(urth) Babbiehorn?: Was: a sincere question mostly for roy

[Gerry Quinn]

From: Marc Aramini 
Sent: Friday, November 18, 2011 2:44 AM
To: The Urth Mailing List 
Subject: [BGSpam]Re: (urth) Babbiehorn?: Was: a sincere question mostly for roy



      --- On Thu, 11/17/11, James Wynn <crushtv at gmail.com> wrote:

        Fairly interesting James.  The way that I read him is I look for identity statements that seem impossible the first time through, and then note any confusing disjunctions between dialogue and character or any confusing scenes.  Then I extensively cross reference them.  Every appearance of wind, or tree, or horn, or pig, for example.  I rely on the patterns of the text to spit out a meaning in conjunction - sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn't.  
      I wouldn’t go so far as to say I have a ‘method’ as such.  Insofar as I do it is probably closer to Marc’s than to James’s.  I really do not care at all about any classical referents of names he has chosen for his characters, and not too much about the referents of their actions or stories (though the latter, unlike the names, I consider meaningful, i.e. probably intended).  [By which I mean, if a character is named Thesop and he sees a spider, I pay no heed to the matter, but I can spot a minotaur even if he doesn’t have horns.]  Also, I think Wolfe’s references are generally not very deep or obscure.  Be that as it may, I don’t really look in any of the foregoing for understanding of the books.

      I mainly look at events and metaphor, perhaps in that order.  Character should be more important, but character in Wolfe must be deduced, which weakens it as a primary source.  Character, to some extent, falls in the category of explanations for events.  I try to understand events, and I put down events I don’t understand as mysteries to be solved. I’ve started my re-read of Short Sun, but I’m only 4 chapters into it, so I am still in the relatively simple scene-setting phase.  Still there is much information, and a number of mysteries.  I try to read carefully, especially where I know mysteries will come later.

      Some musings: Horn is writing as Horn, but he’s in Silk’s body and he knows it.  There is a suggestion that he Horn had a death wish from the start: “time to close” (shades of the airship?).  He also even tells us that ”my own interior sight refuses to focus upon matters I find agonizing”, and mentions his glasses and having to find paint for the lens (over his missing eye).  There’s an interesting metaphor relating to a black cock killed by Pike, spraying blood over the room as if that would keep him alive.  That’s Horn and his writing, I think.  He searches for Silk as much as he dares (though not by sending letters, which he himself declares a farce) but if he finds him he (Horn) will be gone.  When he runs out of ink he’ll be gone anyway.

      Horn identifies the Outsider with the Maker of all things, including “Pas and his wife”.

      Some mysteries, not exhaustive: Why does Mucor say that Silk says Horn’s visit will be dangerous for Silk and Hyacinth, and did Silk actually say it?  And which Silk?  What is the beast with three horns?  Horn says he was riding it at the time he was fatally wounded on Green, so it *sounds* like something that will answer itself.  Of course, “fatally wounded” could be ambiguous in the context of Horn.  I kind of like Marc’s idea about Babbie, but does it fit this, or is Horn wrong in his identification?  I shan’t read ahead for now.

      Who sent the fish on the rock?  My first thought was that Mucor possessed them and made them kill themselves, as she surely could do (but maybe not three at once?).  Horn suggests that she is getting help from someone underwater nearby, and I suppose we should take the hint.  Maybe it’s not that important, just a hint about the existence of the Mother.

      What’s the Vanished God’s altar on Howling Mountain – will we visit it?  And will the Vanished Gods help humanity?

      Anyway, those are the things foremost in my mind at the moment.

      - Gerry Quinn













     
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