(urth) Babbie

[James Wynn]

>>Me: No, no, no. The Neighbor in the form of a greenbuck whom Horn was 
>>chasing
>>when he kilt hisself _became_ _Horn_: reanimating him and taking on his
>>identity. Neighbors seem to be more morally sensitive than humans because
>>the Neighbor feels such great guilt over killing Horn (as he sees it) that
>>he spends almost the entire novel coming to terms with it.
>
> Witz: Man, this is so twisted.
> what is the symbolic point of this[?]

Well, it *does* afford Wolfe the opportunity to (once again) explore the 
concept of the Trinity and to provide a rationalized example of it.
Also, Wolfe (once again) get's to provide a layer of unreliability to his 
narrator, which makes him very happy. Also, it provides an added depth to 
the story that the reader cannot get his mind around without a repeated 
reading which also makes him very happy.

>and wouldn't there be four quills in the pen
>case if Wolfe was really plotting this idea into it?

Not at all. All three are Horn and all three are riding.

> I've forgotten, how can a Neighbor be a greenbuck?

Perhaps, the same way he became Horn. Who knows? Not me. How can a Neighbor 
be a tree (remember those "sleepy" trees that Horn mentions)? Don't they 
remind you huorns? Didn't the arrangement of the Neighbors remind you of 
trees (standing and felled)? I don't know how that is.

> Does the spend the book feeling remorseful about it.
>Why wouldn't the narrator come clean.
>It seems to me like the narrator spends the book denying
>that Silk is present within him, which is why
>he starts with "facts" "My name is Horn"

Here is the post in which I explained all this the first time (causing 
barely a ripple at the time):
http://lists.urth.net/htdig.cgi/urth-urth.net/2004-December/004360.html

Horn is really confused about who _Horn_ is as well. Remember when he tells 
the story of the final destruction of Horn's body on Green?
[IGJ (HB) pg 122]
"'Was this you for real Incanto? Were you on Green? By Echidna's babies, I
think you were!'
"I shook my head and told him it had been someone else, a man whose name I
have forgotten, a man who wore a ring with a white stone. My own name is
Horn, no matter what Oreb may say."

He denies that he is Silk because he doesn't feel guilty over Silk's death. 
Silk had already killed himself when the Neighbors gave him his body and 
reanimated him as the Narrarator (let's call him 'The Raja' as Wolfe does) 
did with Horn's broken body before.

> or does a neighbor just heal him because he's not too broken,
>unlike on Green, when they can't reform so they transfer him.
>Why would a neighbor need help from another neighbor like this?

Seawrack and Babbie could plainly see that Horn was dead. I presume his neck 
was broken. Silk had bled out (or almost so) when the Raja got his body and 
memories. Those are pretty severe injuries.
Perhaps they can only reanimate a body once. Or maybe some particular part 
of Horn's body was damaged that prevented repair. Or too many parts. We're 
not told.

Perhaps, he needed help because there was no other body for him to go to. 
Maybe if he had an assisting inhumi to help him dream-travel he could have 
saved himself. I don't know. Perhaps by resurrecting Horn, the Raja tied 
himself to the fate of Horn's body without extraordinary assistance. All we 
know is what the Neighbor told the him.

> isn't he just called Neighbor-Man because of Seawrack's ring.

I'd have to look it up, but IIRC he was called Neighbor-Man by He-Pen-Sheep 
before he met with the Neighbors.

J