Rereading the Short Sun

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes · 08 Jul 2002, 17:45 · from urth-v0207.mbox · original
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From: "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes" <ddanehy at siebel.com>
Subject: RE: (urth) Rereading the Short Sun
Date: Mon, 8 Jul 2002 10:45:32 -0700
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I'm a bit behind where Stephen is -- partly because I have so much
else to read (yes, Kevin, the reviews are coming, and soon); I'm=20
about halfway through rereading IGJ and would strongly confirm &
agree with his opinion that these are really very good books,=20
especially when read as a whole rather than spaced several months=20
apart.

Also I have to agree with Stephen that there is a strong and=20
recognizeable break in the personality of the Narrator from OBW to=20
IGJ -- the former took me almost two weeks to reread; the latter I=20
am almost racing through (well, for me these days) & have read half=20
of it in four days.=20

I'm simply not convinced of Marc's overarching tree theory at this=20
point, and doubt that I will come away convinced from the whole.=20
There's clearly something weird going on with the trees, but for
them to "be" the Neighbors, just doesn't work with what I'm seeing.
Nor does it appear to me that Horn dies in the pit: yes, Seawrack
thinks he has, but her experience of life and death on land is=20
very narrow; something comatose in the ocean might as well be
dead, because it will be, as she puts it, food. The bigger=20
carnivores just won't wait for brain activity to stop, you know?

While I'm not 100% sure of (Marc's?) "Horn goes into Babbie at=20
the end of OBW" theory, it does explain a great deal, and I'm=20
definitely wanting to favor it. Right from the beginning of IGJ,=20
the Narrator starts talking with a lot more of Silk's speech=20
patterns (which, though not as, ah, _blatant_ as Pig's, are=20
nonetheless recognizeable and distinctive). I see no other=20
specific point at which this very clear change is likely to have=20
taken place.

The question is -- who writes the passage where the transition=20
actually seems to take place? I offer this semi-analysis.

Silk, grieving for Hyacinth, is "dying in spirit." Despite the
repeated attempts to say he is committing suicide, I find this
untenable; the Neighbor makes it clear that they are moving Horn
into a healthy body, and it's well-established that gashing your
arms with a knife is standard mourning practice in Viron. Silk=20
is either replaced or totally submerged by Horn. Later, the bit=20
of Silk which came from Silk-in-Pas and resides in Pig is=20
transferred to the Silk body that contains Horn. This is small
and weak, so to say, but it's there and begins to affect the
Narrator's behavior to the extent that he can make _some_ Silk-
like decisions while he is the Rajan of Gaon.

Now, the Outsider, for His own reasons which we need not know=20
("That's ineffability for you," observes Crowley), decides to=20
straighten out the mess, and removes Horn -- probably to Babbie's=20
body, which explains a great deal about Babbie's appearance and
behavior on Urth. Note that every other case of something that
is not human but becomes [more] human during the "astral travel"
sequences is in fact carrying human soul: Oreb carrying (a piece
of) Scylla, the various inhumi carrying (bits of) soul taken from=20
their human victims. I think there's a strong implication that
Babbie, too, has somehow acquired human soul. OTOH, this leaves
begging Seawrack's comments that he is already a "person" near the
end of OBW ...

The rather confused state of the final paragraphs of OBW, then,
seem to me to reflect the state of the Silk persona, which has
been pretty much submerged up to this point, just influencing the
Narrator but allowing Horn to remain in control. This has just
changed. The Silk persona really does not know what has happened=20
(though he recognizes it as something 'good') and is trying to=20
reassemble himself with his formerly-dominant personality gone.=20
He stumbles through the kinder, gentler forest of Blue and comes
upon Brother and Sister, spends some time with them, and when he
is more "together" moves on, meeting Cugino and getting the staff.

The mystery now is, why he still denies that he is Silk. Is it=20
because the only way he can understand the removal of the Horn
persona is that it has died? That he cannot accept the guilt of
living at the expense of Horn's death? Perhaps. Or perhaps he,
submerged in Horn so long, is in the habit of thinking he is Horn;=20
or perhaps, simply, that to acknowledge that he is Silk means=20
acknowledging that Hyacinth is gone.=20

Or something else I haven't thought of. (I'll be watching the
transition from IGJ to RTTW very carefully. I suspect that
there is another major developmental step in that interstice.)

Some other bits...

Re: Stephen's "Why does Horn hate Sinew so much?" That's a darn=20
good question. It does, however, provide more fodder for the idea=20
that Silk becomes the dominant personality of the Narrator=20
somewhere around the break between the two volumes. In OBW, when=20
the Narrator speaks of the relationship between himself and Sinew,=20
he is almost venomous; he makes it clear that he's done all he can=20
and the trouble between them is Sinew's fault. This element seems=20
to me entirely missing from the second volume.=20

Re: the Narrator as inhumu. While the "Oreb alarm" seems to=20
militate against it, there are two factors to consider that make
this bit of evidence somewhat more ambiguous. First, there is=20
Oreb's long disappearance after the Narrator is brought back to=20
Blue by the Gaonese, leading me to think that he is in some way=20
disturbed by whatever the Narrator is or has become ... though
of course this probably has more to do with the scrambled souls
than anything else. When he returns, he seems to have decided=20
that, yes, this is Silk after all.

Second, Oreb seems capable of recognizing that (say) Fava has=20
become a 'good girl' rather than a 'bad thing, thing fly.' An=20
inhumu with Silk's personality might well be a 'good Silk' to=20
him. (Of course, all of this ignores the question of what effect=20
Scylla has on Oreb's ability to detect the presence of 'bad things.')

Nonetheless and notwithstanding ... I don't really think that the
Narrator is an inhumu. The strongest bit of evidence, his general
lack of appetite, is established fairly clearly in Silk in _Long
Sun_; he only seems to get really hungry when he hasn't eaten in=20
a day or longer. This tendency would likely increase with age.
(I suspect that his genegineered body simply has a tremendously
efficient metabolism.)

--Blattid

sad experience teaches me


--=20
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