(urth) Pike's ghost

[Andrew Mason]

 I haven’t managed to read everything posted over the last couple of
weeks, so some of these points may already have been made, in which
case apologies.

What can we know about Pike’s ghost? All Wolfe has explicitly said is
that it isn’t Quetzal and it isn’t machine-generated, which leaves
many possibilities. Elsewhere, though, he did say that he had put a
ghost in one of his books to stop it being read simply as science
fiction; and Pike’s ghost is the most likely candidate for this. So
there is reason to think it’s a real ghost.

There are two bits of evidence that may be relevant to this. First,
Mucor can travel outside her body – not only to possess others, but
also to appear in disembodied form. Apart from her appearance in this
scene she does so at least twice – on a pool in the tunnels, and on
the airship. So it seems that disembodied spirits are possible.
Perhaps they create a body out of air to make themselves visible.

Secondly, though this may be rather less certain, it looks as if,
apart from the many ways the dead may be recalled – aquastors,
mainframe gods etc. –  there is a real afterlife in the solar
universe. The main evidence for this is Silk’s vision on the Aureate
Path. I take it that the ‘he’ who sends Silk’s parents is the
Outsider, which suggests that they are coming from a real heaven.

If we put these two things together, ghosts – spirits of the dead
travelling in disembodied form – certainly seem to be possible; so
Pike’s ghost in and of itself is not particularly puzzling. What is
puzzling is his turning up at the same time as Mucor and a duplicate
Oreb – a rather weird coincidence, if it is one.

Regarding Mucor, Silk (talking to Mamelta) suggests that it was in
fact she who summoned Pike’s spirit. It does not seem impossible that
she has that power – though it would be helpful if she were seen to
exercise it elsewhere. (Of course, knowing how Wolfe thinks, it’s not
impossible he saw this as an _obvious_ case of her summoning a spirit,
which might then help us to interpret less obvious cases elsewhere.) I
did once find an old theory in the archives in which Pike’s ghost
turns up again later in the work (also in connection with Mucor); but
rather sadly I decided it was unlikely to be true.

Now Oreb. I still think that, in the dark, through a curtain, Silk
_might_ have mistaken something else for Oreb; but I can’t think who
else it can be. If I remember rightly, Quetzal at this point hasn’t
been alerted to Silk’s significance. So let’s accept that it’s Oreb.
Well, since Oreb can’t fly at this moment, he must be travelling
outside his body. Might it be that Mucor gives others the power to do
so? It wouldn’t be too surprising if she could. Inhumi can travel
astrally and can also enable others to do so. Hierogrammates and
undines can walk the corridors of time and can also enable others to
do so. Again, this can be seen as a set-up for her doing the same
thing later, if a case of this can be found.