From: Dan Rabin <wolfe-lists@danrabin.com>
Subject: (whorl) [SPOILERS] In Green's Jungles, first thoughts
Date: Sat, 22 Jul 2000 23:19:07 

Spoiler space courtesy of Christopher Culver:

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Wow, that was smooth!  I found the reading to be much easier than in 
_On Blue's Waters_, which is odd because the narration is, if 
anything, more complex.  It's amazing, when I think about it after 
finishing the book, that Wolfe makes a bunch of characters sit around 
on the brink of war telling each other stories for many chapters. 
This just happen to fill in the back story and advance the plot at 
the same time.

It seems pretty daring to me that Wolfe builds up to the recognition 
scene between Horn/Silk and Auk and Chenille, and then yells "Cut!", 
only confirming our suspicions in the conversation afterwards back on 
Blue.

Even withing the conceit that Horn is writing during a war in which 
he is a leader, he seldom fills us in on events in a straight line. 
He keeps jumping ahead and back and around.  The narration reminds me 
of the 1970's US TV detective "Columbo", who affected a bumbling, 
easygoing style to disarm suspects into giving up crucial clues. 
Behind the bumbling incompetent narrator Horn, who's always 
remembering something he should have said already, is the ruthlessly 
analytical Wolfe, who knows *exactly* the conceptual order in which 
he wants events to be revealed.  That order just happens to have only 
a little to do with the internal flow of time in the story.  Perhaps 
if we reanalyze the narrative in terms of the progress of 
enlightenment (ours, Horn's, Horn's interlocutors') the series will 
turn out to be progressing in a perfectly straight line.

It seems like we're converging on a revelation of Krait's secret at 
about the rate at which we're approaching Horn's homecoming.  I would 
hazard a guess that there's a third important progression to be tied 
up:  Horn must understand by the end that he *has* brought Silk.  I 
don't know how this fits with the major new twist in IGJ, which is 
all that spirit travel.  In those scenes, the spiritual natures 
manifest as physical.  This would seem to dictate that the spirit 
(Horn in this case) should be more "real" than the body (Silk's); but 
we  also have to contend with the occasional intrusion of Silk's 
memories into Horn's consciousness.

Certainly it's becoming clear that Horn/Silk is an extraordinary 
leader who behaves much like Silk under pressure: brilliant, but 
wants to resign his position the whole time he's bringing victory.

We should have some very beautiful strangeness lying in wait for us 
in _Return to the Whorl_.

   -- Dan Rabin

P.S.  Has it occurred to anyone else that Silk "sits as the right 
head of God"?  Couldn't resist--sorry.


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