Clute and other Questions

stilskin · 17 Aug 2000, 06:23 · from whorl-v0011.mbox · original

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From: stilskin at sff.net
Subject: (whorl) Clute and other Questions
Date: 17 Aug 2000 06:23:35
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I, too, considered the possibility that Horn was an inhumu, only to reject =
it on the basis of the reasons already given by Mr. Borski et al.  Still, W=
olfe puts a lot of clues into IGJ that Horn has become very inhumu-like -- =
there seems to be a gradual blurring of the distinctions between human and =
inhumu, or a movement towards some kind of genuine metamorphosis that chang=
es the current parasitic relationship to one that's more symbiotic, if not =
something above and beyond even that.  The business about eating, which is =
mentioned more than once, is just too suggestive.  But again, there are too=
 many examples of Horn violating the conditions for being an inhumu.  Of co=
urse, those conditions are communicated to us by Horn himself, so perhaps s=
hould be taken with a few grains of salt.

I've jumped back into the Short Sun in order to get the most out of rereadi=
ng OBW and IGJ, and three things have, after the first volume, struck me as=
 interesting.  I apologize if these points have been raised before.

The first has to do with Oreb, who dies and comes back to life.  Here is th=
e first example, in the Short Sun, of a theme Wolfe returns to again in OBW=
 and IGJ, that of Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac, with a Christian twist in t=
hat Oreb dies and then is returned to life.  But how does Oreb come back?  =
Silk notes how intelligent Oreb is following his resurrection.  I can't hel=
p but wonder if Oreb has been possessed by one of the gods of Mainframe, if=
 not the Outsider him/her/itself.  Any thoughts?

The second is more of an observation.  Hyacinth is the name of a flower, ac=
cording to the convention for naming biochemical females in the Whorl.  Yet=
 it is also the name of a gemstone, which follows the convention for naming=
 of chems.  Much is made early on of the sexual possibilities between bioch=
ems and chems; Maytera Rose is especially vigilant and, indeed, paranoid.  =
So I can't help wondering here whether Hyacinth is actually a chem.

Along these lines, the third is what, exactly, does Wolfe mean by calling c=
haracters like Silk biochemical?  Why not just biological?  Are Silk and th=
e others not human in the way that we would understand the term?  The use o=
f the terms chems and biochems seems to suggest the two share a certain her=
itage.  Perhaps the very mechanism of possession, and the idea of the souls=
 of the dead returning to Mainframe, are hints of the ways in which Silk an=
d other biochemicals are not true humans but rather hybrids of human and ch=
emical (by which I understand something closer to, say, a robot with AI).

Falcon

www.sff.net/people/stilskin
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