Dionysus

James Wynn · 04 Dec 2010, 22:39 · from 2010-December.txt.gz

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From: crushtv at gmail.com (James Wynn)
Date: Sat, 04 Dec 2010 16:39:53 -0600
Subject: (urth) Dionysus
In-Reply-To: <66B6396492E34CF9AFA0336A19B41875@jill>
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> Gerry Quinn-
> Maybe I am being over-simplistic, but my impression is that Silk's 
> spirit is dying, but not his body (as the Neighbour says).  As you put 
> it, a mourning ritual gets out of hand, but not fatally to Silk's 
> body. Conversely, Horn is in the opposite situation.  His body dies, 
> while his spirit flies to Silk's body.
> What happens Silk?  I think his spirit remains dormant in his old 
> body, now occupied by Horn's spirit.  (Aspects of Pas seem to be there 
> too; although uploading is distinct from possession, I suspect a 
> certain amount of spirit mingling has taken place here too.)

Even if your reading of "one whose spirit is dying" is the one intended 
(and it might well be), it comes to the same thing. We have examples of 
dying spirits in The Book of the Short Sun (Jane offered a good one. 
There are others.) If Silk's spirit was dying, then it would need 
another spirit to animate the body. If Silk's body was animated by 
Horn's spirit, there's no reason to believe it would heal Silk's dying 
spirit because the "wound" it had suffered was Hyacinth's death. HORN's 
problem was not that his spirit was dying but that his life was dying. 
There is no justification in the story for that spirit to subsequently 
die while Silk's lives.

If Silk's spirit dies, his body needs Horn's spirit. And that's what I 
argue happened.

u+16b9
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