Clute's Non-Revelation

Jim Jordan · 19 Aug 2000, 17:25 · from whorl-v0011.mbox · original

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From: Jim Jordan <jbjordan at gnt.net>
Subject: Re: (whorl) Clute's Non-Revelation
Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2000 17:25:58
Message-ID: <whorl-v0011-0137 at digest.urth.net>
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At 06:04 PM 8/16/2000 -0400, you wrote:
>
>Thanks for the vote of confidence, several of you. I have a thought
>about Horn's eating habits, which certainly puzzled me too on first
>reading. It's awfully Wolfean. The fact is that the Horn body was
>sturdier, stockier and needed more food than the Silk body. Horn's
>habits and appetites remain as they were, but he must consciously curb
>them in his new body, or he would soon be overweight. But he DOES eat,
>unlike Fava, sweet little bean.
>
>-alga

	It's always interesting to agree with Alga! I'll repeat what I wrote
before, in case it did not get through: Being on a kind of continual fast
is what Silk does. Now that Horn is in Silk's body (as most of us assume),
he's got some of Silk's habits. "Eucharistically" (and Gattaca-like), he's
living off the body and blood of another, the quasi-messianic Silk. It's
affecting him.
	And since Wolfe has put human-inhumi relations at the center of the
trilogy's concerns (by repeatedly calling attention to the mystery), it
makes much more sense to see Horn as a character learning about that
mystery, and learning to implement it. Whatever it may be. He needs to be a
human being for this to work.=20
	Of course, Wolfe can fool us all! But I'm very unconvinced of this
hypothesis.
	Now, a bit more on the secret. I suggested being willing to die for
others, and specifically being willing to die for the inhumi, as the
secret. It has now been suggested that voluntarily giving them one's blood
might be the secret. "Eucharistically," that boils down to the same kind of
thing. And it makes good sense to me as a theory, for now anyway.
	Finally, I note that Horn tried to save Fava by giving her his warmth. But
that was not enough. Yet, it is a step along the say. Self-giving as the ke=
y.=20

Patera Nutria


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