URTH |
From: Jonathan Dale <jdale@fla.fujitsu.com> Subject: (whorl) Divine Silk and Pas - Perhaps spoiler? Date: Wed, 7 Feb 2001 16:01:11 Hi, Having just finished RTTW and being new to this list, the following questions may already have been answered in the current yet-to-be-published digest! Apologies, if so. I was quite astounded by the end of RTTW; not so much the question of identity regarding Horn and Silk, but more the chronology of what happens when; Wolfe manages to masterfully obscure the precise ordering of events until the very end (I managed to get hints by seeing when Horn/Silk possessed the azoth). Anyway, at the end, I had a number of questions (too many to list), but the most important one are (which I'd like to solicit comments from the list on): 1. When Horn/Silk meets and talks to Pig the first time aboard the Whorl, there is a passage where the Divine Silk reveals himself in Pig. For a moment Horn (I guess since he's newly transferred into Silk's body) is overcome because he recognises the voice of the Patera. I guess that I was a little confused by this because the Divine Silk sounds exactly like the real Silk; what I can infer from this is that the Divine Silk possessed the real Silk at some point during the Long Sun series and that is why they share the same characteristics? Would people agree on this or am I missing something? 2. Perhaps this is related to the first question, but who is Passilk? My two inferences are: a) either Pas and the Divine Silk are the same and Pas has been directing things for some time through the real Silk, or b) Pas and Silk are two gods of mainframe 3. What is the list of people who are (or who have been) possessed by gods of mainframe. My list comprises (currently): a) Silk (Passilk) b) Pig (Passilk) c) Oreb (Scycla) d) Hyacynth (Krypris?) Any others? Once I started adding up who had been possessed by whom, the books seemed to be much more related to the ongoing struggle of the gods of mainframe begun in the Long Sun series. 4. Is the nature of the azoth revealed anywhere but when Horn/Silk cuts the boat in two in RTTW? What is the speculation on this - that it is some kind of shaped antimatter beam? Also, what's the relationship to the black blade that the Neighbour chooses for Horn when he has to clear the sewer - is it some strange precursor to the fact that he will one day get the azoth? 5. Given the nature of the inhumi/human symbiosis secret, I was unclear on the exact specifics of how children were created; in one part of RTTW, the process of inhumi mating is clearly explained and somewhere in IGJ Fava explains about breaking out of the egg, etc., but I was unclear from where the mind was drawn. Is it that a primal inhumi takes on the mind from the first victim (which would explain Krait and Sinew) or is it more related to who the parents were? Comments appreciated. Jonathan +------------------------------------------------------------------+ | "To do nothing is a talent, one I have not got. I have known a | | few people who possessed it to a superlative degree, as one of | | my scribes here does. They can, if they wish, sit or even stand | | for hours without occupation and without thought. Their eyes | | are open and they see the whorl before them, but see it only as | | the eyes of potatoes do." -- On Blue's Waters, Gene Wolfe | +------------------------------------------------------------------+ *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