the prime calcula/his citadel and other quotes

Gerry Quinn · 19 Jan 2011, 03:34 · from 2011-January.txt.gz

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From: gerryq at indigo.ie (Gerry Quinn)
Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2011 03:34:51 -0000
Subject: (urth) the prime calcula/his citadel and other quotes
References: <218096.10439.qm at web161808.mail.bf1.yahoo.com><882BE7527C8540ABAD6FA2F7314844B1@jill>
	<4D3653FD.2030603 at gmail.com>
Message-ID: <D95B9A4B71AC43D688265EE976E9142C@jill>

From: "James Wynn" <crushtv at gmail.com>
> On 1/18/2011 8:52 PM, Gerry Quinn wrote:

>> You misunderstand me.  I wasn't talking about hints that Silk might be a 
>> clone of Typhon.
>
> How much of the text are you willing to ignore? I mean the part that Wolfe 
> actually wrote.

I don't understand - what do you think I'm ignoring, specifically?  The bit 
you quoted simplky says I wasn't talking about something, so I'm kind of at 
a loss as to what you mean here.

>> What I'm saying is that if he is in fact such a clone, there must be a 
>> grand conspiracy between everyone who knows both their faces to hide it, 
>> and ther is no hint of such a grand conspiracy. But as for your point 
>> above, I think the bronze-skinned man is a representation of how an 
>> uploaded Silk would be part of Pas.  It says nothing about Silk's 
>> genealogy.  It's about the future, not the past.
>
> And why Silk? Out of everyone in the Whorl? Why not Auk? He's the prophet. 
> Why not Horn? Why not someone from a village closer to Mainframe?

Silk is a leader; he is educated; he respects or at least has some 
understanding of the gods; he is not a criminal.  And Kypris likes him. 
He's about the best candidate we meet in the book.  If there were a better 
candidate in another city, the book would have been about them instead.

Now it's quite true that if Silk were a clone or a son of Typhon (although 
in the latter case the relationship with Kypris seems a little icky, even if 
she isn't his biological mother) that would be another reason for choosing 
him.  But my point is, whatever the reason, a ancestral biological 
relationship is not what Kypris is representing here.  If Auk had been 
chosen, she would have showed Auk (if she could, because Auk might not have 
been able to see it) a similar image, but with Auk's head instead of Silk's.

Imagine if you were a citizen of Viron, knowing what you know, and 
worshipping the gods you worship, and not knowing what James Wynn knows, and 
whatever gods he worships.  What understanding would you take from this 
image?  Something about clones?

- Gerry Quinn

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