From: Derek Bell <dbell@maths.tcd.ie>
Subject: (whorl) Auguries
Date: Wed, 14 May 1997 22:12:30 +0100


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

In message <199705141554.IAA12239@lists1.best.com>, Joel Priddy writes:
>  (2) What is the source of information for the auguries? The
>options that my soft little brain can come up with for the source
>of Silk's very accurate divination are: chance (lucky guess);
>divine (the Outsider); mechanical (Mainframe); mystical (the
>gods); or psychic (Silk himself).

	Speculation - has Horn or one of his interviewers not been
100% truthful about what was said at the auguries. I mean, are there
clues elsewhere that the auguries aren't reliable? I think there was
an augury that didn't go into the details of the entrails but
consisted of predictions - clearly this was an example of a different
interviewee's account, but the interviewee seemed to recount the
happenings rather than anything else. (Which could be due to ignorance
of the interpretation.)

	Personally, I'm going to have to decide *which* question to put
to Gene Wolfe - there's so many to ask!

	Tercel