Who's in Oreb

James Wynn · 24 Jun 2005, 15:48 · from 2005-June.txt.gz

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From: thewynns at earthlink.net (James Wynn)
Date: Fri Jun 24 15:48:05 2005
Subject: (urth) Who's in Oreb
Message-ID: <29944422.1119653282485.JavaMail.root at wamui-karabash.atl.sa.earthlink.net>

>>I'm referring the time when Silk first bought Oreb. As you recall,
>>Oreb died just before Silk could sacrifice it, and then was
>>inexplicably resurrected. Since *someone* was possessing that
>>bird [...]

>That's rather a large assumption. There is only one known-for-sure
>example of a god of Mainframe possessing an animal (Scylla-in-
>Oreb, forsooth and fershoor), and that was in extreme circumstances.
>Pas at this time was _already_ shattered and scattered, and, while
>Kypris was not, nothing in her early encounter with Silk suggests
>that she was in particular fear at that time.
>
>Is there any reason to suppose that Oreb was possessed, rather
>than, say, playing dead?

Well, "playing dead" is no small clue. Silk is a trained and practiced
"butcher". He deals with dead animals all the time. He had every
reason to want Oreb NOT to be dead. It was a terrible
disheartening event for the bird to die mid-sacrifice.  If Silk was
convinced Oreb was dead, I think his assessment is trustworthy.
His death and resurrection can hardly be termed anything but a miracle.

Maybe I'm wrong about who was in there. I can't imagine who else it
might be because even though Kypris does tell Silk she's on the run,
I agree she does not seem to be as desperate as the the renegade
gods seem to have been when they fled into animals. Also, black birds
are signatories of Pas. Also, in a literary sense, the bird's death and
resurrection foreshadow Pas's same. 

But maybe I could be wrong. After all, we don't have any proof to the
degree we get regarding Scylla in RTTW. Or maybe even the Outsider
did it. But that was a significant event that was never
explained in the story. And I think my explanation is the most
probable.

~ Crush

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