The Return of Horn

maa32 · 09 Apr 2001, 23:02 · from whorl-v0012.mbox · original

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From: maa32 <maa32 at dana.ucc.nau.edu>
Subject: (whorl) The Return of Horn
Date: Mon, 09 Apr 2001 23:02:43
Message-ID: <whorl-v0012-0559 at digest.urth.net>
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Here's another theory.
Adam and Nutria said

>>But there are  ways of indicating that the protagonist is both Horn and S=
ilk
>>without using amalgams like "Silkhorn."  And while the editors' suppressi=
on
>>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=20
(we
>>think) access to "Horn's" mind which seemingly bears out his claim, weacc=
ept=20
his claim at face value (at least I did).  So the failure to identify
>>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
>slant to it. Wolfe is more than capable of tricking us and reversing our
>expectations at the end of this trilogy. But are the editors of the 3d
>person sections? Why would they do this? As you note, such tricking makes
>little sense. I persist in suspecting that the Narrator is really mainly
>Horn, though in Silk's body, and that this is who he continues to be. But
>at this point, I'm reduced to little more than a suspicion, because of the
>effective way everyone here has beaten me up over this.
>         And I'll bring this up again, since nobody commented on in when I
>brought it up the first time. I cannot find the place, but at one point the
>Narrator, having been accused of being Silk for the nth time, looks for a
>scar he expects to find on Silk's body, and claims not to find it, thereby
>reassuring himself that he is not Silk. Of course, it is pretty clear that
>he is in Silk's body, and is partly Silk; but he himself thinks he has
>reasons to dismiss the views of everyone around him.
>
>Nutria the Nut

On the contrary, I think the editors do have a valid reason to say that in=20
fact SILK returned instead of their father HORN in some unknown jokers' bod=
y. =20
Their father is a failure without the return of silk, and the people (if we=20
can assume the TBSS will serve for common propoganda like TBLS) will be mor=
e=20
likely to live in peace if they thought Silk really did come back for them =
and=20
found them wanting.  They have something to strive for.  If it was only Hor=
n=20
in a weird man's body (or worse, some inhuma impersonating a dead man he me=
t=20
on Green [who subsequently betrays the other inhumi and must be hunted down=
]),=20
then he was a true failure.  Children won't let their parents be failures i=
f=20
they can help it, especially if they are already semi-legendary.  Why not l=
ie=20
in the sections they compose?  Why not hide the true identity of the weirdo=20
coming in, and lend credence to his claims.  "Sure, he was our father. And =
he=20
was Silk, too! What a true hero Horn was.  He didn't fail us!"  Even though=20
Silk is conveniently gone.

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