(urth) Babbie
James Wynn
crushtv at gmail.com
Thu Mar 19 04:45:50 PDT 2009
>>> Witz: You're NOT including Pas in your Trinity right? just Horn/
>>> Silk/Neighbor. Not Horn/Silk/Neighbor/Pas.
>> Chis P: At least the way I read it, Pas did not have a soul as such. He
>> was a... pattern, or a psyche (in the terminology I remember us using in
>> that particular conversation) at best. Typhon's soul stayed with Typhon.
>> Even that psyche was not exactly Typhon, because it had either changed
>> on its own or been edited to fit its new role on the ship (not to
>> mention the things that happened to it afterward).
>
> I hear you. But wouldn't that mean that Divine Silk was a pattern and
> not a soul or psyche?
> I've understood that it was Divine Silk that got into Pig and thus
> Horn/Silk.
> Unless of course, Divine Silk doesn't really factor in at all, and
> somehow Silk's soul got into Pig by some other means.
>
The question of whether Wolfe views souls as physical/wave or metaphysical
entities is still an issue of debate. He treats them as both. But think of
Abel's discussion with Mani the cat about whether he is a cat or an
elemental spirit. Abel says he is neither. For as long as they are together,
he's a new entity made up of both.
There are only three people in the Raja...and only three souls. When the
Raja takes on Silk's body and his mind, he takes on both Silk and any daemon
riding along when he died --which would not be Silk or Pas but the Silk-Pas.
This is further complicated by the fact that Pas is no longer the original
Pas either. They had to add a little bit of Silk to complete him (so Pas has
Silk's head now). Consequently, Pas himself is also Silk-Pas, so what's the
difference? (And Typhon, when Sev met him --and apparently when he was
scanned-- also consisted of two souls, right? Hmmmm...The head that was
changed in Pas was the tyrant's, not Pieton's, right?. How much of the old
Urth's calde even exists in Pas anymore? )
So, only three souls and only three Horns. But the three are not necessarily
the same three. If you are familiar with the way Wolfe weaves mythology into
his stories and characters, then you know he's quite comfortable with this
sort of double and triple -iteration.
J
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