From: "James Wynn" 
Subject: RE: (urth) Musk's dagger?
Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2002 10:38:43 -0600

Roy sneered:
I must be getting senile, because I just re-read the LS series this autumn
and completely missed those two "facts". Could you tell me where in the
texts they might be found?

Crush responds:
I'm not sure to which "facts" you are referring? That "civet" is synonymous
with Musk? That it is an Arabic word? That Musk was the original owner of
Chenille's knife? That Poppy lied to help cover it up? You're making this
difficult for me since *I* do not feel free to use intellectual hand-waving
to clear-up tricky portions in the narrative by saying, "that fact is
irrelevant" or "Silk wasn't thinking clearly."

In the posting http://urth.net/urth/archives/v0210/1933.txt.shtml I detailed
fairly extensively why I believe Musk is the "cat" on the dagger. "That's
irrelevant" was your only response. I'll offer another. After Musk strikes
Silk with a velveted paw, the very next time Silk lays eyes on him, he is
standing side-by-side with Chenille. Musk has returned to continue his cat
and mouse game. The first thing he does *according to the text* is:
"Catlike, he stalked across the sellaria to seat himself in Silk's reading
chair." (LS2:3)

IMO Musk might as well be wearing a costume pilfered from an Andrew Lloyd
Weber musical.


Roy continues:
I wonder why, when Marble was murdering Musk, Silk noted:

"The perverse self-forged discipline of the Orilla broke at last; Musk
screamed and continued to scream, each pause and gasp followed by a scream
weaker and more terrible." LS3:3

Is there an Orilla in Trivigaunte?

Crush ponders:
Don't forget that Silk doesn't note this, Horn does. Is there an Orilla in
Viron? On my reading I only noticed this one reference to it, but I probably
I missed or forgot about the others. The word "orilla" means literally
"border". If I read the narrative the way you *claim* to, I would speculate
that this reference means Musk came from the border of Viron and someplace
else. Hmmm. I can't imagine where.

But I *don't* read it that way. I'm aware that "orilla" is a word for a
working-class district in Buenos Aires. "Orilla" could be merely Horn's word
for people from the lower class. Or perhaps I'm wrong that Musk came from
Trivigaunte.
If Musk is not a Trivigaunte spy, in that case unique among Blood's employ,
and who despite his apparent sadism, inexplicably stops Blood from killing
Silk at his house...

"Blood took Hyacinth's little needler from his waistband, thumbed off its
safety catch, and aimed it carefully at Silk's chest. Musk frowned and
touched Blood's arm." (LS 1:7)

...and if Musk is not from Trivigaunte despite his name associations, and
his ignorance of the workings of monitors after (surely) *a good deal more*
than 3 years at Blood's house (note that Auk does not suffer from this
ignorance)...

...That doesn't affect the very reasonable conclusion that the knife was
Musk's originally and that Poppy lied to help cover it up.
Musk = Civet = Cat.
Poppy's lie is not "irrelevant" whatever conclusion one comes to.

Speaking of irrelevant, I seem to recall that my original point was that
Musk and Chenille had a connection and so perhaps Musk was Chenille's
"friend". As you have shown, that friend was Auk - and exposed peculiar
narrative complexities in the bargain.

-- Crush




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