<html>
<head>
<meta content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"
http-equiv="Content-Type">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<blockquote>On 11/20/2011 7:17 PM, Gerry Quinn wrote:<br>
> [Seawrack] nows nothing about human life except that humans <br>
>die easily and are eaten. She saw it happen her human, and
she <br>
>turned away without investigating. She didn’t go down in the
pit. <br>
>How *could* she have known he was dead?<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
Well, if say his head were turned at a wrong angle. <br>
Yeah, she's no doctor. And yet she doesn't seem to doubt her
assessment even when Horn comes marching back alive.<br>
<br>
<blockquote>> Get real. She didn’t get within twenty feet of
him. <br>
>Silk thought Oreb was dead when he had him right in his hands,
<br>
>and he’s a professional animal sacrificer. Do you think Oreb
was dead then? <br>
>Smart bird! Play dead. No cut!<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
I believe Oreb was possessed. Whether he was clinically dead for a
short time is beyond our ability to discern from the text. I believe
he was close enough to dead that even an experienced augur could not
tell the difference. Pas (or whatever other god was possessing him)
did not want to be sacrificed. You're right that it doesn't make
sense that he was faking or fainted. <br>
Are you saying that a god or Neighbor was possessing Horn so he
could escape from, uh, Seawrack?<br>
<br>
<blockquote>On 11/20/2011 7:29 PM, Gerry Quinn wrote:<br>
> When the long-nose man bent over him, he was already
suffering thirst,<br>
>so if he died then it happened *after* this time, in which
case Babbie saw him alive.<br>
> How do you make sense of that? The long-nose man bends over
a Neighbour? Who and why?<br>
> When does Horn die?<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
Full text for analysis:<br>
<br>
<blockquote>***************************<br>
From OBW, end of Chapter 8, "The End"<br>
<br>
I threw my slug gun to my shoulder and was able to get off one
quick shot. The greenbuck broke stride and stumbled to its knees,
but in less than a breath it had bounded up again, cutting right
and running hard. It vanished into brush, and I sprinted after it,
all my fatigue forgotten, guided by Babbie’s agitated
hunck-hunck-bunck!<br>
Very suddenly I was falling into darkness.<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
Ambiguity is inextricable from Wolfe's stories, but I am going to
posit that he dies right here.<br>
<blockquote><br>
Here and thus baldly I had intended to end both tonight’s labor
and this whole section of my narrative. I wiped this new quill of
Oreb’s and put it away, shut up the scuffed little pen case I
found where my father must have left it in the ashes of our old
shop, and locked the drawer that holds this record, a thick sheaf
of paper already.<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
The following three sentences is why I think Horn died at this
point. I think the rest of the story is essentially told from the
POV of a new character, whom we have previously met only as a
greenbuck. In this, Wolfe has perfect the first-person ambiguity
that he had been experimenting with at least since the Fifth Head of
Cerberus. But whatever one believes, there has clear been a
traumatic break in the story. <br>
<blockquote><br>
*But it cannot be. It cannot be a mere incident like Wijzer’s
drawing his map and the rest.* <br>
*Either that fall must be the end of the entire work (which might
be wisest) or else it cannot close at all.*<br>
So let me say this to whoever may read. With that fall, the best
part of my life was over. The pit was its grave.<br>
It must be very late, but I cannot sleep. Somewhere very far away,
Seawrack is singing to her waves.<br>
*********************************<br>
<br>
***************************<br>
From OBW, from the beginning of Chapter 9, "Krait"<br>
<br>
</blockquote>
I posit that the rest of the memories are during the time Horn's
body was being repaired by the Neighbor. Thus they are memories from
Horn's perspective. But he is not truly revived yet.<br>
<blockquote><br>
When I regained consciousness it must have been almost shadelow. I
lay on my back for a long while then, occasionally opening my eyes
and shutting them again, seeing without thinking at all about
anything I saw. The sky darkened, and the stars came out. I
remember seeing Green directly above my up-turned face, and later
seeing it no longer, but only the innocent stars that had fled
before it and returned when it had gone.<br>
<br>
It was at about that time that I felt the cold. I knew I was cold
and wished that I were not. I may have moved, rubbing myself with
my hands or hugging myself and shivering; I cannot be sure.
Glittering eyes and sharp faces came and went, but I appealed for
no help and received none.<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>Sunlight warmed me. I kept my eyes closed, knowing that
it would be painful to look at the sun. It vanished, and I opened
them to see what had become of it, and saw Babbie’s familiar,
hairy mask peering at me over the edge of the pit. I closed them
again, and the next time I opened them he had gone.<br>
I think it was not long afterward that I came to myself. I sat up,
cold, full of pain, and terribly thirsty.<br>
<br>
[...]<br>
<br>
This is what I least wished to write about last night, but I am
<!--203-->going to try to write it down this evening. Once, as I
lay there at the bottom of the pit, it seemed to me that a man
with a long nose (a tall man or an immense spider) stood over me.
I did not move or even open my eyes, knowing that if I did he
would be gone. He touched my forehead with something he held, and
the pit vanished. <br>
</blockquote>
<br>
This fellow with the prominent nose is our narrator. When this scene
occurs is not stated. Perhaps it occurred in the seconds before Horn
died. It might have occurred after Horn was repaired but just as the
Neighbor took the final act to reanimate him. For the sake of
argument, I'll say the former.<br>
<blockquote>****************************************<br>
</blockquote>
</body>
</html>