From: "Roy C. Lackey" 
Subject: Re: (urth) different sev's and silk as seeker
Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2003 23:05:40 -0500

Andrew Bollen wrote:
>The actual comment from the Q&A:
>
>14. Is there a member (current, former, future) of the Order of Seekers for
>Truth and Penitence on the Whorl? -- I'm going to interpret this question
in
>the broadest possible sense, since that seems to be what Parsons wants.
Yes,
>there is. It is Silk.
>
>I suppose logcally that doesn't preclude the possibility that other priests
>etc might also be members of the Order, in the broadest sense, but it does
>seem pretty Silk-specific to me.
>
>I don't think Wolfe intends an identification between Silk's synthetic
>church and Sev's guild in this statement; if he did, I think he would have
>said, "Yes, there are - the priests of the Vironese Order", or something
>like that.

I agree that Wolfe didn't intend his answer to be taken in other than its
most figurative sense. Neither do I think that his answer is sufficient
grounds to try to establish some sort of physical familial relationship
between Silk and Sev--or Horn or Typhon--much less Malrubius.

If one takes the meaning of "Seekers for Truth and Penitence" in a religious
sense (its use by the Torturers is nothing if not ironic, as I see it), as
those dedicated to the adoration and placation of the Increate, as the
phrase implies, then Silk could be said to be a member of that Order.

The Order's creed, "Torturers obey", means just that: blind, unreasoning,
unquestioning fealty to a higher power. When Thecla pricked Sev's boyish
male ego shortly before her excruciation, it made it easier for whatever
passed for his conscience to follow the Order's creed, not only not to
prevent her torture but to participate in it. Only when it was too late for
Thecla did he think to violate the creed and help her to commit suicide.
That was Sev's first step on the moral ladder, and he never got much higher.

Silk also violated the creed. Less that 24 hours after being enlightened by
and pledging himself to the Outsider, the sight of a naked nubile woman and
her flattery of his young male ego caused him to shift his new-found loyalty
from the Outsider to a whore. Silk became obsessed with her, at least until
he had her. Like Sev, he came to realize his mistake too late, but was too
noble to turn his back on her. Unlike Sev, he contemplated _his own_
suicide. Silk strayed for twenty years and only when Hyacinth died did he
return to the path the Outsider intended for him.

-Roy


--