Urth Digest, Vol 56, Issue 37

James Wynn · 16 Apr 2009, 22:50 · from 2009-April.txt.gz

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From: crushtv at gmail.com (James Wynn)
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 2009 17:50:34 -0500
Subject: (urth) Urth Digest, Vol 56, Issue 37
In-Reply-To: <273409710904161433t14f54bc6s66a276f071d54ac0 at mail.gmail.com>
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>I also just don't see how it adds anything
>to the thematic content, and to me it also
>takes away from it, which is one of the tests
>I usually posit Wolfe Textual theories against.

It is loaded with thematic content.
1) Foremost, it is a rationalization of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy 
Spirit--the same and yet distinct.  In Augustinian theology, the person of 
the Holy Spirit is the relationship, the love, the connection between the 
Father and the Son. Of course, it works even better if one accepts that Horn 
is a clone of Typhon and that Silk is the son of Typhon and Kypris and that 
Silk is possessed by (or in some other way *is*) Pas/Typhon. But it is not 
necessary.

2) Also, the ability for the Ring Bearer Horn to receive the rights to Blue 
is analogous to the right of Jesus Christ to have redeem humanity and to be 
the Mediator between God and man: He must be 100% human and 100% Neighbor.

3) It also fits with concepts that Wolfe has tinkered with elsewhere, such 
as the alien VRT becoming a "perfect" imitation of Marsch and Mani the cat 
being neither a cat nor an elemental spirit.

>For instance, seeing someone unmoving at the bottom
>of a dimly lit pit from 30 feet, and assuming them dead,
>does not, to me, seem at all unusual.
>[snip]
>And Oreb was clearly faking it.  Not resurrecting. ;)

(sigh)
Maybe you're just tweaking my ear. But, there are readers who believe
this so I'll act like you aren't:
An ability to perfectly feign death well enough to fool four expert
witnesses is a power I was not aware night choughs possessed. I'm sure
you've held birds in your hand before. An avian heartbeat is not something
that one would fail to detect. But maybe Horn learned it from Oreb.

>And as for the neighbor saying "I am Horn" I can write more
>on that later.  That one line, if taken by itself, may indicate
>what you mean.

This would mean nothing to me except when combined with the other stuff.
Sure, you can individually dispense each of these in turn. Seawrack could 
not be as sure Horn was dead as she claimed. The Neighbor identifying 
himself as Horn could mean many things (even if the *Rajan* is Horn, it's 
not absolutely clear what it means). Horn's denial that he was on Green was 
to draw out Fava (then why tell the story?). Silk is a an anorexic 
masochist.
Oh yeah, then there is the *Rajan* saying that he killed Hide and Hoof's 
father.

But you pile all these together and they point to something else. They do to 
me, anyway. I could be wrong in the particular explanation, I guess, but 
there is something more than Horn-->SilkHorn going on, and I don't know what 
resolves all these better than what I've presented.

Of course, I'm right but Wolfe's stories are big enough for the both of us.
;-)

J.

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