more grist for the "enhanced Horn hypothesis"

Alex David Groce · 15 Oct 1999, 12:10 · from whorl-v0010.mbox · original

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From: Alex David Groce <Alex_Groce at gs246.sp.cs.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: (whorl) more grist for the "enhanced Horn hypothesis"
Date: Fri, 15 Oct 1999 12:10:32
Message-ID: <whorl-v0010-0116 at digest.urth.net>
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>Given the Wolfean "unreliable narrator," it makes you start to wonder
>if the Silk of the BOOK OF SILK is something of an exaggeration, which
>would certainly fit in with the Christ parallels.  Silk is portrayed
>as a kind of Father Brown, but perhaps in "real life" he was more of a
>Father Ted.

I'm a bit confused here--fits in with the Christ parallels in that Silk
couldn't possibly be that Christ-like, or fits in that the _gospels_ are
exaggerations?  I would think the first would be a more likely approach for
Wolfe than the second, but even then, there's Silk's Englightenment (which=20
works two ways--(A) it might make Silk better than he would be and (B) maybe
he got Enlightened because he had a tendency to be a Very Good person anywa=
y).
Also going against the exaggeration theory is that other people who knew
Silk very well (Marble, Mucor, etc.) seem to have seen him as an
extraordinarily good man.

I think a telling note in LONG SUN is that Horn is generally noticed much m=
ore
than Nettle--is Nettle even listed as "Author of the BOOK OF SILK" in the=20
Persons, Places & Things section in Exodus?  It seems her role is secondary=
 in
the actual composition--scribe and organizer (given OBW, there is no telling
what order Horn might have put things in...)

Horn does mimic Silk beautifully long before any possibility of possession =
or=20
anything, so as usual in LONG SUN, any possession is well in keeping with h=
is
original tendencies.

"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32
--
Alex David Groce (agroce+ at cs.cmu.edu)
Ph.D. Student, Carnegie Mellon University - Computer Science Department
8112 Wean Hall (412)-268-3066
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~agroce

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