Finally finished RTW <SPOILERS>

William Ansley · 17 Feb 2001, 01:18 · from whorl-v0012.mbox · original

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From: William Ansley <wansley at warwick.net>
Subject: Re: (whorl) Finally finished RTW <SPOILERS>
Date: Sat, 17 Feb 2001 01:18:13
Message-ID: <whorl-v0012-0258 at digest.urth.net>
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I'm going to comment on one of your questions and try to answer=20
another. I am not sure if some of the others can be answered in any=20
definite way; it will be interesting to see what other responses you=20
get.

At 8:33 PM -0600 2/16/01, Endymion9 wrote:
>2. Revelations.  Call me dense but I never understood that Maytera Mint was
>not a chem.  I thought every Maytera was a chem.  So it was just coinciden=
ce
>that Maytera Rose and Maytera Marble were?  Also, thinking of Mint made me
>realize that Wolfe reused a similar pattern in the *good* men of the Whorl.

I won't call you dense, but you weren't paying as much attention as=20
you might have been. Maytera Marble was the only sybil of the three=20
who was a chem, and she may have been the only chem sybil in all of=20
Viron.

In the city of Viron, beings with the names of minerals or=20
mineral-derived products are chems. Those with the names of plants or=20
plant-derived products are bio women and those with the names of=20
animals or animal-derived products are bio men. (There is no naming=20
distinction between male and female chems, apparently. I'd call this=20
Bio chauvinism on the part of Pas--or whoever came up with the naming=20
conventions.) Maytera Rose was very old and sick and was only kept=20
alive by means of the many prosthetic parts that had been surgically=20
implanted in her body. When even these prostheses could no longer=20
keep Rose alive, Maytera Marble claimed some of them as spare parts.=20
In Wolfe's universe, robot and human parts are pretty much=20
interchangeable. That robot parts could be used as prosthetic parts=20
for humans and vice-versa is less silly than the idea that a robot=20
(Jonas, in TNotNS) could be repaired with human flesh, but it still=20
puts something of a strain on the reader's credulity (mine, at least).

>3.  Why did the corn farmer attack Horn, even after he said he was leaving?
>Why give him the corn just to kill him?  When Wolfe writes passages like
>these I feel so dense, like I'm the only one clueless as to what is going =
on
><grin>.

The farmer's motivation certainly isn't crystal clear to me either,=20
but my opinion is that he wouldn't have attacked Horn if Horn had=20
just left without confronting him when the farmer first told Horn to=20
leave.

To put it bluntly, Horn pissed the farmer off. The farmer seems to=20
have been a bully; perhaps he thought Horn would run or beg for=20
mercy. But instead Horn showed the farmer that he was not afraid of=20
him. Horn even told the farmer that he could beat him with a rotten=20
stick and then chastised him for threatening a man who was (the=20
farmer thought, at least) old and weak. The farmer was probably=20
frightened when he saw Horn was not afraid of him and ashamed when=20
Horn chastised him. Both these emotions tend to lead to anger and the=20
farmer struck out at Horn in anger when he turned his back on him to=20
leave. His anger won out over his fear when he could no longer see=20
Horn's (Silk's) face, perhaps.

Another possibility that does not exclude the one above is that the=20
farmer recognized that this person who said his name was Horn looked=20
just like Silk or at least had suspicions along those lines. He may=20
have wondered what Silk was up too and whether he was insane. When=20
the farmer threatened Horn and Horn responded without the fear the=20
farmer expected, this may have given the farmer more reason to think=20
something was wrong with Horn's mind.

It is understandable that the farmer might want to drive off an=20
unpredictable looney and might attack one that seemed dangerous.

That's my two cents, anyway.

William Ansley

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