Like a good Neighbor

David Stockhoff · 21 Nov 2011, 17:23 · from 2011-November.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Mon, 21 Nov 2011 12:23:07 -0500
Subject: (urth) Like a good Neighbor
In-Reply-To: <DA879832870C4A888B0B52735D109346@Rover>
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	<DA879832870C4A888B0B52735D109346@Rover>
Message-ID: <4ECA88FB.5040404 at verizon.net>

On 11/21/2011 11:34 AM, Gerry Quinn wrote:
> *From:* David Stockhoff <mailto:dstockhoff at verizon.net>
> On 11/20/2011 8:29 PM, Gerry Quinn wrote:
> > > It was as if my spirit had gone and left my body unoccupied as it did
> > > on Green; but in this case it had returned, and my memories (such as
> > > they were) were those of the body and not those of the spirit.
>
> > You're right, Gerry. This is merely a clumsy metaphor. Wolfe should 
> know
> > better than to expose hapless readers to such misleading cues. He meant
> > to say that Horn felt really awful.
> You can take it literally, if you like. He?s talking of the period 
> when he lay semi-conscious in the pit, and his fragmented memories of 
> that time are dissociated from his returned spirit. He even contrasts 
> it with the time he actually died.
> Why not tackle the more substantive issues? Do you think Horn died, 
> and if so when? Before or after the time he ?saw? the long-nosed man? 
> Before or after he got thirsty?

And the substantive issues are always those that Gerry focuses on. By 
definition. I can't help but observe that you yourself have made not the 
slightest attempt to show how you see the timing of that event and how 
it proves your theory, except to assert, absurdly, that:

"When the long-nose man bent over him, he was already suffering thirst, 
so if he died then it happened *after* this time, in which case Babbie 
saw him alive." When the Neighbor bent over Horn and sent Horn to 
Nettle, he WAS dying of thirst. Krait then brings him water, so 
obviously he didn't die after that, from thirst. A freshman in English 
could work this out without even appealing to supernatural intervention.

I am not familiar with the Neighbors' resurrection technologies so I 
can't say for sure, but the Neighbors' process appears to require some 
time and involve several steps. He died instantly. He then had "memories 
of the body" involving his physical state. He was at that time an 
animated corpse, which any reader of Pet Sematary knows is not the same 
thing as being alive. Babbie saw him in this state. After that, he "came 
to himself." It could not be clearer.

His spirit had then returned or was "returned" to him, in what condition 
is anybody's guess. But I can state a few things with certainty:
(1) If the Neighbors snagged his original spirit, they have more pull or 
stronger mojo/juju than I suspected. If they constructed a new one out 
of materials they had at hand, I am less wonderstruck.
(2) The story follows the Mabinogion's episode of a swap, as James said. 
The new Horn is in some way at least part Neighbor and all human; it may 
contain a Neighbor spirit and his memories and a repaired body. The new 
Horn's trailblazing abilities are a consequence of this. In the only way 
that matters, the old Horn is dead; he's crossed to the other side and 
has returned with a little of it with him.
(3) Horn's trip to Nettle was a test (drive) of sorts of the resurrected 
Horn. If he was to find help, he failed, but naturally he first thought 
of Nettle. It shows he now has that power as well.
(4) Seawrack thinks Horn is dead because he was dead when she saw him, 
probably after Babbie did.
(5) The Neighbors are either unable or not allowed to pick him up and 
move him out of the pit. It may be that he had to save himself to prove 
himself worthy of saving, and to do this he had to appeal to Krait. 
Faerie stories work in strange ways.

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