RTTW spoilers, 2 Silks in one mansionWhorl

Ah well. Interesting to contemplate two more-or-less identical Silks (your Silk-in-Pig and 100% Silk in Horn) in the same place (ruins of Blood's mansion) at the same time with such different reactions. =mantis= Sirius Fiction Catalog and errata sheet at http://www.sirius.com/~mantis/ *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.

I may be missing your point completely, but it seems to me that their reactions aren't so different. In fact, I'd say that "Horn"'s behavior supports my position. He first tells Pig he wants to enter the mansion alone, with no explanation (118, 119). When Pig insists on coming with him, he deceives him so as to be able to go in alone (121). Once inside, he gets "a sort of itch" to find Hyacinth's bedroom, although he tells himself it's foolish. He decides to try to return to Hound, hoping to blunder into Hyacinth's bedroom on the way. And he does eventually find himself, by chance, in Hyacinth's dressing chamber; although he's never been there before, he "knew with absolute certainty" that that's what it is (134-35). From this evidence "Horn" is just as fixated upon Hyacinth as the Silk-possessed Pig is, though better able to rationalize it. (I wouldn't expect Silk-in-Pig and Silkhorn to behave identically, in any case. One is filtered through Pig, so to speak, the other blended with Horn (Silk-in-Pig tells "Horn"'It was Pig who was angry'" (175)); plus Silkhorn is engaged in denying to himself that he is Silk.) --Adam *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.