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

[Gerry Quinn]

From: David Stockhoff 
> On 11/17/2011 7:51 AM, Gerry Quinn wrote:

> > I don’t *think* he is lying (for some reason “no hop” convinces me 
> > most). But I would accept it before I accepted a time-travelling Silk 
> > who snatches Mucor out of the ether and comes back looking exactly 
> > like an aged Pike, wearing Pike’s hat.

> > If you want a wacky theory that’s less wacky than the above, consider 
> > that the technology to project ghosts is known to exist on the Whorl. 
> > Maybe some god sent a flier down to Silk’s window with a projection 
> > device. Mucor was just visiting, but as becomes clear later she’s 
> > hovering around Silk all the time anyway, so that’s no surprise.

> > Or maybe Mucor found Silk by possessing a bird, then released it to 
> > appear in astral form while the bird flew away. What about Pike who 
> > comes along later? A ghost sent by the Outsider, perhaps, signalling 
> > that Silk (who was sent, or so he believes, to help Pike) is on the 
> > right track.

> > Of course, none of these theories are terribly convincing. I 
> > personally find them more convincing than James’s theory, though, even 
> > if they do depend on separate series of events leading to denouments 
> > in Silk’s bedroom.

> It's interesting that you go to greater lengths in making up straw-man 
> theories with which to mock others' attempts at explanation than you are 
> in creating explanations you can actually believe in yourself.

Those aren’t straw-man theories.  The Daleks of Saltimbanque Street was a joke theory.  But Fr. Inire as the Botanic Gardens just took seriously Lee’s ideas about a battle between giant beings who bud off pieces of themselves, combined with Marc’s ideas about animated vegetables.   If the result appears silly, that may not be entirely the fault of the working out.

The theories above make some kind of sense.  More sense, IMO, than a 43-year old one-eyed Silk travelling back in time with Mucor and looking exactly like a 70+ year old Pike.  Who is never indicated to look anything like Silk, and whose son is Blood, who doesn’t appear to look like Silk either.


> If you 
> want to think that was actually Pike's ghost, go right ahead. Just a 
> coincidence that a ghost, an astral Oreb, and a demented teenager appear 
> to Silk within minutes of one another.

We know why Mucor is there, and her possession of a bird to find Silk is surely more reasonable than time travel!  Or the bird could be Oreb, or Silk could have imagined a bird when the curtains blew near an open window on a windy night.  I think something of this kind, combined with a separate visitation by Pike’s ghost, who seems to be clearly Pike’s ghost regardless of what magic or technology caused his appearance, is the best explanation so far, even if it’s not a terribly good one.

But I’m prepared to wait.  Perhaps some better ideas will turn up.  I prefer to do without a theory than accept an impossible one.


> Not important at all---Wolfe is a notoriously sloppy author who 
> constantly gets his plot threads mixed up. The real question 
> is---where's dream-Severian? He must be hiding in the pantry!

With Orion?

I’m not generally given to postulating dream-Severians and such.

- Gerry Quinn
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