Rereading the Short Sun

Robert Borski · 09 Jul 2002, 19:48 · from urth-v0207.mbox · original

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From: "Robert Borski" <rborski at charter.net>
Subject: Re: (urth) Rereading the Short Sun
Date: Tue, 9 Jul 2002 14:48:10 -0500
Message-ID: <urth-v0207-1320 at digest.urth.net>
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The bug-eyed one having writ:

> 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
> is either replaced or totally submerged by Horn.

I don't like the suicide theory either (can't see Silk committing
selbstmord, it being too heinous a sin in Wolfe's Catholicism), but like
the-slash-and-gash-boohoo-theory even less. This is because, if memory
serves me right, there's no mention of the practice anywhere in the Short
Sun books. Thus the mystery of Silk's death--the how and the why and under
what circumstances he receives his lethal wounds--cannot be resolved by
simply reading SS alone. This seems most churlish and meanspirited of the
author, and hardly likely to win him new readers, especially if Soleil Bref
is their first encounter with the Sun books; whereas if the answer can be
gleaned without resort to a completely different series (as I believe all
the central questions of SS can and must be), it's a much tidier,
well-crafted, and aesthetically-pleasing book.

Robert Borski

--=20

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