Date: Fri, 12 Jul 2002 20:24:59 -0500
From: James Jordan 
Subject: (urth) Consensus? and Question

         Back in the olden days we fought over who was who. I and others 
thought Silk was dead (soul departed) and Horn was living in his body, 
being influenced by his "kinetic memory" (brain, habits, "body and blood") 
to be a more Silk-like person -- as Christians (especially Roman Catholics 
like Wolfe) would say that feeding on Christ's body and blood is to make us 
more Christlike.
         But most disagreed, and it does seem Silk was merely dormant, and 
then gradually ascended to take his body back. Yet, what of Horn? It made 
no sense to me that Horn was dead and gone at the end, though some thought 
so. Some of us decided Horn was alive in Silk, but now in the background.
         Now there seems to be a consensus that Horn moved from Silk to 
Babbie as Silk woke up. I can live with that. If Scylla can ride Oreb, Horn 
can ride Babbie. Are we all now in general consensus about that picture?
         Indeed, since Babbie is "intelligent," is his race destined to 
rise in the future? And if so, then Horn-in-Babbie can have something to do 
with that future. Possibly the Neighbors give Blue to humanity so that 
humanity can guide the Babbie race into maturity, and getting a more 
Silk-like Horn into Babbie is part of their plan along these lines.
         A question I have, especially for our re-readers is this: What 
about the soul? I would postulate that the soul is indivisible, so that 
Silk-in-Mainframe is a whole Silk, as is Silk-in-Pig and Silk-in-Silk. 
Ur-Silk does not seem to "lose" any abilities as a result of being copied 
into Mainframe. His soul does not seem to be divided, only cloned.
         But, and this is where I have the question, it seemed to me that 
Mainframe gods when downloaded into human beings were still connected to 
their mainframe original, which governed them. They did not "go off on 
their own" so to speak. But the various Silks do not seem to be connected. 
Except that possibly Mainframe Silk would be connected to Silk-in-Pig, if 
other mainframe gods are connected to their avatars. Scylla seems to govern 
Oreb from afar. Or am I wrong? Do mainframe originals know what their 
avatars are doing? Does Scylla know what Scylla-in-Oreb is doing?
         The reason I raise this is that the developing consensus seems to 
be that Horn passes into/onto Babbie by stages as Silk awakens. But I would 
not think that only "part" of Horn goes into Babbie at the beginning, and 
"more" later on. Rather, the sequence seems to be:
                 1. Horn
                 2. Horn in Silk
                 3. Two Horns, one in Silk and one in Babbie
                 4. One Horn in Babbie
Is this the developing consensus?
         Also, is the consensus that part of Ur-Silk's reawakening is 
caused by a dump from Mainframe Silk via Silk-in-Pig? Does Mainframe Silk 
leave Pig and go into Ur-Silk? If so, this provides an analogy for 
Horn-in-Silk to leave Silk completely for Babbie at the end.
         This whole business of soul-cloning and soul-riding is central to 
all seven novels. It seems to structure the narrative.
         Anyway, I wondered if there is a consensus, and if I'm on the 
right track.

Patera Nutria


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