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<blockquote cite="mid:A5059297D2A84745B534CC028F5237CF@jill"
type="cite">
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Also, if a Neighbour replaced
Horn in the pit, how did he know Krait would come? If Krait
(character list: the inhuma who was adopted by Horn) hadn't
come, it seems he would have lain there for ever and died -
died again, according to your theory.</font></div>
</blockquote>
<br>
I'll answer this, however, one might as well speculate what are the
odds Krait (very coincidentally ensouled by Horn's son) would find
Horn in that pit after he had lain "unconscious" there for three
days? Does Krait KNOW he is, in a sense, Sinew? Understanding that
Dorcas is Severian's grandmother did not answer every open question
about Sev's lineage. I'm don't claim that simply understanding that
the Rajan's spirit is a Neighbor--the greenbuck Horn was hunting
when he died--that every question regarding the Book of the Short
Sun will be resolved. Believing that Horn did NOT die in the pit has
its own unresolved mysteries. <br>
<br>
<blockquote cite="mid:A5059297D2A84745B534CC028F5237CF@jill"
type="cite">
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Unless the Neighbour had planned
it all with Krait (and their conversation seems to make it
doubtful) why would the Neighbour engage in such a pointless
exercise, effectively killing his own spirit for no good
reason?</font></div>
</blockquote>
<br>
First and foremost, there is no evidence that the Neighbor was
animated by a specific *plan* in resurrecting Horn. He did what he
did out of guilt for causing Horn's death. After that, after he
becomes HORN, he is driven to complete Horn's mission to expiate his
sense of guilt. I know of no point where the Rajan records mentally
working out: "I have to get Silk's body back to New Viron to
complete Horn's mission." But that is just what the Rajan
does--animated by the spirit inside him.<br>
<br>
As for "killing his own spirit", consider the example of Mani. The
Neighbor, in greenbuck-form is a spiritual being like the humans and
inhumi during dream-travel, He was not in any danger of "killing his
spirit". His body is surely sleeping safely somewhere, and if you
deny that the Neighbors have such bodies, then they are still
spiritual beings. If HORN had not been able to escape the pit, then
Horn's body MIGHT have faced such damage that the Neighbor would
have to abandon it, OR maybe not. It is clear that the Rajan, in
Silk's body, doesn't really need food --or not not much-- until
Spring. Although HORN was very thirsty, it is quite possible he
could have survived easily until the next rain. Given time and
unknown Neighborly powers, he might very well have been expected to
escape the pit by other means.<br>
<br>
At this point, you can deduce some of my answers to the questions,
"Didn't the Neighbor know that? So, how could he allow himself to be
'tamed' by Krait?" No, there is no reason that Neighbor would have
known that he would face such a horrific thirst when he resurrected
Horn's body. Because of a) what I explain in *Point 1* and b) a
Neighbor-Human union had never happened before as far as we know.
Nor would the Neighbor have been subconsciously steeled by the fact
that if Horn's body died, he himself would live on. From the moment
of his resurrection, his intent was to live on and complete Horn's
mission. Had he been perfectly willing for Horn's body to die, he
would not have resurrected it in the first place. <br>
<br>
<i>Therefore my heart is glad and my _tongue_ rejoices; my body also
will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the grave [or
hades], nor will you let your Holy One _see decay_ . [from the
Hebrew 'shachath', literally</i><i>, "leave him in the pit"]. ~
Psalm 16:9-10 (well-known Messianic prophecy)</i><br>
<br>
Finally, recall the corollary to Veil's Law (tFHoC). If it was the
Neighbor's intent to BE Horn..that Horn not have died (and that
appears to appears to be his prime motivation for most of his
story)... then he must deny--consciously-- his Neighbor-nature. He
would never speak of the Neighbors with certitude, because Horn
would not have that knowledge. Horn in the pit is like V.R.T in his
jail cell. But then, he might not have all knowledge about Neighbors
and their history because such knowledge might not be universally
known by all Neighbors. <br>
<br>
u+16b9<br>
<br>
PS This discussion brings to mind an old song:<br>
<br>
<i>"He weren't no universal principle. He weren't no universal mind.<br>
He weren't no New Romantic snowing us that love is blind.<br>
He never told us that he was invincible. He never sold us on his
X-ray eyes.<br>
Never came off like some extraterrestrial hanging out in human
disguise.<br>
Flesh and blood. He weren't no phantom.<br>
Flesh and blood. He weren't no ghost."</i><br>
~ Steve Scott, "Flesh and Blood"
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