From: Alex David Groce <Alex_Groce@gs246.sp.cs.cmu.edu>
Subject: (whorl) Paul, Silk, and Horn (and Moses)
Date: Mon, 18 Oct 1999 12:54:37 

Here we go:

Galatians 4:13-15:
--
13 As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel 
to you. 14 Even though my illness was a trial to you, you did not treat me 
with contempt or scorn. Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God,
as if I were Christ Jesus himself. 15 What has happened to all your joy? I can
testify that, if you could have done so, you would have torn out your eyes and
given them to me.
--

Now, it seems likely that with the set-up of Maytera Marble's blindness and
Horn's quest for her, and the fact that "Horn" in his new body is missing an
eye, we will probably have an example of someone tearing out their eyes and
giving them to someone else coming up in the future of SHORT SUN.

It seems like this is a reversal of the passage above, where 15 is what has
given rise to the suggestion that Paul's illness was some kind of vision 
problem.  Horn is the St. Paul figure here, and is probably going to give up
his own eye for Marble's eye at some point.  On the other hand, if it is Silk's
body that Horn is in, perhaps this happened before Horn came to inhabit Silk's
body, and so we have a literal case of the Paul figure taking on the sufferings
of the Christ figure.  And then there's the Odin conflation floating around all
of this...


vizcacha brings up the Moses analogy also, which suggests that Silk himself
may not ever set foot on Blue.  Moses, of course, died before he reached the
Promised Land, but came back later at the transfiguration in the Gospels.  Is
Horn the means by which Silk is setting foot on Blue only after death?


"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32
--
Alex David Groce (agroce+@cs.cmu.edu)
Ph.D. Student, Carnegie Mellon University - Computer Science Department
8112 Wean Hall (412)-268-3066
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~agroce

*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.
*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.moonmilk.com/whorl/
*To leave the list, send "unsubscribe" to whorl-request@lists.best.com
*If it's Wolfe but not Long Sun, please use the URTH list: urth@lists.best.com