It's Mostly the Ending

James Jordan · 11 Apr 2001, 14:29 · from whorl-v0012.mbox · original
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From: James Jordan <jbjordan4 at home.com>
Subject: Re: (whorl) It's Mostly the Ending
Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2001 14:29:17
Message-ID: <whorl-v0012-0583 at digest.urth.net>
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A few thoughts on some of these issues:
> > Also like
> > Merryn, whose appearence just seems bad-tempered on the author's part..
>
>Merryn's appearance, which struck me as a case of Asimov's syndrome, had as
>a saving grace the fact that we _didn't_ find out she was Severian's siste=
r,
>which would have been an even worse case of the above.

         I strongly suspect that Merryn appears because so many fans wanted=20
her to appear. She's been MUCH discussed over the years. I think that there=20
are probably several places in the SS novels that reflect interaction with=20
fans/readers. I recall a number of years ago telling Wolfe that Patera=20
Bunny (a Presbyterian pastor) mentioned to me that while in a counselling=20
situation with a parishioner, he found himself thinking, "What would Silk=20
do?" Then I noticed almost exactly this sentence from the Narrator at one=20
point in either Blue or Green (I cannot recall where). Someone else here=20
also pointed to a place where something he had said to Wolfe seemed to=20
appear in the SS narrative. (Sorry, I cannot recall who or what.) At any=20
rate, if we did not like Merryn's appearance, we have found the enemy and=20
it is us!


>For me, the only
>positive of the Red Sun sections was to get an outsider's view of Urth and
>Severian. To the people from Blue, who are much more like modern Americans
>than the people of Urth, we get a better idea of what a decayed, run-down,
>utterly tired and hopeless place Urth is. That part I liked. Hints that Si=
lk
>is the ghost of Malrubius? Bah. Cilinia/Scylla buried in the Necropolis?
>Bah, again.

         This also struck me as overly coincidental -- though Wolfe has=20
pointed out that in real life we encounter strange coincidences more often=20
than we might think we would. But perhaps there is some method in this.=20
Both Silk and Severian are Sub-messiahs (to coin a term), "Christian=20
figures" who are replicating in a very significant way certain central=20
aspects of Christ's life and work. Perhaps Wolfe is positing a kind of=20
"spiritual attraction" or magnetism between the two, and between their=20
companies.

>I've gone on record as thinking Jahlee's behavior and fate make sense in t=
he
>terms of the novel. She attacks Nettle out of jealousy the day after Horn
>and Nettle spend the night together. She is killed because she violated her
>agreement with Horn. This makes sense but it's sudden and disappointing in
>its suddenness.

         Maybe. But to me it was fitting, and her death in Nettle's=20
forgiving arms was very moving. I think Wolfe wanted us to think about the=20
soul of Jahlee. She really is human in every way that really counts. Now=20
she dies. Is that really the end of her? Is she just an animal? Or does she=20
perhaps "go to heaven" in a way analogous to the other character's=20
ascension at the end of the novel?

>I think he ran out of energy or room or ideas or some combination of the
>three. Up to the point where the inhumi attack the wedding, things seemed
>almost on track,

         Long Sun ends apocalyptically. Silk has gone to heaven-mainframe,=20
and now returns to an Armageddon in Viron, after which Silk's people go to=20
"heaven" (outer space), leaving the Whorl behind. If my guess was right, in=20
my post on Revelation 19, Wolfe intends Short Sun to have the same kind of=20
referential ending: the Marriage Supper is also a Great Battle. And, it is=20
the Last Battle in Revelation. So we move to a kind of final armageddon in=20
New Viron, after which once again certain people go to "heaven" (outer=20
space) -- which turns out to be the Whorl. But, in the Short Sun series,=20
the Whorl functions as heaven in some ways, for it is the place where=20
Messiah Silk is, and it is the place from which we get the new seeds for=20
"our daily bread."


>There are two major areas where the book as a whole lets us down on, and
>we've beaten them both to death, but I'll say again:
>
>a) we get the huge buildup on the secret of the inhumi, and it turns out t=
he
>secret doesn't meet the expectations that the narrative builds up for it. =
We
>were expecting something more than we guessed in the first volume, but that
>was it.

         Granted, that can be a problem for US. But if someone is=20
re-reading the trilogy, I'd like to know if the "secret" is something=20
anyone other than Horn and then the Narrator knows. I came away thinking,=20
"well, everyone knows this secret," but now I doubt it. We learn it early=20
on, but only because we see Horn learn it, and figure it out for ourselves.=20
By "secret" here I mean that the inhumi become intelligent and ensouled as=20
a result of human blood.
         But this brings us back to what the Secret really is. Since Horn=20
and the later Narrator don't intend to reveal it, why is it so clearly=20
revealed to the reader in the course of the trilogy? I continue to think=20
that the "great secret" that Jahlee tells at the end is not THE Secret,=20
just "a great secret." One option, discussed here, is that the Secret is=20
how the inhumi really get to Blue, which clearly is not by travelling=20
through outer space. But that would not seem to fit the "too heavy to bear"=20
aspect of the Secret. I suspect that the Secret is ... secreted away in the=20
text, and that we in this discussion have not yet ascertained it, or=20
ascertained it fully.

>b) the fact that the narrator is Horn in Silk's body has been obvious since
>the first volume, so the climactic revelation that the narrator is Horn in
>Silk's body falls flat.

         Well, you've revised your phrasing, and in terms of that revision,=20
it would be a surprise to learn that it is not a living Horn in an "empty"=20
Silk body, but that either (a) Horn is really dead and Silk is alive, or=20
(b) both are alive in Silk's body.
         And now a question: Has anyone investigated the possibility that=20
Seawrack is actually an inhuma? She does seem to be able physically to=20
change shape. We've been focussed on the relationship of Seawrack with the=20
Mother, but where did Seawrack really come from? I've thought of her as a=20
modified human, but maybe she is a modified inhuma. Krait certainly seemed=20
to have a negative view of her as a schemer. Is it possible that Seawrack=20
shows, in some way, what the inhumi might be like if they were truly=20
transformed? Just some questions....

Patera Nutria


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