From: "Fernando Q. Gouvea" <fqgouvea@colby.edu>
Subject: Re: (whorl) [SPOILERS] In Green's Jungles, first thoughts
Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2000 12:22:05 


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Well, I just finished reading IGJ. Cost me a partly sleepless night, it
did. I thought this one was even more gripping than OBW, and at times
really moving. 

To join the conversation...

**** On Sun, 23 Jul 2000 10:29:44 -0700, Adam Stephanides <adamsteph@earthlink.net> said:

Adam> Dan Rabin wrote:

>> 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.

Adam> Of course, we don't (I didn't, anyway) feel any sense of urgency to
Adam> find out about the war, since it comes out of left field in the story
Adam> as a whole, and since Horn has very little invested in it. 

I didn't react that way at all. The stories reveal some interesting
characters, and the characters were deeply involved in the war, so I found
that I did care a great deal, though I cared more about Mora and Fava and
what would become of them. 

I thought that the way Horn ends up telling/not telling us about what
happened on Green is quite appropriate. Green is a nightmare world, and the
experience gets told in dreams and stories and nightmares, which makes
sense. 

I was fascinated by the fact that the book really is about Green's Jungles
and the hold they have on Horn's memories, which is so great that he can
actually, given the proper circumstances, take himself back in a kind of
astral projection. The central thread on which the book hangs is the
inhumi: one or another of them seems to be around all the time, and a lot
of the action and talk has to do with them.

>> 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.

Adam> Now that we know how Horn got into Silk's body (assuming it is
Adam> Silk's) the question I asked about IGJ remains: why doesn't Horn know
Adam> he's in Silk's body? 

My impression is that he does know he is in Silk's body, and maybe even
realizes that there has been some mingling of the personalities. But he is
not really Silk, just as Fava is not really an inhuma, as the "astral
projection" sections reveal. Or at least he's not completely Silk: Hide
notes that he looks much more like Horn during at least one of the
trips. On the other hand, he seems to be going to become Silk in some
sense.

It's clear that many of Wolfe's usual themes are going to be important in
this series of books too: one who has died and come back changed, the issue
of becoming the person you are meant to be, the fact that those who are
closest to being truly good are exactly those who feel they are farthest
from being good. There's a lot of Christian imagery too, from the "unknown
God" of the Neighbors to the Eucharist at the stone table.

Wolfe never ceases to amaze me. 

Fernando

-- 

Fernando Q. Gouvea                      
Department of Mathematics               Editor, FOCUS and MAA Online
Colby College                           http://www.maa.org
Waterville, ME 04901
fqgouvea@colby.edu                      http://www.colby.edu/math
==========================================================

WHERE CAN THE MATTER BE

        Oh, dear, where can the matter be
        When it's converted to energy?
        There is a slight loss of parity.
        Johnny's so long at the fair.



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