(urth) Silk/Horn in the Matachin Tower

[DAVID STOCKHOFF]

With Wolfe, I find that "stapled" things are often otherwise the most deeply buried, fundamental truths. Consider UOTNS, even granting that it must contain some creative ornamentation (such as the nature of Apheta and her world).

Yes, if you miss the signs---as I did at first---Typhon's appearance in LS seems arbitrary. But you have described the work Wolfe did (and requires of us) to put him in.

SS definitely feels less "literary." I'd like to ascribe this to the personalities of the "writers," but perhaps also to Wolfe's decreasing need to keep explaining things and find ways to explain the same things. Much of the understory involves "ghosts" of a type that are not prominent in NS but do feature in LS. We're supposed to largely "get it" by that point. And that's perhaps why I find SS to be the most baffling of them all.




>________________________________
> From: Antonin Scriabin <kierkegaurdian at gmail.com>
>To: The Urth Mailing List <urth at lists.urth.net> 
>Sent: Wednesday, February 6, 2013 9:38 AM
>Subject: Re: (urth) Silk/Horn in the Matachin Tower
> 
>
>Perhaps "tacked on" was a bit too harsh.  Let's just say that I find Short Sun to be quite a bit less mysterious than its predecessors, and the insertion of Nessus, the Matachin Tower, etc., adds to that impression.  Starting off Long Sun for example, mysteries abound. What is the Whorl?  What time is it?  Who/what are the gods?  Cards?  The Writings? How big is the Whorl?  Etc., etc., etc.  It took a lot of time, allusion, and build-up to get there, so when the "Typhon is Pas" moment did come, it completely blew me away.  By the time the Short Sun rolls around, however, we know all these things, and additionally we know the connection between the Red Sun Whorl and the rest of the elements of Long Sun.  The mysteries of Blue and Green are never presented in a way that made me beyond eager to find our their solutions ... they seem less fun in comparison to the other works, partially because we seem to spend quite a bit less time on them than we
 did on board the Whorl.  I suppose the focus of Short Sun is intentionally much different, so perhaps it is my fault for expecting more Long and New?
>
>
>
>
>On Wed, Feb 6, 2013 at 9:29 AM, <entonio at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>I don't think that Wolfe had thought out the specifics  of the latter books when he was writing NS. even if he had, it would have been very strange, or even disappointing, if they hadn't changed beyond recognition by the time he wrote LS, to the point that they would be more of a constraint than a foundation (of course one or two specifics wouldn't be out of the question, but more than that seems difficult to me).
>>But I must disagree that the Red Whorl chapters are stapled on SS. They appear near the end, at a point LS/SS had no commercial need at all of a connection to NS. It is there for a purpose, not as an afterthought. 
>>One may look at it the reverse way: rewrite NS without Typhon. It barely seems to change. Then view Typhon as a stapled in reference to the latter books. 
>>
>>António
>>
>>
>>
>>No dia 06/02/2013, às 14:01, Antonin Scriabin <kierkegaurdian at gmail.com> escreveu:
>>
>>
>>It also isn't quite clear to me what Silk/Horn looks like at this point in the story (I am just nearing the end of Return to the Whorl for the first time), so that might be hampering my ability to figure this out.  I would really love for it to have been somewhat planned from the beginning, rather than just tacked on ... these really overt references to TBONS are taking away from my enjoyment of Short Sun a bit.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>On Wed, Feb 6, 2013 at 8:56 AM, Daniel Petersen <danielottojackpetersen at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>I seriously doubt he did.  But I'm open to seeing someone convincingly connect that up.  -DOJP
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>On Wed, Feb 6, 2013 at 1:52 PM, Antonin Scriabin <kierkegaurdian at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>Is there indication in The Book of the New Sun that any of the clients at the time of Severian's childhood might in fact be Silk/Horn?  If Wolfe had the vision and plan for the "Solar Cycle" in this depth back while writing TBONS, that would be most impressive.
>>>>>
>>>>>_______________________________________________
>>>>>Urth Mailing List
>>>>>To post, write urth at urth.net
>>>>>Subscription/information: http://www.urth.net
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>-- 
>>>>Daniel Otto Jack Petersen 
>>>>_______________________________________________
>>>>Urth Mailing List
>>>>To post, write urth at urth.net
>>>>Subscription/information: http://www.urth.net
>>>>
>>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>>Urth Mailing List
>>>To post, write urth at urth.net
>>>Subscription/information: http://www.urth.net
>>_______________________________________________
>>Urth Mailing List
>>To post, write urth at urth.net
>>Subscription/information: http://www.urth.net
>>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Urth Mailing List
>To post, write urth at urth.net
>Subscription/information: http://www.urth.net
>
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.urth.net/pipermail/urth-urth.net/attachments/20130206/ada40972/attachment-0001.htm>