From: "Alice Turner" <al@interport.net>
Subject: (whorl) Silk vis a vis God
Date: Sun, 6 Apr 1997 12:05:17 


[Posted from WHORL, the mailing list for Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun]


With regard to the identity of the Outsider, let me remind you of Lake,
285, where Silk is telling Crane about his enlightenment:

"Voices...One spoke into each ear most of the time. One was very
masculine--not falsely deep, but solid, as if a mountain of stone were
speaking. The other was feminine, a sort of gentle cooing; yet both voices
were his...I believe, too, that the Outsider has a great many more voices
as well. I could hear them in back of me at times, although indistinctly.
It was as if a crowd were waiting behind me while its leaders whispered in
my ears; but as if the crowd was actually all one person, somehow: the
Outsider...."

If that isn't Severian, I'll eat my mouse.

Dr. Gouvea, assuming you've already rejected Porcupine and Hedgehog, the
obvious choices for your Vironese alias, what about Tanrec or Tenrec
(alternate spellings)? It's a spiny native of Madagascar. Or you could try
Porpentine--I think that's from Othello, and most melodious.

Hush yo' mouf, mantis.

-alga-