From: CoxRathvon@aol.com
Subject: (whorl) on the airship
Date: Mon, 30 Dec 1996 19:38:52 


[Posted from Whorl, the mailing list for Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun]


   I've just finished "Exodus" and have also just joined this
terrific-looking mail group.  I have lots of questions about both ventures
(the Long Sun books and the mailing list). Pardon this newbie for being a
little slow to latch on.
   If I'm not mistaken, somebody has asked about the conversation between
Silk and Horn on the top of the airship.  I'm not sure how many replies have
been posted.  But I do feel that that conversation is key, and I find it very
enigmatic.  Why is Silk suicidally depressed?  And what happened at the end
of that conversation--did Horn begin to fall and did Mucor save him?
   Let me suggest that among other things Silk has begun to suspect
corruption in Pas's plan.  He may not specificaly suspect alien involvement
in the plan.  But certainly--as he points out to Horn--he suspects that the
cities of the Whorl have been separated and pitted against one another to
prevent them from uniting against Pas.  I think that in this late hour of the
story, Silk has despaired of all the Whorl gods, and it takes a mighty effort
for him to retain his faith in the Outsider's more remote designs.  
   But I do not understand the implications of Hycanith's falsity--that she
overpowered a soldier and betrayed an ability (or something about her past)
inconsistent with her claims about herself.  What am I missing here?  Can
anyone help?  And again, what is the culmination of this scene, when Horn
appears to fall?
   Hoping for clarity,
Henry Rathvon
   

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