Silk beating two horses, Orpine rotting to vines, and Wolfe's dedication

Gerry Quinn · 15 Feb 2011, 12:58 · from 2011-February.txt.gz

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From: gerryq at indigo.ie (Gerry Quinn)
Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2011 12:58:12 -0000
Subject: (urth) Silk beating two horses, Orpine rotting to vines,
	and Wolfe's dedication
References: <786884.74591.qm at web161804.mail.bf1.yahoo.com>
Message-ID: <2B10DFD0F8BC4468AA94E0A2DF926DD8@jill>

From: "Marc Aramini" <marcaramini at yahoo.com>
> I was browsing over the first volume of long sun last night and I have
>  to admit it made me feel a little ill.
> Here is Wolfe's dedication to Lake of the Long Sun:
> To Dan Knight, who will understand more than most.
>
> This right here validates all the twisted readings of Wolfe I've ever
> done, he is simply not a straightforward writer from the get go, and I
> think he expects almost everybody NOT to get everything.

It's only a dedication.  And sure, nobody will get EVERYTHING.  That 
probably applies to books much simpler than Wolfe's.  Doubtless there are 
subtleties we miss in See Spot Run.

> Okay, in one dream, Silk is beat two black horses, but he is said to be
> whipping the wrong horse every time he tries to hit its brother, that if 
> the
> brother does not help, the horse being hit will die.
>
> The horse winds up being cast into the save grave as orpine, who rots
> away to like flowers and vegetation in his dream, but it also talks about
> receding waters and other stuff, too.  Does anybody have a good 
> explanation
> for Silk whipping the wrong horse?

I don't think this dream is hard to interpret, even if there are some 
details that are not absolutely clear (heh, dreams are like that).

The horses represent the actions of Silk - Silk's strength if you like. 
Silk is literally beating the wrong horse - he is focused on the wrong 
action to save his manteion.  He's beating a dying horse, in fact, a dying 
horse that will die at the grave if he doesn't find the right way forward. 
And this dream points the way forward, although Silk does not realise it 
yet.

Orpine's grave is too deep, at the bottom he sees black velvet, and the 
velvet is sprinkled with sparks... and the horse that never pulled now 
lunges and pulls with all his might.  This is Silk's true destiny: to lead 
his people outside the Whorl, to the sparks that do not flicker like the 
dying Long Sun with its sinking streams that will NOT rot Orpine back to new 
life.

Silk must find his destiny, or the Whorl will itself become a grave, where 
Orpine lies alongside everyone else.

Some minor points:

 - By the light of one star Marble is young again - that represents Sol, I 
guess (it is not referred to as red, but I don't think that's important - 
probably it would mess up the metaphors too much)

 - "Too long" - I think this probably refers to the age of the decaying 
Whorl

 - Hyacinth and Silk on the deadcoach at the end - this may prefigure the 
end of Exodus, where Silk turns back to stay with Hyacinth.

[By the way, Marc, maybe you should think about how much of your own 
interpretations you force into what you read.  The title of your post 
includes "Orpine rotting to vines".  But the dream explicitly says that 
Orpine will NOT rot.  And if she did, Silk was not thinking of vines: "The 
cold, sinking waters of underground streams that were sinking every year it 
seemed would never wash Orpine, would not rot her back to trees and 
flowers..."  Just saying, maybe if you read carefully first and interpret 
after - and try not to overinterpret - things will make more sense.  Like 
the key imagery of this dream, for example, which I think is really pretty 
up front.  This advice is not solely directed at you, Marc ;-)  Honestly, 
Wolfe is a far more straightforward writer than some folks give him credit 
for!]

- Gerry Quinn

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