Like a good Neighbor

James Wynn · 22 Nov 2011, 23:26 · from 2011-November.txt.gz

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From: crushtv at gmail.com (James Wynn)
Date: Tue, 22 Nov 2011 17:26:06 -0600
Subject: (urth) Like a good Neighbor
In-Reply-To: <4ECBDF3F.6090705 at verizon.net>
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	<DE5FF333-CADB-423B-8447-CDCFF59F39EB at gmail.com>
	<4ECBDACC.3070804 at gmail.com> <4ECBDF3F.6090705 at verizon.net>
Message-ID: <4ECC2F8E.4030109 at gmail.com>

On 11/22/2011 11:43 AM, David Stockhoff wrote:
> But you must also agree that this flag has some fine print---that it 
> subverts itself, it's waved so hard. By this I mean simply that not 
> only has a death occurred---though under rules we do not yet 
> know---but a supernatural event has occurred as well. Horn continues, 
> _in some form_, and the story goes on. But note that the story has 
> almost just begun---the reader will be jolted, and will be instructed 
> too. "Do not trust deaths." Much is NOT told here beyond the death 
> itself. 

Over and over, the narrator reminds us of what a miserable failure his 
mission was. Thus we know that Horn is not completely gone in the Rajan. 
His spirit fled when he tumbled in the pit (I say) and his body was 
ultimately destroyed on Green. But there is a sense in which he 
persists, like the hyacinth Remora refers to at the end of RttW. We all 
assumed Remora was referring to the Rajan's grief over the death of Hy 
(and maybe the Silk in him was). It is still a strange scene with that 
interpretation I think. But  _I_ think primarily it is the loss of Horn 
who we are intended to grieve over. A man who set out on a mission and 
failed at it --hardly before he had begun--by a fluke accident. But by 
some miraculous method he persisted.

A lot of Wolfe heroes are pre-determined...over-determined...to succeed 
against all who stand against them. Severian, Latro, Able. Eventually, 
Horn becomes a character like that. But the original Horn (I say) was 
not. He was a man with a good, brave heart who was as subject as anyone 
to catastrophic misfortunes. It is a rather hopeful story seen that way.

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