Wind god

James Wynn · 03 Nov 2010, 17:22 · from 2010-November.txt.gz

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From: crushtv at gmail.com (James Wynn)
Date: Wed, 03 Nov 2010 12:22:05 -0500
Subject: (urth) Wind god
In-Reply-To: <978BDEAD3F944F6483F100490D39C283@jill>
References: <SNT123-W31E1926E8B4AF1A5F6C0EDCF4A0 at phx.gbl>
	<978BDEAD3F944F6483F100490D39C283@jill>
Message-ID: <4CD19A3D.9020806 at gmail.com>

>>
>> Lee Berman-
>> Still pecking through RttW and finding interesting revelations.
>> One thing I find striking are the numerous mentions of Typhon/Pas as
>> a god of winds. Why are we hit over the head so hard with this when the
>> connection wasn't addressed at all in the previous five books of the 
>> Long/Short
>> Sun series? (unless we count the hot, drought winds plaguing the 
>> Whorl during
>> Silk's ascendence).
>
> Gerry Quinn -
> I read the Short Sun trilogy recently.  I noticed Pas was associated 
> with a whirlwind once or twice, but that's all I remember - certainly 
> not being hit hard with it.  And a whirlwind is different from a 
> typhoon or sirocca. I don't really see why the association would be 
> important anyway, though. What, if anything,does it tell us about 
> him?  I can see how a whirlwind or windstorm might reflect his rapid 
> conquest of Urth - but we already know about that!

It TELLS us nothing in itself.  The _why_ questions are the point. If 
Typhon is Spring Wind and/or the Student, what is the significance of 
his sons? I suspect that an epiphany in a Wolfe story always starts with 
someone saying "Yes, it is clear that such-and-such happened, buy WHY 
did it happen?" "Why did he do it?" "Why did Wolfe have the character 
mention this here?"***  For me, wondering why is always the start. 
Sometimes you come up with answer.

*** Such as, "Why does Silk spend two full and separate paragraphs 
pondering why he called Blood "son"? Or "Why does Silk ponder that he 
and Sand must be brothers in some meta-universal sense because of the 
tenuous similarities in their names?"

+u16b9

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