From: "Roy C. Lackey" 
Subject: Re: (urth) Musk's dagger?
Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2002 14:41:33 -0600

Crush wrote:
>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."

The two "facts" were the two you alleged and which I quoted. These two: "The
fact that Poppy lied about knowing him shows that she, like Musk, is a
Trivigaunte spy." and ""Civet" is Musk's real name. The fact that Musk
changed it suggests he had something to hide (since the name *could* be
Vironese as well)."

>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.

Hardly. What I actually said was: "The guy named Cat is irrelevant. It was
Orchid who jumped to the conclusion that the dagger belonged to a man named
Cat--because of the cat image on the hilt." My "Chenille's dagger" post laid
out the textual evidence to support Silk's deduction that the knife belonged
to her. Silk's reasoning is what led him to the (correct) conclusion that
Chenille had killed Orpine with it. If you disagree, then your argument is
not with me, but with the text.

>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.

I don't need to speculate. There are many references to the Orilla in the
text; here are two from chapter three of LS1: "As reported by Maytera
Marble, Maytera Mint had named half a dozen places in which he might come
across Auk; all were in the Orilla, the worst section of the quarter." and
"Lamp Street brought him to the Orilla, where the lake waters had begun when
Viron was young." (pp. 70, 72, paper) The Orilla is where the tavern named
the Cock was located.

As for Horn being the author of the notation; well, yes, he was, in a sense,
and of every other line in the text.

>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.

The Orilla is a lawless, run-down section of Viron, in walking distance from
the Sun Street manteion. The Chapter had closed its manteion there. It is
also where Auk maintained his room, the one with the working glass, in an
empty shop.

>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)...

What ignorance? Silk's first sight of Musk was through Auk's glass. Musk
knew to snap his fingers to break the connection. If you mean that he was
unaware of a monitor's literal-minded answers to direct questions, hence
ineffective when questioning one while looking for an intruder, that just
indicates to me that he wasn't as clever as Silk.

-Roy


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