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<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=dstockhoff@verizon.net
href="mailto:dstockhoff@verizon.net">David Stockhoff</A> </DIV>
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On 11/17/2011 7:51 AM, Gerry Quinn wrote:<BR><BR><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">> </FONT>> I don’t *think* he is lying
(for some reason “no hop” convinces me <BR><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">> </FONT>> most). But I would accept it
before I accepted a time-travelling Silk <BR><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">> </FONT>> who snatches Mucor out of the
ether and comes back looking exactly <BR><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">> </FONT>> like an aged Pike, wearing
Pike’s hat.</DIV></DIV>
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<DIV style="font-color: black"><BR><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">>
</FONT>> If you want a wacky theory that’s less wacky than the above,
consider <BR><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">> </FONT>> that the
technology to project ghosts is known to exist on the Whorl. <BR><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">> </FONT>> Maybe some god sent a flier
down to Silk’s window with a projection <BR><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">> </FONT>> device. Mucor was just
visiting, but as becomes clear later she’s <BR><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">> </FONT>> hovering around Silk all the
time anyway, so that’s no surprise.</DIV>
<DIV style="font-color: black"><BR><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">>
</FONT>> Or maybe Mucor found Silk by possessing a bird, then released it to
<BR><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">> </FONT>> appear in astral
form while the bird flew away. What about Pike who <BR><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">> </FONT>> comes along later? A ghost
sent by the Outsider, perhaps, signalling <BR><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">> </FONT>> that Silk (who was sent, or
so he believes, to help Pike) is on the <BR><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">> </FONT>> right track.</DIV>
<DIV style="font-color: black"><BR><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">>
</FONT>> Of course, none of these theories are terribly convincing. I
<BR><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">> </FONT>> personally find
them more convincing than James’s theory, though, even <BR><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">> </FONT>> if they do depend on separate
series of events leading to denouments <BR><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">> </FONT>> in Silk’s
bedroom.</DIV></DIV>
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<DIV style="font-color: black"><BR><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">>
</FONT>It's interesting that you go to greater lengths in making up straw-man
<BR><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">> </FONT>theories with which to
mock others' attempts at explanation than you are <BR><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">> </FONT>in creating explanations you can
actually believe in yourself.</DIV>
<DIV style="font-color: black"> </DIV>
<DIV style="font-color: black">Those aren’t straw-man theories. The Daleks
of Saltimbanque Street was a joke theory. But Fr. Inire as the Botanic
Gardens just took seriously Lee’s ideas about a battle between giant beings who
bud off pieces of themselves, combined with Marc’s ideas about animated
vegetables. If the result appears silly, that may not be entirely
the fault of the working out.</DIV>
<DIV style="font-color: black"> </DIV>
<DIV style="font-color: black">The theories above make some kind of sense.
More sense, IMO, than a 43-year old one-eyed Silk travelling back in time with
Mucor and looking exactly like a 70+ year old Pike. Who is never indicated
to look anything like Silk, and whose son is Blood, who doesn’t appear to look
like Silk either.</DIV>
<DIV style="font-color: black"> </DIV>
<DIV style="font-color: black"> </DIV>
<DIV style="font-color: black"><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">>
</FONT>If you <BR><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">> </FONT>want to
think that was actually Pike's ghost, go right ahead. Just a <BR><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">> </FONT>coincidence that a ghost, an
astral Oreb, and a demented teenager appear <BR><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">> </FONT>to Silk within minutes of one
another.</DIV>
<DIV style="font-color: black"> </DIV>
<DIV style="font-color: black">We know why Mucor is there, and her possession of
a bird to find Silk is surely more reasonable than time travel! Or the
bird could be Oreb, or Silk could have imagined a bird when the curtains blew
near an open window on a windy night. I think something of this kind,
combined with a separate visitation by Pike’s ghost, who seems to be clearly
Pike’s ghost regardless of what magic or technology caused his appearance, is
the best explanation so far, even if it’s not a terribly good one.</DIV>
<DIV style="font-color: black"> </DIV>
<DIV style="font-color: black">But I’m prepared to wait. Perhaps some
better ideas will turn up. I prefer to do without a theory than accept an
impossible one.</DIV>
<DIV style="font-color: black"><BR><BR><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">> </FONT>Not important at all---Wolfe is a
notoriously sloppy author who <BR><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">>
</FONT>constantly gets his plot threads mixed up. The real question <BR><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">> </FONT>is---where's dream-Severian? He
must be hiding in the pantry!</DIV>
<DIV style="font-color: black"> </DIV>
<DIV style="font-color: black">With Orion?</DIV>
<DIV style="font-color: black"> </DIV>
<DIV style="font-color: black">I’m not generally given to postulating
dream-Severians and such.</DIV>
<DIV style="font-color: black"> </DIV>
<DIV style="font-color: black">- Gerry
Quinn</DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>