silk, the dancing toy, gods in the tunnels

Gerry Quinn · 27 Aug 2013, 15:05 · from 2013-August.txt.gz

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From: gerry at bindweed.com (Gerry Quinn)
Date: Tue, 27 Aug 2013 16:05:41 +0100
Subject: (urth) silk, the dancing toy, gods in the tunnels
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From: Marc Aramini

> Gerry, I agree on the blasphemous inversion of mere dogs being
> called gods, but I think that too is a symbol of the presumptuous
> sleeping men who were called gods.  That blind fellow in short
> sun who Horn runs into that reminds him so fiercely of Auk - there
>  simply isn't an explanation for him if he is not in some way
> tenebrous Tartaros -       I maintain the whorl is the ark where
> Typhon stored his family and his animals until the deluge receded.

Well, yes - but he had them digitised and they became the gods of the Whorl. 
Sure, there may have been some plan to have them physically embodied once 
they reached Blue.  But I don't think that the characters in the story are 
unknowingly the same personalities.

> If that makes the characters ciphers .... I just don't see them as
> that even if every once in a while a symbol reflects on an implied
> plot device. I think Wolfe is a symbolist who is not above
> employing complicated linguistic tricks playing with 
> representation-actuality.

When I mentioned ciphers I was thinking more of the 
Kypris-Mamelta-Chenille-Mother thing in the context of Silk himself.  Is 
Silk not allowed to have whimsical thoughts that do not embody hard literal 
facts about the system, even when he is almost dreaming?  Or does he exist 
only to convey details from Wolfe's pen to the reader's eye?

- Gerry Quinn

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