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

[Marc Aramini]

--- On Fri, 11/18/11, James Wynn <crushtv at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: James Wynn <crushtv at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: (urth) Fwd: Babbiehorn?: Was: a sincere question mostly for roy
> To: "The Urth Mailing List" <urth at lists.urth.net>
> Date: Friday, November 18, 2011, 7:05 PM
> 
> >> James, you and I see the story very
> differently.   I think Horn sacrifices
> himself at the end of oBW when he goes into babbie.
> > 
> > Yeah, I get that. But I don't see how Horn even
> _could_ have chosen to do that unless he were already far
> more than human. Anyway, I think Horn had already been
> absorbed into Babbie in the same way Rose was absorbed into
> her hands. The hus is a quite peculiar plot element, though.
> Unlike the other indigenous lifeforms of Blue, it's really
> not clear to me how his species came to get it's name. What
> Murcor intended in sending Babbie with Horn is important, I
> think.
> 
> It does say something that we approach Wolfe so similarly
> and yet come away with so variant conclusions.
> I suppose that is why he wrote the stories like that...so
> that only I would be right. ;-)

heh heh.  Well, we DO agree on some key things: a neighbor is born at the pit that is in some sense Horn, a new life form; that fava goes backwards to retrieve Hy's spirit (though once again we take that different places); that Silk has straight up killed himself, etc.

I think our readings our going in different directions on this one because I think the faerie are a secondary concern to Wolfe next to his didactic religious catholic symbols in short sun and that Horn as nieghbor seems like something from his "5th Head of Cerberus" writing period - I think this text is about a meaningful sacrifice and that Horn understands very well how the neighbors work when he sits under that tree.  You are a bit more myth oriented than I am; I can appreciate allusions but am far more likely to latch onto the ceremonies of the Catholic church and their symbolism in any Wolfe reading as the central element. "Unless you eat of this bread and drink of this blood, you shall not have life within you."  "This is my body, which shall be given up for you.  This is my blood, the blood of the new and everlasting covenant, it will be shed for you and for all so that sins may be forgiven."  I think Horn's sacrifice and the eucharistic scene are
 very very key to my understanding of Short Sun.