Subject: (whorl) Horn/Silk as inhumu

From: Michael Purdy <mcp at jhu.edu>
Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2000 15:42:14 +0000

Things I find tempting about the idea:
*Could key into the secret of the inhumu:  what if giving yourself 
willingly to the inhumu somehow allows you to take them over?  Not just for 
a while, but for good.  They drain you, you die, and are reborn in them.  A 
very Christian way to defeat an enemy--by helping them.
*Might make the baffling passage near the end of OBW where Horn and Babbie 
suffer from identity confusion seem a little clearer--perhaps Horn had to 
drain some of Babbie's blood, and in doing so temporarily took on his 
consciousness/frame of reference.  Note problems with this below, though.
*Resonates with the sudden revelation that someone you never suspected was 
telling the story at the end of BOTLS.
*Explains the oft-mentioned lack of appetite in Horn.
*Explains his baffling tendency to keep adopting inhumi.

Problems:
*If Horn being an inhumu keys into the Babbie switch, then the timeline is 
knocked completely out of whack.  IIRC, the brief Babbie switch takes place 
before Horn arrives at Parjorucu (don't have the book w/me), when the only 
inhumu he's encountered is Krait, and he and Krait are both still alive and 
kicking at this point.  Unless Horn became an inhumu back when one of them 
was draining Sinew...is that why Krait's blood makes for such a reviving 
meal in the pit?  Nah, Sinew's his oldest kid, so that couldn't possibly 
work could it?  Sinew was young when the attack occurred, so Horn and 
Nettle probably hadn't had the twins yet.
*All of the above fails to account for what went on in the body-switch with 
Silk in IGJ.  Unless, as someone was speculating, Silk is an inhumu too at 
the point Horn jumps in.  That just really seems like a bit too much...
*Handwriting and hair are both good objections.

And yet, and yet... I still find the idea tempting.
Michael

*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.
*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.moonmilk.com/whorl/
*To leave the list, send "unsubscribe" to whorl-request at lists.best.com
*If it's Wolfe but not Long Sun, please use the URTH list: urth at lists.best.com