Date: Thu, 18 Jul 2002 09:19:19 -0500
Subject: Re: (urth) Silk-23 skidoo
From: Adam Stephanides 

on 7/16/02 2:16 PM, Michael Andre-Driussi at mantis@siriusfiction.com wrote:

> I'm confused by the term "Silk-in-Horn" in this context.

This reflects my view that Silk is present in "Horn" (or Silkhorn, the
Narrator, or whatever you want to call him) throughout.

> I would say, in
> this case and this reading, that it is "Horn-in-Silk" who is still
> quixotically looking for "Silk" (quixotic because the Silk he is looking
> for is a character in a book that Horn wrote).
> 
> So it is Horn who makes the eye-sacrifice in order to get Silk-in-Pig out
> of Pig and into the Silk body.  I don't see much rhyme or reason in getting
> Silk-in-Pig back into Mainframe, fwiw, but maybe I'm forgetting something
> -- did Silk-in-Pig have some important news to report in VR person?
> 
> Horn would make the sacrifice in order to complete his mission.

Hmm, maybe I'd misremembered the earlier debate.  But I still see a few
problems with this position.

1) Horn doesn't know, or refuses to admit, that he's in Silk's body, so he
wouldn't know that he was transferring Silk-in-Pig into Silk's body.

2) Iirc, even after Horn recognizes that Silk is possessing Pig, he
continues to look for the physical Silk.  Of course, maybe he just wants a
second string to his bow.

3) There is no mention in the text of this plan of Horn's nor afaik any
indication that Horn thinks of his mission in any other way than bringing
the physical Silk to Viron.  Perhaps Horn suppressed this plan when talking
to his sons, or his sons when they were briefing Daisy; but why would they
do that?

4) When the "is Silk in the Narrator on the Whorl" question was last
discussed, it was asked (as Rostrum has just asked) how Horn's failure to
recognize that he's in Silk's body was to be explained if Silk wasn't
present in Horn.  Iirc, the answer was given that Horn can't accept that his
unworthy self is in the body of his idol Silk.  I find this implausible in
any case; but if it's true, then it would surely be all the more
inconceivable for Horn to contemplate transferring Silk's personality into
the body he was inhabiting.

5) In any case, why would Horn think that just because he gives Pig an eye
and puts him in front of a monitor, Silk-in-Pig will jump into *him*?  For
that matter, if Horn wants to be possessed by Silk, why not just stand in
front of a monitor and get possessed by Silk-in-Mainframe directly, rather
than at second hand?

--Adam


--