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On 9/14/2010 11:57 AM, Roy C. Lackey wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:005201cb542d$f01d3aa0$88d04a0c@rclackey"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Dave Tallman wrote:
> We ought to look at resemblances people really notice in the books and
see
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">what explanations are possible.
1) Silk mistakes his astral-travelling older self for Patera Pike.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap="">
I don't accept the premise. Wolfe, in that List questionnaire, said that
Pike on the stairs of the manse was a ghost. I see no reason to doubt him.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
Me either. Here's the text:<br>
<br>
4. <i>Was what Silk saw in the manteion Pike's ghost, or an
aquastor, or what?</i> <br>
– It was seen in the manse, not the manteion; it wasn't machine
made. <br>
<br>
<br>
27. <i>Is Pike's ghost really Quetzal?</i> <br>
– No.<br>
<br>
I believe in an interview, he was asked if Pike's ghost were a "real
ghost" and Wolfe replied that he was a "real ghost".<br>
<br>
<br>
The Rajan is not machine made. In fact, he is a genuine ghost in
that he is a disembodied spirit of someone who has died -- Horn and
Silk.<br>
<br>
But the figure of "Pike" vanishing in a "silver mist" simply does
not imply a "gothic" ghost. <br>
<br>
Remember that when Wolfe was answering these questions no one had
yet read "The Book of the Short Sun". Thumb through those volumes
and note how many references you get to ghosts. The Rajan twice (at
least) denies to Severian that he is a ghost. He also denies that he
the spirit of a dead man. But we, the readers, know that denial is
ironic. He has died twice...three times if you count the time Silk
died in the pit. His spirit is out of his body. The only sense that
Severian is wrong is in that he thinks they are ghosts like
Catherine Earnshaw in "Wuthering Heights". Silk does seem to sort of
encounter those types of ghosts in his dreams. Pikes ghost is just
obviously a different sort.<br>
<br>
u+16b9<br>
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