Date: Sun, 17 Feb 2002 10:32:07 -0700
From: maa32 
Subject: (urth) Silk's narrative ubiquity

Rostrum stated

> I have a
hard enough time believing that the Narrator recounted whole conversations
to them verbatim, much less that he told them in detail about all the
dreams he had in the Whorl. So I'm guessing that they made up this dream,
for "literary" reasons, forshadowing Silk-in-Pig, etc.
>

I said briefly before that I believe one of Silk's special attributes is his 
ability to inspire other people, who have not even met him, to write about him 
in a way that is true in spirit if not in letter.  He can affect Fava's story, 
enter it, and CHANGE details as she tells it. I believe that Silk has always 
had this power, from the first chapters of Nightside the Long Sun, when 
suddenly everybody knows he's been enlightened, even if he hasn't told many 
people yet.  Stories about Silk spread like wildfire.  I believe he has the 
power to inspire stories that reflect the truth, and that these dreams may not 
have been directly related to Hoof and Hide, but that his spirit works through 
them to produce these texts.  As I said, I asked Wolfe about this ability to 
influence the narrative of others, and he didn't deny it, and said that Silk 
would use this power for emphasis, not to hide anything in the portions he did 
not directly write.  My opinion for the factual status of the Book of the Long 
Sun is that Silk actually inspired it, and that it can therefore be relied 
upon even if Horn's information might have been inaccurate or skewed, whereas 
the narrative written about Horn by Silk and Horn together can not be entirely 
relied upon because the auto corrective powers of Silk do not extend to Horn's 
life.
I don't know if that helps ... I like the idea that the Book of the Long Sun 
parallels the conception of the gospels in that it is divinely inspired and 
true without suffering from the onus of literal truth (from a Catholic 
perspective, of course; and no offense to those who would maintain its literal 
truth as well -> the faults of the narrator as a fallible man could certainly 
creep into the narrative if it is not taken as "literal truth" without 
destroying the spiritual truth)
It is difficult to identify exactly what makes Silk so special ... obviously, 
his special gift is NOT his leadership skills, or he would not have faced such 
political problems from his closest friends as Calde of Viron, leading to his 
eventual resignation and exile.
Marc Aramini



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