Dionysus

James Wynn · 07 Dec 2010, 04:20 · from 2010-December.txt.gz

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From: crushtv at gmail.com (James Wynn)
Date: Mon, 06 Dec 2010 22:20:01 -0600
Subject: (urth) Dionysus
In-Reply-To: <008201cb951f$75f36000$b1d04a0c@rclackey>
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	<008201cb951f$75f36000$b1d04a0c@rclackey>
Message-ID: <4CFDB5F1.1000704 at gmail.com>

> Gerry Quinn-
> But something happens at the end, after the inhumi attack the church.  
> Up to now there has been this person who appears to be Horn in Silk's 
> body, although at some point we go from first to third person (no 
> point that appears special, though). Then suddenly something happens 
> and the text decribes him as Silk, as if Remora's mention of hyacinths 
> had brought him back.If a Neighbour spirit is somehow animating Silk's 
> body, what's happening here?

> Roy C. Lackey wrote-
> That isn't the only problem this theory creates.
> It calls into question everything that happened after the pit,
> which extends to the whole manuscript written by Silkhorn.
> For one, it puts a different spin on everthing Silkhorn had to say about
> the Neighbors. If Silkhorn was actually a Neighbor, then he knew perfectly
> well their natural state of being, where they went when they left Blue,
> what god(s) they worshipped, etc. He had no need to wonder about any of
> the questions about Neighbors he wondered about; he would or should have
> known the answers.

Again, the Rajan is not merely a Neighbor in human disguise. I 
understand why this is so hard to keep this in mind because it was a 
concept that was controversially debated in the development of the 
doctrine of the Trinity. The Rajan is 100% Silk -- as surely as Typhon 
is present in the Whorl in the person of Pas (and Wolfe has adamantly 
asserted that Typhon genuinely is), Silk is present in the Rajan. But he 
is 100% the Neighbor as well. And to some extent, --or perhaps to the 
full extent if the Neighbor has 100% recall, as is maybe implied-- he is 
100% Horn (because Horn is present to the extent that the Neighbor 
remembers Horn's memories).

Anyway, the Neighbor was apparently not fully conscious--only 
subconsciously aware-- of his Neighbor-nature until the end of the 
story, at the end of his conversation with Remora (there are various 
other reasons for this that I get into below).

Other examples of this in Wolfe's are writings are 1) the chapter The 
Alzabo in Sword of the Lictor in which Wolfe demonstrates how the animal 
instincts and the souls inhabiting it support each other's instincts. 2) 
Another very important example is Mani the cat in The Wizard Knight, an 
talking cat created by a witch by binding an immortal elemental spirit 
to a cat. Mani and Able have a conversation about what will happen when 
Mani dies:

"Will I really be free when the cat dies? You said something about that 
[snip] That I'll be an elemental once more. '
'No, you won't.'
'The elemental will be free, no longer having any share in life. You're 
not the elemental or the cat. You're both, and the cat will die like 
other cats.'
'I'd like to think I'm just...the other thing. The thing that talks.'
'Then I'll cut off your ear and we'll see if it hurts.'
'You would, wouldn't you?' "
[The Wizard HB 307]

Earlier Mani says, "Once I was a free spirit. Once I was a normal cat 
not troubled by lies. [snip] The first is the finest of existences, the 
second the finest of lives. I have lost both."

Mani the cat was neither the cat nor the elemental spirit, but something 
new from their joining. Mani didn't drone on and on as an all-wise 
immortal spirit. Or regale others about his non-life as an elemental. 
Because he didn't...couldn't remember it. At least not consciously, most 
of the time. There was that time at the meeting with the Neighbors however:

" 'My name is Horn.' I offered my hand.
He took it, and this time I felt his hand _and remembered it_ . It was 
hard, and seemed to be covered with short, stiff hairs. Beyond that I 
will not say."[oBW HB 272]

So while the Rajan knows a lot about the Neighbors because he is likely 
in communication with them, and talks to the inhumi on his staff, and 
might have subconscious memories about them, and for all those reasons 
can make educated guesses about them -- it is not expected that he would 
KNOW--at least not until the end of RttW.

In summation, it is a mistake to think of the Rajan as a Neighbor who 
happens to have access to databases of Silk's and Horn's memories. He is 
something new. Wolfe deliberately keeps _what he is_ rather ambivalent, 
probably because it is impossible to define precisely. He is a being 
driven to complete Horn's mission, as Horn was. He is driven by guilt 
for having caused Horn's death. He is driven by resentment toward Sinew 
for having killed him and regret for that resentment.  Horn, the 
Neighbor, and Silk, all bear a sense of self-loathing for different 
reasons. Each is driven by a sense of longing for a woman and for two 
the loss cannot be healed because Hyacinth is dead and Horn is dead. I 
think the sense of dissatisfaction at the end of the story is that we 
don't really know what drives the Rajan anymore. I think I know, but 
that's another theory.

u+16b9

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