Third-person sections in RttW

James Jordan · 09 Apr 2001, 20:32 · from whorl-v0012.mbox · original

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From: James Jordan <jbjordan4 at home.com>
Subject: Re: (whorl) Third-person sections in RttW
Date: Mon, 09 Apr 2001 20:32:47
Message-ID: <whorl-v0012-0556 at digest.urth.net>
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>
>But there are  ways of indicating that the protagonist is both Horn and Si=
lk
>without using amalgams like "Silkhorn."  And while the editors' suppression
>of any name but "he" leaves the protagonist's identity ambiguous in
>retrospect, it doesn't read that way at the time.  Since "Horn" protests
>that he is Horn throughout, and since the third-person sections give us (we
>think) access to "Horn's" mind which seemingly bears out his claim, we
>accept his claim at face value (at least I did).  So the failure to identi=
fy
>the protagonist is deceptive in effect.  And I have a hard time believing
>the editors wouldn't have recognized that and taken steps to correct it.
>
>--Adam

         though this has been discussed to death, you do bring another=20
slant to it. Wolfe is more than capable of tricking us and reversing our=20
expectations at the end of this trilogy. But are the editors of the 3d=20
person sections? Why would they do this? As you note, such tricking makes=20
little sense. I persist in suspecting that the Narrator is really mainly=20
Horn, though in Silk's body, and that this is who he continues to be. But=20
at this point, I'm reduced to little more than a suspicion, because of the=20
effective way everyone here has beaten me up over this.
         And I'll bring this up again, since nobody commented on in when I=20
brought it up the first time. I cannot find the place, but at one point the=20
Narrator, having been accused of being Silk for the nth time, looks for a=20
scar he expects to find on Silk's body, and claims not to find it, thereby=20
reassuring himself that he is not Silk. Of course, it is pretty clear that=20
he is in Silk's body, and is partly Silk; but he himself thinks he has=20
reasons to dismiss the views of everyone around him.

Nutria the Nut


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