(urth) Pike's ghost

[Gerry Quinn]

From: David Stockhoff 
On 11/29/2011 1:49 PM, Gerry Quinn wrote:
> *From:* David Stockhoff mailto:dstockhoff at verizon.net

I wrote earlier:
I guess that Silk’s head would replace Piaton’s, then. But I still don’t think 
that his intended position will not be the equivalent of Piaton’s. The two-headed
aspect of the god Pas has become real.

You asked (with drum rolls) WHY I guessed or believed those things.  And I answered: 
 
Lots of reasons. Presumably Kypris doesn’t show Silk his own head gasping. 
And I don’t think she’s trying to trick him either.  Also, in RttW he seems to
play a role in Pas/Silk that is greater than Piaton’s role in Typhon/Piaton. 
And it fits with the concept of the evolution of our idea of god which Wolfe
seems to imply in the text.

> > This is so weird. An aspect of the storyline was mentioned (the 
> > relationship of Silk to Pas/Silk) and I said what I think about it. 
> > You asked me why and I told you the reasons. I didn’t think too hard 
> > about them, but they hardly qualify as “half-processed semi-random 
> > stuff” – they are pretty specific points that support the conclusion 
> > that Silk in Pas/Silk is not a new Piaton. Or do you disagree?

> Not quite. The point raised was whether anyone had any ideas about which 
> head Silk replaced (and by inference what that might mean if anything). 
Yes.  I thought, and still do, that it is obvious that if Piaton’s gasping head is generally seen when Typhon manifests, then Silk’s head will replace that one.  Kypris suggests that Silk and Typhon will be equal: “You’d be him.  And he’d be you.”  If one head were gasping in the image she shows him, it implicitly contradicts that assertion.
So, I assumed that nobody would disagree on the point of which head, and I moved on to the more interesting question of what it means. 

> You answered so I played along. Here we are. You still haven't given any 
> coherent reasons---you've made statements with no hints as to how they 
> are reasons.

Do you need everything spelled out?  I think my reasons were pretty straightforward to understand.  I think the choice of head doesn’t mean anything unless one of two things happened: (1) Silk’s head replaced the *non-gasping* head, which would indicate a near-total replacement of Typhon by Silk, or (2) Silk’s head replaced the gasping head, and was gasping itself, which would indicate Silk took on a Piaton-like role.

Neither of these two possibilities fit well with Kypris’s proposal, so I don’t think either of these are what he was shown.  Thus he must have replaced the gasping head, but not himself gasping.  Hence my answer to the original question.

This would indicate he had some approximation of equality with Original Pas, unless Kypris was lying to him.  And I *think*, though I need to re-read RttW, that her telling the truth fits with the story.  Though of course, the opposite could indicate an unpleasant interpretation for Silent/Silver Silk – i.e. that he does not appear in the Sacred Windows because he has not the power to do so.  I must confirm on my re-read that there is good evidence that Silk has a real role in New Pas.

Anyway, I hope that’s a sufficient explication.

- Gerry Quinn
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