The ending (was Re: (whorl) Not the Torah, but Torah-like)

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes · 12 Apr 2001, 10:10 · from whorl-v0012.mbox · original

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From: "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes" <ddanehy at siebel.com>
Subject: RE: The ending (was Re: (whorl) Not the Torah, but Torah-like)
Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2001 10:10:52
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Adam hath writ:

> ... the ending voyage doesn't "work on beyond the page."=20

No, it doesn't. New Viron, however, does; and so does the Whorl.
We haven't a clue what happens to the crewly mot that set off=20
from NV (well, as you point out, we do in fact have a rather ugly
clue), but we have a ramifying sense of the futures of the
colonists. Horn set out on a quest to save the colony: he=20
succeeded. He thought he was going to save them spiritually
by finding Silk; he was wrong. He saved them physically by
bringing back the corn (which is all they really wanted anyway).

Which ramifies _backwards_ toward the way Silk thought he was
supposed to save his manteion (and, as we learned, failed in the
long run), as opposed to they way he was actually supposed to
save it (and succeeded).

> In your list of motives, you don't explain why Silk wants to leave,

Because he simply doesn't belong there?

> or why he has to leave so quickly. =20

As I've pointed out repeatedly, this is far from established, and
at least some evidence points to the idea that he doesn't leave all
that quickly. The events prior to the Bloody Wedding don't leave
time for Nettle to have read the Narr's manuscript, but we know from
one of the editorial asides in OBW that she has. I suspect that her
having read it is one of the things that prompts her to accompany
the Narr on his journey.

Perhaps an actual statement of how long it was between the wedding
and the departure would have been nice, but we know perfectly well
that Mr Wolfe doesn't like to tell what he can hint at.

> 1) If, as you've argued, the inhumi mobbed the wedding to kill
> "Horn" and anyone whom he might have told the secret to, then
> Silk and Nettle's plan to use Pajarocu as their point of departure
> might not be that great an idea.

Big Ouch. I haven't worked out the inhumi's motives for the attack
yet -- I've only read RttW once, and my copy is out on loan -- but
you're certainly right on an "if" basis.

> 2) To put Nettle on a small boat for weeks with a woman who,
> in Daisy's words, "trusted only 'Father,' and would have put
> her long knife into any other person as readily as I would gut
> a fish" (411) seems to be asking for trouble.  Isn't being
> nearly murdered by a rival once enough for Nettle?

Again, ouch. I hadn't even considered that. Perhaps the Narr is
overestimating his Silkish ability to bring peace...

--Blattid

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