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From: David Wells <ADW@ovum.com> Subject: (whorl) RE: Digest whorl.v010.n101 Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2000 22:48:43 +0100 From: "Alice Turner" <pei047@attglobal.net> >Adam asked: >> Is there textual evidence from TBOTLS that Silk may be in a two-headed >> Pas body? (It's been a while since I reread it.) (Replying to Adam) I wasn't suggesting that Silk is two-headed. Though this is a fascinating idea and quite in the spirit of previous Wolfe writing ("Did I forget to mention that the narrator is <unexpected adjective>? Oh, silly me!"). Typhon was grafted onto Piaton(?) to preserve his life. His excuse to Severian was (AFAIR, again) that his followers needed to see his face to keep their faith in him(*). >I don't buy young newt's clone theory: too easy, too trite. I am cut to the quick. But even I wouldn't dignify my suggestion as a "theory" - merely a speculation. And "easy, trite"? Curious. It would seem to me to be interesting indeed if Horn merged somehow with "Silk" and struggled with this - and the denial of it - for a book-and-a-half, before Silk himself turns up... ("With hilarious results", or perhaps not). (old) newt (sadly not even remotely young anymore) (*) Mind you, I'm not at all sure that I believe Typhon's explanation (assuming that I recall it correctly). Because: a) It's not entirely rational. The idea that his followers would cheer for him after a mysterious absence followed by his reappearance as a two-headed monster seems a triumph of optimism over common sense. b) It's not entirely rational. And Typhon probably knows this. Megalomaniacs are frequently (invariably?) extremely superstitious. But he may well not want to admit this to Severian. c) Typhon seems to me to be the kind of chap who will gratuitously lie just for kicks. I.e. the anti-Oreb. He is - after all - the Satan analog. *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