Subject: (whorl) Horn as Inhumi and Silk as suicide?

From: Roberson, John <robersonj at bek.com>
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2000 14:26:36 +0000

Greetings!  Hope this reaches everyone. 

1. The description of Silk circulated by Horn was from the postscript to
TBOLS copies circulated by Horn and Nettle after they landed on Blue, not by
the Rajan of Gaon Horn/Silk amalgam who should know, if nothing else, where
Silk's body is.

2. Unless Horn as TBOLS narrator was so hero-worshipful that he's another
unreliable Wolfean narrator, I don't think suicide out of despondency is an
option for someone of the character of Silk, given that he rejected it on
the airship.  But using himself as a funeral sacrifice for Hy would be in
character.  (Then again, maybe Wolfe is saying that Silk was too idealistic
and fooled-by-young-love/lust to be the Beautiful Person and only after
merging with the more realistic, selfish, imperfect Horn could he/them
become what Horn believed him to be initially through the rose-tinted
glasses of his youth.  Either that, or I'm full of it.)

3. Just noticed that (forgot the page no) Jahlee, when posing as Incanto's
housekeeper, is mentioned as snuffling around and coughing like Incanto,
after he's slept in her house for some time. I wonder if she's been having a
midnight snack of Incanto on rye?  This would explain Incanto's lack of
appetite if the identity-fluid transfer from victim to inhumu works both
ways, as some have supposed.  This would be more palatable to me than
Incanto actually being an inhumu...

4. With regard to the Horn-Babbie identity confusion at the end of OBW, I
initially thought this was just a psychic bonding caused by Horn's
Neighbor-granted psychic abilities asserting themselves (like suddenly being
a perfect shot and picking his way through dense foliage, etc), perhaps
caused by the fact that I believe Mucor frequently possessed Babbie on their
journey and he was linking with her/it.  She does tend to pop up whenever he
exercizes his astral projection ability.  Maybe not, though...

What do you wiser heads think?

Still in the schola, nowhere close to Patera-hood,

Ram    

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