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From: "Ian Smith" <iancsmith@4unet.co.uk> Subject: (whorl) Re: Digest whorl.v011.n011 Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2000 17:29:09 +0100 Adam said: But, as I've said before, the problem isn't just that he denies being Silk. It's that he never mentions being in Silk's body, and does things which suggest that he doesn't know where Silk's body is. And I say..... Exactly. And whilst I've only read IGJ the once (on 2nd time now) and don't remember all of OBW, as far as I remember the only people who knew Silk who recognise the narrator as Silk in the two books are Auk and Colonel Abanja, and both these encounters occur during the dream shift to Green, where, as old newt notes: Hide notes that [Silk] looks much more like Horn during at least one of the trips. I think that this is simply logical (well, spirit-logical anyway). His body is 100% Silk. But his spirit is 50% Horn - hence looks more like Horn. Cf. the changed appearance of Oreb's spirit (and, for that matter, those of the inhumi). ie the narrator looks more like his spirit self (or SELVES) during the trips. Remember how Sev used to be mistaken for Thecla at times? Other people (the Gaonese, Inclito) who didn't know Silk on the whorl may well assume that a wise man with a) a talking bird, b) a stick c) who talked like Silk d) was a fantastic leader, and e) wore an Augur's robe would be that bloke from 'the book of Silk'. Yup, I'm proposing that both Horn AND Silk are occupying a third (unknown) body at the 'present of OBW and IGJ, which would explain both the narrator's lack of recognition of being in Silk's body and also his circling a physical description of Silk out of Gaon in order to 'locate' him. As I said I'm reading through again to check, and anyone with evidence against please step forward..... Ian *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