physical description\" bit, and\nsince the passage you quote is the one I was thinking of, I was\nevidently wrong. What happened, I think, was that I originally reasoned\nthat if Silk were on Blue, he would be trying to stay hidden (otherwise\nhe would be known already), and so the only way Horn could find him\nwould be through a physical description. Then, not having a copy of OBW\nwith me, I misremembered this as Horn explicitly mentioning a physical\ndescription.\n\nBut the broader mystery remains, and is even sharpened by IGJ: if\nmantis's interpretation of the spirit-transference scene is correct--and\nI believe it is--and if Horn knows it's in Silk's body that he was\nplaced, then he shouldn't be hoping to find Silk on Blue, in any body. \nOf course, something may have happened on the Whorl that we don't know\nabout to change that.\n\n--Adam\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun." } ] } ] }