silver glass

Chris · 15 Jan 2005, 02:35 · from 2005-January.txt.gz

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From: rasputin_ at hotmail.com (Chris)
Date: Sat Jan 15 02:35:16 2005
Subject: (urth) silver glass
In-Reply-To: <006601c4faa6$c50794a0$4c1e4b0a at vcorp.ad.vrsn.com>
Message-ID: <BAY102-F38CF42FD90C432F7D46AA2868C0 at phx.gbl>

>Well, for one thing, Mint and Bison are quite convinced he is. Hound says
>he's seen pictures of Silk and that he is certain he is. They are certain 
>he
>is Silk because he looks like him, which suggests there was a Silk to look
>like. This is the part written by Hide&co. but I suppose the conversations
>could be made up as well.  Then again, Mint and Bison's description of how
>Silk left the Caldeship does not seem designed to make him look heroic.
>
>But then, all these characters could be all made up I suppose...they really
>*are* all made up of course, so if they were made IN the narration as well,
>how could we tell?

Well, much of this is for the sake of argument, although I do think the 
statement "if Silk didn't really exist, we would have to invent him" does 
have a certain truth to it, regardless - it is in a way this phrase that 
makes me take seriously the possibility that, within the context of the 
story, he was invented. (Or that, thematically, it doesn't *matter* whether 
he was invented, but this will take more explanation on my part so I'll 
leave that question for later).

Since this story is sort of a letter wrapped in multiple envelopes, I am 
first removing Wolfe (and us, in a way) from the equation temporarily - so 
the author we are concerned with is the fictional author (Horn, Silk, 
Nettle, anyone else), and the audience is the collected population of Blue 
who have access to the books. (I know even this can be approached more 
radically, but in this conjecture we're already stretched so far that this 
would just be gratuitous).

As far as the audience of Blue is concerned, there are characters that can't 
be entirely made up because, presumably, someone would know some of them (or 
know someone who knew some of them, etc), and some events that would be 
matters of public record. Relatively few of these would be characters from 
BotLS, but there would be some. Of these Remora seems particularly important 
to me because he is in a position to confirm or deny to anyone who asks him 
whether or not some of the events of BotLS really happened. This already 
makes the possibility of Silk being *wholly* fictional unlikely, unless 
there is some reasonable motivation that could lead him to play along with 
such a fiction. In any event most, if not all, of the rest of the characters 
on Blue who have a similar ability to confirm or deny are dead or have no 
interaction with the narrator at the time of RttW.

>Well, Civet, you know what I think on this. I believe he is not Silk. I
>believe he is "Horn", but not the Horn he tells Hide that he is.
>I also believe he *is* Silk and Horn, but in an entirely different sense.

I don't know the exact specifics of what you think about Silkhorn, but I 
know that I agree with you on the general points of it.

As far as purely textual analysis goes, I think it safe to assume that the 
narrator who returns is not the same physical body that left; there are a 
multitude of people available to the assumed audience who could verify, so 
deception on this point wouldn't work for the author. For mostly thematic 
reasons I believe that he is Horn, and for the same thematic reasons I agree 
that he *is* Silk in at least one sense, and possibly more than one. I think 
that in an important way the point of BotSS is about "being Silk", not just 
for Horn but for everyone on Blue, and the point is developed 
microcosmically (is that a word?) in Horn, and macrocosmically in the events 
that unfold around him.

>See, here's why I'm not sure I'm getting your point exactly. If we accept
>the Narrator's telling of Remora and how he came to Lizard to talk enlist
>Horn in a mission to get Silk, then isn't it clear that Silk is a real
>person?
>
>~ Crush

Well, this was one of the things that nagged at me even when I was reading 
the book, because I sort of wondered about Horn as an author before I even 
started BotSS. And this led to a disturbingly plausible interpretation of 
the mission.

Remora wasn't the only one to come to Lizard; he came with the most powerful 
people in the town, and he seems to have been only a reluctant partner. We 
know that there was no love lost between them and Horn, and I got the 
impression that they also didn't like the influence of his book. Given their 
somewhat dubious moral standing (regardless of their power), it would have 
probably been futile for one of them to try to defuse or discredit the 
BotLS, which clearly appealed to people. So it occured to me at the time 
that it would be a convenient way to get rid of Horn without having his 
blood on their hands to go to him and say "So, if your messiah-figure is 
real, why don't you go bring him back for us? Here's a ticket on the next 
ship out." Horn is placed in a position where he can refuse, discrediting 
himself to some extent and lessening the power of his book, or go off on the 
mission. Once gone, he could die or otherwise not come back (a winning 
situation for them), come back empty-handed (again lessening the power of 
the book and losing favor himself), or come back with someone. Even if that 
someone were Silk, a real Silk would be far preferable to them than a 
literary Silk because a real Silk could be killed, framed up and smeared, 
humiliated, or otherwise ruined and made an example of.

And it seems to me that Horn's exposition of his reasons for going are meant 
to put his reader off the cynical consideration of why he really had little 
choice but to leave. But regardless, it does seem like the powers that be 
really didn't expect to see him return.

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