Clute's revelation

David Lomax · 16 Aug 2000, 01:19 · from whorl-v0011.mbox · original

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From: David Lomax <dlomax at idirect.com>
Subject: (whorl) Clute's revelation
Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2000 01:19:02
Message-ID: <whorl-v0011-0104 at digest.urth.net>
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vermoulian at yahoo.com wrote

> SF WEEKLY has just published John Clute's review of IN
> GREEN'S JUNGLES, and (among other remarks of interest)
> Clute declares that it is "reasonably clear" that
> Horn/Silk is himself an inhumu. Any reactions?
>

Argh!  Clute beat me to it  -- maybe others did too.  I've been
deliberately not reading the list until I could get and read IGJ.  Just
finished today.  On the weekend, while we were on a long car trip, my
girlfriend offered to read a couple of chapters to me.  Around the
middle of the novel.  While she was reading,I suddenly burst out, "oh,
my god!"  When she got over her shock at thinking we were about to get
into an accident, she asked what I was talking about.  "What if Silk is
actually an inhumu?" I said.

She doesn't read Wolfe and had no idea what was going on in the novel.
But she agreed that it might be a possibility.

As I read on, I became more and more convinced.  I could be unconvinced
by some dazzling logic, but it sure seems to me that our humble narrator
may not be completely human.  There are some counter-arguments:  Oreb
still likes him, for one thing.  But what about that bit near the end
when Horn/Silk talks ruefully about his appetite being too great?

So there I was thinking, hey, maybe nobody else has talked about this.
Maybe I can make an original contribution to the list instead of just
lurking all my life.  And what happens, but Clute beats me to it.  I'll
get you for this, Clute, if it's the third-last thing I do.

And the inhumu secret?  Could it just be that if humans gave themselves
willingly to the inhumu, then the inhumu would be incapable of killing
the humans?

And weren't those last few chapters just glorious?

David Lomax

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