From: "Alice Turner" <akt@attglobal.net>
Subject: (whorl) Re: Horn as Silk
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 20:09:57 

Hi John Roberson, and welcome,

Thanks for pitching right in. My take on your two points:

I. I don't detect a hint of Pas (as I see Pas, or as we all saw him as
Typhon) in the "voice" of Horn. Of course we first met Silk filtered through
Horn, but this narration is recognizably similar to that amalgam. Horn tried
hard to do Silk justice and now that they really *are* an amalgam it's
shiftier but not nearly as strange as a Pas addition would make it. So I
think not, though it's an interesting idea. Also, the very title of the
third book indicates to me that we really will be going back to the Whorl
(hooray, we'll see what happens with those super-tall asses!)

2. There have been a lot of guesses about "the secret of the inhumi," and
the front-runner for a while was that it was simply that they took on (or
could take on) aspects of the prey along with the blood; when they
encountered a sentient race for the first time, it revolutionized them.
Another conjecture has to do with their obviously being able to survive a
long time without sustenance in a mummified state. But later thinking is
that it's more complicated than that--it's a secret that if known could
destroy them--and that Wolfe just hasn't given it to us even in clue form
yet.

Arguments invited.

-alga





*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.
*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.moonmilk.com/whorl/
*To leave the list, send "unsubscribe" to whorl-request@lists.best.com
*If it's Wolfe but not Long Sun, please use the URTH list: urth@lists.best.com