Digest whorl.v012.n032Whorl

Ratty, Mark Millman is surely right--you are thinking of fairies and cold iron, and we ain't got none of those here. Inhumi have no supernatural resistances or weaknesses; they are animals like us. (And unlike a couple of other types of critters.) Rostrum, IMO, is also right about Horn/Silk's eating problem, so evident in IGJ; I posited the same observation (I point out delicately) several times quite a while ago. Welcome, James,

Richard Gere? No, just kidding--it's yours! -alga *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.

I may have missed your post in the archives, but most of the discussion I saw assumed it had something to do with Silk's personality influencing Horn, whereas I was pointing out that it could just be a physical limitation of Silk's body and prove nothing about how much of Silk's personality still remains. For that matter, it could also be explained by Horn having decided to take up fasting as part of his Imitatio Silki. In fact, the only indication I can see that any of Silk's personality is still in there is that bit where he refers to Seawrack's singing as being Hyacinth's. -Rostrum *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.

Rostrum said:

Even limiting things to OBW and IGJ, I disagree. To name an instance that comes to mind immediately, without moving to the bookshelf, what about the last few lines of OBW, about catching the ball?

As I posted before, there's no reason to think Silk would even remember anything about catching the ball and winning the game - at the time he was preoccupied with his enlightenment (note his lame response when the boys ask him what was the lesson in it). Horn, on the other hand, obviously remembers it well, since it's the first scene in his book about Silk. The line makes sense as a metaphor Horn uses to sum up the philosophy he articulated at the time to Silk: "You were their best player. It wouldn't have been fair to them if you hadn't played your best." Which he has lived out by helping Gaon. Which he continues to preach to Mora. It's a statement that Horn has, like Silk, used his gifts to help the weak. The line makes no sense read as "Silk" literally remembering winning that game a long time ago. Why would he mention it? Does Silk habitually reminisce about his atheletic triumphs over children? -Rostrum *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.