narrative viewpoint in Long Sun

David Adrian · 19 Dec 1996, 10:39 · from whorl-v0001.mbox · original

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From: David Adrian <cyd at rmii.com>
Subject: (whorl) re: narrative viewpoint in Long Sun
Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 10:39:43
Message-ID: <whorl-v0001-0019 at digest.urth.net>
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[Posted from Whorl, the mailing list for Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun]

>From: Peter Cash <cash at convex.convex.com>
>Subject: (whorl) narrative viewpoint in Long Sun
>Date: Fri, 06 Dec 1996 14:44:22=20
>
>
>[Posted from Whorl, the mailing list for Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun]
>
>One thing I found really frustrating with the end of Exodus was the
>revelation that this has been Horn's narrative all along. This
>revelation came as a complete surprise to me, and I couldn't help but
>feel that it was a trick Wolfe sprung so that he could end the Book of
>the Long Sun when he did. After all, if he narrows down the narrator's
>perspective, then he can't be blamed for not filling us in on details
>like what became of Silk--Horn just doesn't know.=20
>
>I feel that writer really ought to drop some clues ahead of time about
>this sort of thing. Did any of you notice any clues about Horn's role in
>the earlier books?=20
>
>Peter=20
>--=20
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>                 Die Welt ist alles, was Zerfall ist.  =20
>                  (apologies to Ludwig Wittgenstein)   =20
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

        I don't have the book with me so I can't give you a page number,
but Horn did give himself away earlier in Exodus.  Go back to the meeting
where Silk agreed to surrender to Potto, just before he was captured.
The line is something like "Then I walked in."
        Nice little shock there.  It definitely put a different edge
on the near-suicide scenes on the airship.  I'm not sure whether I'm
playing tricks on myself or not (I'll have to read it again, and I
can't wait), but it seemed that that Silk's talk with Horn had a unique
tone to it.  A bit more depth, a little more confidence behind it than
most of the others, which Horn had to recreate from guesswork, instinct,
and what witnesses survived the end of the Whorl.

        --adrian


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