Timeframe of S/N Sun books; Oreb possessed

Robert Borski · 18 Aug 2000, 01:34 · from whorl-v0011.mbox · original

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From: "Robert Borski" <rborski at charter.net>
Subject: (whorl) Re: Timeframe of S/N Sun books; Oreb possessed
Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2000 01:34:03
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Kevin Maroney having written:

<Someone here--Robert Borski, I think--pegged the scene towards the end of
_Green_ as taking place during the swimming scene in chapter 1 of _Shadow of
the Torturer_, and I suspect he's right.>

Actually, it was the very astute Nick Gevers, who alluded to the above
almost before anyone else had even read the book. I say: nice job, mate.

Then mantis wrote:

<I don't know that it is "old hat," but then again I don't remember anybody
else besides Robert Borski (and lately myself) following this.  We have been
saying that Oreb is ridden by a god, sometimes, but not all the time; just
as Chenille is (sometimes ridden by Kypris); just as Tick is
(sometimes ridden by Sphigx).

<Then again, we have read "The Night Chough" (collected in THE CROW:
SHATTERED LIVES AND BROKEN DREAMS), and you probably have not.>

There are actually scenes in both Short Sun books that seem to indicate Oreb
has been possessed by Scylla.

The first comes in OBW, very near the end, where Horn is ruefully
cataloguing the many things he has been unable to write about in detail,
including "Nothing about my dream of an angry and vindictive Scylla who
talked like Oreb, the dream that woke me screaming and so terrified Brother
and Sister: "Windows! Windows! Windows!" (p. 380)

[Nontangential associated question: could Brother's real name be Bricco?]

The second comes in IGJ, during Horn's second oneiric transport to Green,
and regards Oreb's newly transformed form:

"'Bird go?'" he croaked doubtfully. (His voice was exactly as it had always
been, though he had come to seem a sort of clumsy, feathered dwarf, and I
had seen undulant arms wrestling with the flagstone as well as his
now-armlike wings.)" (p. 208)

The "undulant arms" are almost certainly Scylla's or I'm a nittimonk's
uncle.

Robert Borski

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