Babbie

James Wynn · 19 Mar 2009, 11:45 · from 2009-March.txt.gz

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From: crushtv at gmail.com (James Wynn)
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 2009 06:45:50 -0500
Subject: (urth) Babbie
References: <W1932525930220201237419617@webmail39><A54E48EA63964BE7B8A4F6273FA82D1C@eMachinePC><20090319023228.GR21587 at broggs.org><e8e9702e0903181954v922b508h6a52165ea09e76b5 at mail.gmail.com><3B9CA387-1367-4B15-AE3A-E36CA1D5A738 at butcherbaker.org><93EF3F2B27F14A66B216B9275E6EA40A@eMachinePC><DE725E3B-9662-425B-B323-33232EBE8FB4 at butcherbaker.org><BLU120-W53781999F5B133264C324186960 at phx.gbl>
	<4A7B1069-BA31-4A2D-91BA-1B1FFF589143 at butcherbaker.org>
Message-ID: <C618A0720EEC4E04899A36557FB02EE1@eMachinePC>

>>> Witz: You're NOT including Pas in your Trinity right? just Horn/ 
>>> Silk/Neighbor. Not Horn/Silk/Neighbor/Pas.

>> Chis P: At least the way I read it, Pas did not have a soul as such. He 
>> was  a... pattern, or a psyche (in the terminology I remember us using in 
>> that particular conversation) at best. Typhon's soul stayed with  Typhon. 
>> Even that psyche was not exactly Typhon, because it had  either changed 
>> on its own or been edited to fit its new role on the  ship (not to 
>> mention the things that happened to it afterward).
>
> I hear you.  But wouldn't that mean that Divine Silk was a pattern and 
> not a soul or psyche?
> I've understood that it was Divine Silk that got into Pig and thus 
> Horn/Silk.
> Unless of course, Divine Silk doesn't really factor in at all, and 
> somehow Silk's soul got into Pig by some other means.
>

The question of whether Wolfe views souls as physical/wave or metaphysical 
entities is still an issue of debate. He treats them as both. But think of 
Abel's discussion with Mani the cat about whether he is a cat or an 
elemental spirit. Abel says he is neither. For as long as they are together, 
he's a new entity made up of both.

There are only three people in the Raja...and only three souls.  When the 
Raja takes on Silk's body and his mind, he takes on both Silk and any daemon 
riding along when he died --which would not be Silk or Pas but the Silk-Pas. 
This is further complicated by the fact that Pas is no longer the original 
Pas either. They had to add a little bit of Silk to complete him (so Pas has 
Silk's head now). Consequently, Pas himself is also Silk-Pas, so what's the 
difference? (And Typhon, when Sev met him --and apparently when he was 
scanned-- also consisted of two souls, right? Hmmmm...The head that was 
changed in Pas was the tyrant's, not Pieton's, right?. How much of the old 
Urth's calde even exists in Pas anymore? )

So, only three souls and only three Horns. But the three are not necessarily 
the same three. If you are familiar with the way Wolfe weaves mythology into 
his stories and characters, then you know he's quite comfortable with this 
sort of double and triple -iteration.

J

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