(urth) Babbiehorn?: Was: a sincere question mostly for roy
James Wynn
crushtv at gmail.com
Wed Nov 16 13:20:48 PST 2011
>>
>>>> First of all, Babbie's spirit-travel body looks generally
>>>> like a man's body,
>>>> but not quite. His hands aren't really hands; his hands
>>>> have only two big
>>>> fingers, suggestive of his normal cloven hooves (RTTW,
>>>> 354). And he wears
>>>> glasses (346). Yet the spirit-traveler's body is supposed
>>>> to be a
>>>> manifestation of how that person perceives himself to be at
>>>> his core, in his
>>>> heart, if you will. Horn never wore glasses.
>>
>> Does anyone but Silk wear glasses in this story?
>
> Are you thinking Horn took a piece of Silk with him?
No. I don't agree with Marc's explanation that Horn's spirit fled
wholesale into Babbie. I think it is certain that Babbie has some Silk
in him at the time we see him wearing glasses. He surely has some Horn
in him much of the time. He's a psychic creature. It might be that the
confabulation of identities between the Rajan-Narrator and Babbie would
not be possible if the Rajan were not a Neighbor. It is very reasonable
that Horn's identity has been absorbed into Babbie the way Rose's was
absorbed by her prosthetic hands. It might not have been possible though
if it were not for the time that Neighbor-Horn and Babbie spent
together. After Horn died on Green, Babbie might represent the most
genuine presence of Horn in the whole rest of the story.
Honestly, I think Horn's soul left when he died in the pit. His body and
mind were lost on Green. All that is left of Horn (except what is in
Babbie) is his mission that the Rajan is devoted to completing and what
the Rajan remembers from his memories. And as I have said: If the
Neighbors have perfect memories, that is enough.
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