Horn Dies

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes · 26 Feb 2001, 10:21 · from whorl-v0012.mbox · original

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From: "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes" <ddanehy at siebel.com>
Subject: RE: (whorl) Horn Dies
Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2001 10:21:04
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PatRat wrote:

 (quoting moi)
 >3.2.2 His death is the necessary step that makes it possible
 >for Horn to bring corn back to the starving people of New
 >Viron -- the Wasteland,

> THANK YOU!=20

Y'welcome.

> Yes, Horn has died.=20

Right -- but he got better. Sort of...

> And it raises more thoughts for those of us sympathetic to Wolfe's
> Christian standpoint.=20

That's you, me, and Alex ... is anyone else on this list explicitly=20
Christian? (Is _anyone_ but me on this list explicitly Catholic?)

> Silk's own death/resurrection does seem to lead to a shift
> from animal sacrifices to bread & wine. We don't see this=20
> (as I recall) in the Long Sun series [...]

I seem to recall (having reread the series in January)=20
something about Silk deciding not to sacrifice animals=20
anymore? Certainly one of the major turning points in his=20
own spiritual journey is the decision not to sacrifice Oreb
(though the decision is sort of, kind of made for him?).

> But then Horn recapitulates this experience,=20

'sfunny: Horn's sacrifice in IGJ reminded me very=20
powerfully of the Pendragon's supper in THAT HIDEOUS
STRENGTH (which itself was apparently designed to recall
not only the Passover but a scene in a George MacDonald
book I haven't read. Actually, I haven't read any=20
MacDonald at all...). I vaguely wonder if this is
deliberate.=20

> and comes to be "in union with Silk," and says that=20
> the bread and wine he offers with Olivine is "his"
> body and blood.=20

Sounds familiar, eh? 8*)

> Recall that according to Paul in 1 Corinthians,
> the bread represents both Jesus and ALSO the
> Church.=20

Well, the Bread becomes (or represents for the heretical
Protestants in the audience -- JOKING!) the Body of Christ;
and the Church is also the Body of Christ; the Body of=20
Christ is undivided, present whole in each wafer; ergo,=20
the Body of Christ is eating the Body of Christ in order
to become more closely united with/more like Christ.

We now return to the question of the Alzabo. Devouring
Thecla's flesh, with the help of that strange creature's
gland, Severian becomes united with Thecla. Ditto the
inheritance of the Autarchy. (What would happen, one
wonders, if a reigning Autarch were accidentally killed
and devoured at one of the feasts held by Vodalus or his
predecessors/successors? A whole lot of Autarchs at once?)

So ... Is little Severian's father actually present in
the alzabo? [Does an alzabo have Severian's-father-nature?
Five pounds of flax.]

> I now suspect that this is part of what is going on.

I've been looking for this sort of connection in Wolfe for
-- gulp! -- goin' on 20 years now -- I read SWORD within=20
days of its hitting the shelves & the resonance of Typhon's
temptation of Severian was so blatant that I wound up going
back and noticing "Oh, he brings back the dead, he turns
water into wine ... Duh ..." So when I see bread in close
proximity to wine, the connection is there.

More fun for me, in many ways, is noticing Wolfe's non-
Biblical sources -- for example, Silk as a pretty darned
blatant hommage or pastiche or whatever of GKC's Father=20
Brown. (I strongly suspect that Chesterton stands to=20
Wolfe much as MacDonald is Lewis: "I fancy that I have=20
never written a book in which I did not quote MacDonald.")=20

> Finally, I strongly suspect that the answer to the
> question of how the book ends, one way or another,
> is that as both Silk and Horn have "died," yet both
> continue to live IN SILK'S BODY.

Bingo.

And isn't a Return to the World another word for
resurrection?

--Blattid

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