(urth) A second dream team: Mucor, Oreb, and Pike

[Dave Tallman]

James,

I actually did note that theory in my post, very briefly, as dismissed 
it as follows:

> Silk astral-projecting through time would also not look enough
> like Pike to be mistaken for him by Silk, who knew the man well. The most
> likely case is a real ghost.

Perhaps I was too hasty. We have evidence that an astral-projecting Silk 
can be mistaken for other people if their minds are prepared by memories 
and pre-suppositions. Severian mistook him for the ghost of Malrubius, 
even though Sev knew the other man well as his teacher. Silk was 
prepared to see Patera Pike because of the memories stirred up by the 
creaking of Pike's bed, so he too could have been mistaken.

The explanation that the flying Oreb was also an astral projection is a 
good one. Oreb appeared smaller and more bird-like without Scylla, as we 
see in RttW when Scylla separated herself from him.

There's another odd case -- in IGG when Silk/Horn first visited Green in 
astral form, the enslaved Auk seemed to recognize him, saying "You'd 
better beat the hoof, Patera." He shouldn't have looked enough like Silk 
at that stage to be instantly recognizable. Perhaps his astral-form 
clothing was an auger's garment, and Auk just called him Patera because 
of that. It could also be Auk's power to understand how things work when 
he sees them -- the explanation I used for Auk's unexpected ability to 
astral-project himself.

Much of my earlier post was devoted to the presence of Quetzal, a theory 
which I now believe is wrong. When Quetzal told Remora about the 
incident where he "went wide" he said it happened "yesterday." He didn't 
expect Remora to understand him so he had no reason to lie. The timing 
of a re-visit to Teasel can be no earlier than Molpesday night, long 
after the Pike apparition. Before Quetzal saw that writing on the wall 
he would have no reason to attack Silk, even if the inhumi did kill Pike 
(which I still think is plausible).
> Dave,
>
> I'm coming very late to this, but no one ever responded to your original post.
>
> I find it interesting that you specifically noted the additional understanding to be gained from tBotSS regarding Pike's ghost yet failed to note another fairly obvious explaination which I suggest you consider: that the Pike's ghost was the Raja (aka Silkhorn) in spirit-travel.
>
> Reasons for believing this:
>
>   1.. The appearance of a second Oreb with a healed wing which faded away as he flew off.
>   -
>   2.. The ghost interacts with Pike's callotte which drops to the floor after he fades. This is behavior very unlike a gothic ghost, but comports well with the physics of a spirit-traveling person.
>   -
>   3.. Yes, this would mean that a spirit-traveller would have to be able to travel in time as well. But there are many reasons to be convinced that this is so. The grandmother (in In Green's Jungles IIRC) ends her story with a description of the Raja and Oreb standing by a grave. The easiest explanation of this is that the Raja heard the grandmother's story and was prompted to go back in Time and do it. And in RttW, when Horn's sons describe when they left home, it is clear that there is something seriously wrong with the timeline.
>   -
>   4.. Wolfe says it was a "real ghost". Well, the Raja during spirit travel IS a real ghost (meeting the Raja's definition of one): He is a disembodied spirit of a person who has died.
> Reasons people don't like this:
>
> I think the main one that bugs people is that it means that Silk mistook himself 20 years later for Pike. I don't have a problem with this at all. It works just fine with me.  But considering the insufficiency of all the other explanations, and that this is the only one that causes the event to be part of the general narrative, rather than a bizarre "one off". I think readers are compelled to accept that Pike's ghost was the Raja and to grapple with Silk's misapprehension however they will.
>
> J
>