(urth) silver glass

[StoneOx17 at aol.com]

Marc <aramini1 at cox.net> writes:

> Hmmm - here is my attempt to provide textual 
> evidence. This is chapter 18 of Return to 
> the whorl, the first couple of pages (I have 
> the SFBC edition with me, so the page numbers 
> are off).

> They fix Pigs eye.  "The room had darkened as 
> he spoke, the lights on the ceiling fading to 
> mere specks of gold; he looked at the glass 
> and saw the nurse manipulating a control."

> After the first break in the chapter:
> "When the nurses glass had faded to 
> silver-gray, Pig ventured, "Yer gang ter 
> stay wit'me, bucky?""

> And then, later: "Something in Pig's face had 
> changed.  He said, "And in the third, Horn?'
> 'Patera!'
> Oreb whistled shrilly.
> 'I would be a positive danger to you,' Pig said. 
> 'Strength and a stout heart are hazardous 
> qualities where they cannot prevail.'
> 'Yes.' He wiped his eyes.
> Naked and subtly altered, the face was 
> still Pig's; Silk's well-remembered voice 
> issued from its lips. 'Still, you would take 
> me if you could.'
> 'Yes. Yes. I would.  If we reached New Viron, 
> I would not have failed.  Or even if you 
> reached it alone.'
> 'You do not wish to fail.' Pig's big hand 
> tightened on his.
> He said, 'I would give my life not to fail,' 
> and meant it.
> 'You already have.'"

> There is a monitor in the lander that blurs 
> around the mouth, and calls the passenger Silk.

> So here is my idea: Silver Silk in Pig, 
> identified as Patera by Silk's Body, speaks 
> to Horn in this passage and calls him Horn.  
> He then realizes that Horn has given up his 
> corporeal body to salvage Silk, and that Horn 
> wants to take the Silk in Pig back with him. 
>   Would Silver Silk abandon the persona of Horn,
> or would he go back to Blue with him, after he 
> realizes that "[Horn] would take [Silk] if he 
> could."

Pretty convincing.  Especially when combined 
with the fact that the neighbors said something
to the effect (I don't have my copy here ... in
fact, I believe I've given it away, so I may 
have to buy another one to reread it with this
revelation in mind) that Horn was being put into
a man's body whose spirit was dying.  So let me
recapitulate, and maybe change things around a
little.  So what you're saying is that when 
Horn reached the Whorl (in Silk's former body), 
Silk's was already dead.  But a part of Silk's 
psyche had been uploaded and incorporated into 
Pas, and another part had been subsequently 
downloaded to Pig, who was blinded.  When Pig 
gets his new eye, the part of Silk in Pig is 
uploaded into Mainframe, and knows that Horn
is looking for Silk, so downloads back into
Horn-in-Silk's-body, maybe revitalizing a part
of Silk's psyche that somehow remained there.  

The only question I have left is: if the Silk
in Horn's body is Silver Silk, and not the 
near-dead psyche of Silk, why did it take 
three books for the narrator to realize that 
he was really Silk? 

-- 
Stone Ox (Peter)