From: douge@nti.com (Doug Eigsti)
Subject: Re: (whorl) on the airship
Date: Tue, 31 Dec 1996 11:08:39 


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

> 
> 
> [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
>    
Henry,

	You will find the posting by David Adrian "Re: Narrative
Viewpoint" pertinent. I am reading through the first three books to
prepare myself for EXODUS. The knowledge that Horn is the narrator puts a
different slant on many scenes. How much of Silk's story is Horn's
fiction, or rather Wolfe's fiction within a fiction? Readers of PEACE will
know that Wolfe likes to lead the reader through many levels of nested
stories. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the entire Long Sun series
is a sample of the fantastic genre literature found on one of the shelves
in Master Ultan's library written by a contemporary of Typhon.

=Doug=


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