(urth) the voice of the outsider is the conjunction of pas/kypris

[Lee Berman]

>Marc Aramini: [Silk] is probably the most morally unambiguous hero Wolfe has ever created....
>Horn is only good at all because of his respect for Silk, while the truly good Silk, guilty 
>over the demise of Horn, spends all of In Green's Jungles and Return to the Whorl denying who 
>he is so that the less noble and less righteous Horn might really still be alive
 
I personally agree about Silk. But I'm not sure Wolfe does. Or at least I suspect Wolfe has
created Silk as a symbolic expression of why outward "goodness" (and even charisma) are not
the best traits to admire.
 
This may be in debate, but I agree with those who think Silk committed suicide over 
Hyacinth's death. I once characterized Silk as a bit of a mama's boy/metrosexual and it may be
that Gene Wolfe, even if he felt he shared some of these characteristics, might not find such
traits the most admirable; more like signs of weakness (not to mention the mortal sin of suicide 
within Catholicism).
 
In contrast, Horn is, as you say, less good, less noble than Silk. But he is tougher, more
resilient. More of a survivor. Compare with Severian who is described as "a weed which grows best
when stepped upon". And perhaps more to the point, as a construction of *horn* and boiled leather.
I wouldn't be shocked if Gene Wolfe ever divulged that Horn's name was derived from that earlier 
description of Severian.
 
(are you familiar with James' theory regarding the actual tri-partite nature of SilkHorn? [apologies
to James for the "partite" I know it is supposed to be 100% of all 3)
 
 
>The sun books overarching, unifying trope beyond even salvation is that imitation begets truth.
 
I couldn't agree more. (in fact I see little evidence of true salvation anywhere in the story but
I'm not itchn' for a fight on that).
 
 
But I sense another, perhaps secondary, unifying trope: that God (gods?) is(are) too damn overwhelming
and awesome to appear in their true form to human beings. We know that Zeus had to appear in smaller
bite-sized pieces, like bulls, swans, women's husbands, etc. to carry on his affairs with human women.
He killed Dionysus' mother Semele/Thyone when forced to reveal himself in full glory to her. Likewise
the Judeo-Christian God needed to take the form of a burning bush or pillar of smoke or, I guess, Jesus
the Theanthropos?
 
Likewise we never see Abaia or Erebus in BotNS. Nor the full glory/size of Tzadkiel, imho. We just see
pieces of them in the form of undines or Zaks or godlings or.. (well, I can't mention a certain F.I. here). 
Pieces of gods interacting with humans is surely a strong theme in the Long/Short Sun stories also.
 
Marc your post got me thinking about how joinings of such pieces at a human level may be how WOlfe sees God's
work being done on Urth (and maybe Earth). It seems to offer new avenues to view some of the interactions
we see. I mentioned Severian-Apheta as one possibility. Perhaps Severian-Juturna was a failed attempt by the 
"bad guys"?