From: Dan Parmenter <dan@lec.com>
Subject: (whorl) homeopathic doses of Typhon
Date: 30 Mar 2001 17:44:47 

From: William Ansley <wansley@warwick.net>

> It is an easy mistake to make in the SS books. I felt that Horn or
> Horn/Silk or Silk or whatever you want to call him bore a very close
> resemblance to the Heinleinian omnicompetent man, especially in IGJ
> and RttW. He can beat up men half his age, armed only with a rotten
> stick, plan, fight in and win battles and give advice to lovesick
> teenage girls. And that's not the half of it!

I've often wondered where the Hornsilk "military mind" comes from,
particularly in IGJ.  SilkHorn himself seems to provide the answer on
page 252 with the following exchange.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"This better work, Incanto," Inclito said, studying them as
they leaned against the earth-filled bags or crouched in the snow to
eat.

	"Will Pas drive us from this Whorl if it doesn't?"

	He looked around at me, surprised.  "I don't think he's even
here.  We left him up there with the Long Sun.

	"In one sense he wasn't there, either.  In another he is here
with us at this moment, because I am."

	Inclito said nothing for a tiume, but I am not at all sure how
long a time it was; I was lost in thought.  At last - "Because you
pray to him, that's what you mean.  He hears you praying."

	I nodded.  "I hope so at least."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I suppose the "how much Pas?" question remains, and is not unlike the
"how much Horn?" question by the end of the series.  I tend to favor
the view that there's something of Horn left, along with Pas and Silk,
indeed, as Rostrum noted:

From: Michael Straight <straight@email.unc.edu>

> So what about Pas?  I've speculated before that the reason Silk was
> uploaded was to that there weren't enough fragments for Pas to be
> put back together on his own.  To use Kypris's metaphor, Pas needed
> another head to be complete.  And I submit that Silk is the 'Typhon'
> head - the one in charge, while the shards of Pas are the 'Piaton'
> head, that is, the bits of code that run things, the code that makes
> Pas ruler of Mainframe.

Certain Pas traits remain.  Aren't we told somewhere or other in LS
that Pas tended to favor the weaker side in a conflict?  Isn't this
what Incanto did in the Blanko/Soldo conflict?

> To put it another way, Silk is now Autarch of the Whorl because he
> has consumed Typhon and knows all the passwords.

Right.  And consider, if the "Horn lives" hypothesis is correct,
you've got SilkHornPas running around on the old Whorl: the body and
mind of a superhero with the "love vibe", the mind of a tyrant and the
mind of an expert propagandist.  A terrifying thought.  

Shellac


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