Babbiehorn?: Was: a sincere question mostly for roy

James Wynn · 16 Nov 2011, 21:20 · from 2011-November.txt.gz

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From: crushtv at gmail.com (James Wynn)
Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2011 15:20:48 -0600
Subject: (urth) Babbiehorn?: Was: a sincere question mostly for roy
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	<4EC4094C.3030108 at gmail.com> <4EC4217A.2080403 at verizon.net>
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>>
>>>> First of all, Babbie's spirit-travel body looks generally
>>>> like a man's body,
>>>> but not quite. His hands aren't really hands; his hands
>>>> have only two big
>>>> fingers, suggestive of his normal cloven hooves (RTTW,
>>>> 354). And he wears
>>>> glasses (346). Yet the spirit-traveler's body is supposed
>>>> to be a
>>>> manifestation of how that person perceives himself to be at
>>>> his core, in his
>>>> heart, if you will. Horn never wore glasses.
>>
>> Does anyone but Silk wear glasses in this story?
>
> Are you thinking Horn took a piece of Silk with him?

No. I don't agree with Marc's explanation that Horn's spirit fled 
wholesale into Babbie. I think it is certain that Babbie has some Silk 
in him at the time we see him wearing glasses. He surely has some Horn 
in him much of the time. He's a psychic creature. It might be that the 
confabulation of identities between the Rajan-Narrator and Babbie would 
not be possible if the Rajan were not a Neighbor. It is very reasonable 
that Horn's identity has been absorbed into Babbie the way Rose's was 
absorbed by her prosthetic hands. It might not have been possible though 
if it were not for the time that Neighbor-Horn and Babbie spent 
together. After Horn died on Green, Babbie might represent the most 
genuine presence of Horn in the whole rest of the story.

Honestly, I think Horn's soul left when he died in the pit. His body and 
mind were lost on Green. All that is left of Horn (except what is in 
Babbie) is his mission that the Rajan is devoted to completing and what 
the Rajan remembers from his memories. And as I have said: If the 
Neighbors have perfect memories, that is enough.

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