From: Adam Stephanides <adamsteph@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: (whorl) RTTW spoilers, mea culpa
Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2001 21:59:45 +0000

on 2/13/01 8:05 PM, Kevin J. Maroney at kmaroney@ungames.com wrote:

> To me, the giveaway that there's a huge amount of Silk in "the protagonist"
> from the moment that Horn moves into his body is the amount of minutiae
> that he displays about the religion of Pas and the Children while on the
> _Whorl_. 

Indeed; and not only his knowledge, but the sententiousness with which he
dispenses it.

> I know the conversation about "what do you call it when you read the future
> from the flight of birds?" is with Pig, and I believe he does a full
> exegesis of an excerpt from the Chrasmological Writings before the scene
> Michael discusses. The Chrasmomancy in particular strikes me as being
> unmistakably Silk; in fact, while reading the novel I felt it was somewhat
> out of character for Horn to be so Silkian. I should know better.....
> 
> Anyway, refresh my memory. Does the protagonist indulge in Chrasmomancy
> before he gives his eye to Pig? If so, I'd say that's strong evidence that
> he's largely Silk from the moment they merge.

He does, in Chapter 12, with Olivine, an exegesis that takes several pages.
Very Silkian.

There are additianal signs of Silk's presence in "Horn" on the Whorl.  For
one thing, there is his strong visceral reaction to the knife he finds at
his feet (13-14).  I don't see how to explain this, other than that he
unconsciously remembers this knife injuring him.  For another, almost as
soon as "Horn" appears on Whorl, he is thinking about Hyacinth and of how
much he wanted her and how much better things would have been if he had
gotten her (this motif recurs later, though I can't find the place at the
moment).

--Adam


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