Babbiehorn?: Was: a sincere question mostly for roy

James Wynn · 17 Nov 2011, 14:43 · from 2011-November.txt.gz

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From: crushtv at gmail.com (James Wynn)
Date: Thu, 17 Nov 2011 08:43:04 -0600
Subject: (urth) Babbiehorn?: Was: a sincere question mostly for roy
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>> James Wynn wrote:
>> 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.
>
> David Stockhoff wrote:
> The problem there, I'm sure you will agree, then is what to do with 
> the end of OBW. There must be enough left of Horn's mind in the Rajan 
> to die. 

Horn died in the pit. That is when his spirit abandoned his body and 
went the Outsider. That is why the Rajan, at the end of RttW says that 
he "killed" Hoof & Hide's father. The Rajan was that greenbuck Horn was 
chasing when he fell into the pit. The Neighbors that have survived have 
developed a high sensitivity to preying on others. That is how they 
survived. No sentient inhumi will prey on them because their children 
would starve.

I think that Horn's "good-bye" at the end of OBW needs to be interpreted 
with the understanding that *we don't know* Silk is in there at that 
time. Nothing in the narration lets on that the narrator has exchanged 
Horn's body with Silk's. That is the big reveal/cliff-hanger at the end 
of OBW when he says "I took the ball, I won the game." It's supposed to 
be a WTH moment. So when the narrator only says good-bye to Horn's 
family there, he is just maintaining character. But he doesn't die. The 
tree, the inhumi, the fear that he will be killed...we're still laying 
the foundation there.

J.

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