(urth) Silk/Horn in the Matachin Tower

DAVID STOCKHOFF dstockhoff at verizon.net
Wed Feb 6 06:58:59 PST 2013


Exactly---both those reasons.


And also, because of the sheer scale of the project, it's not like Typhon, upon waking, is going to ask after the Whorls. How would he even phrase such a question to make sense to a stranger? 


"What of my Whorls? Has there been any word from the Fomalhaut expedition?" That has a wonderful pulpy feel, but wouldn't have been right, and would prove a much, much tighter connection than we understand to be possible.


Plus, Typhon may well have been able to mentally "detect" that Severian didn't know anything on the topic.




>________________________________
> From: Antonin Scriabin <kierkegaurdian at gmail.com>
>To: The Urth Mailing List <urth at lists.urth.net> 
>Sent: Wednesday, February 6, 2013 9:30 AM
>Subject: Re: (urth) Silk/Horn in the Matachin Tower
> 
>
>I also thought (I can't remember quite why) that Typhon sent out more than one, possibly many, Whorls.  I might be totally wrong about this, but if it was something of a major campaign of colonization, with many ships, he might be less likely to mention one specifically.  Also, if the events of the Short Sun and Long Sun are occurring at the same time, with no time travel shenanigans, then Typhon launched the Whorl a long time ago relative to his awakening, which is another reason he might not mention it to Severian.
>
>
>
>
>On Wed, Feb 6, 2013 at 9:27 AM, David Stockhoff <dstockhoff at verizon.net> wrote:
>
>I'm not sure why a reference to the Whorl would be needed. Although that would certainly nail it down, Wolfe characters often don't mention important things when speaking to one another, because they have no motivation to do so. So the absence of a remark doesn't tell us much.
>>
>>
>>On 2/6/2013 9:15 AM, Antonin Scriabin wrote:
>>
>>The scene where Severian brings Silk/Horn writing implements seems to be a one-on-one conversation. Silk/Horn presumably gets Severian started writing his own memoir after giving him some writing tips.
>>>
>>>
Also, I don't necessarily think that Typhon would have mentioned the /Whorl/. Is it too much to ask for Silk/Horn traveling both in space and time when visiting Urth?
>>>
>>>
>>>On Wed, Feb 6, 2013 at 9:07 AM, Gerry Quinn <gerry at bindweed.com <mailto:gerry at bindweed.com>> wrote:
>>>
>>>    *From:* Antonin Scriabin <mailto:kierkegaurdian at gmail.com>
>>>    > 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.
>>>    Gurloes used to ‘talk to’ (or taunt, who knows) the mad clients in
>>>    the lowest floor. But I don’t recall any mention of Severian ever
>>>    encountering several clients held together, and Silk/Horn was
>>>    always with a group.
>>>
>>>    I don’t believe any such thesis is feasible. Typhon would have had
>>>    to make a reference – albeit perhaps oblique - to launching the
>>>    Whorl. Anything else would be, in Wolfe’s terms, “lame” – just as
>>>    he said it would have been lame not to have Silk/Horn visit Severian.
>>>
>>>    - Gerry Quinn
>>>
>>>
>>>    _______________________________________________
>>>    Urth Mailing List
>>>
    To post, write urth at urth.net <mailto: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/20130206/63e5dfbe/attachment-0004.htm>


More information about the Urth mailing list