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From: <akt@attglobal.net> Subject: (whorl) Bad Horn Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2001 09:37:38 Allan ( not Wooly Mammoth or Bug <g>): Primo post on Horn, made me actually think about the books for the first time in quite a while. I'd never viewed Horn quite that way, but now I think you're right. (And I also agree about Silk's sanctimonious chats with the girls--Silk's attempt to save Fava's life, however, is truly heroic.) > He is a serial adulterer, (even before the affair with Seawrack if I > read the clues right) who sells the lives of Nettle and his sons to > Krait to save his own life. He sneaks off on his mission without saying > goodbye to his wife, tricks Seawrack and Babbie into missing the lander > and deserts Evensong on the river even though he knows she can't go back > to Goa or to her own people and is in serious danger. All of these > actions are rationalised by a most persuasive narrator, one who > constantly bemoans his lost wife. The more I read these passages, the > more they sound like a drunken trucker in a bar telling all and sundry > how much he loves his wife before going to the local whorehouse. > (What is this thing Wolfe has with his heroes deserting their female > companions by rivers or the sea, Sevarian does it with Dorcas, and I can > think of few Wolfe characters who are married and faithful.) > > Horn is not a terrific father either. I'm sure all of us with teenage > kids can sympathise with a father getting annoyed with sulky adolescent > sons, but Horn actively hates poor old Sinew, even after he follows him > on the long and dangerous journey to Pajoruco. He takes pleasure in > shocking his son by showing his relationship with Seawrack. He suspects > Sinew of wanting to kill him, and considers killing Sinew himself. He > only makes some reconciliation with his son after the fighting on the > lander when he is forced to admit that his son has some good qualities. > > Horn is a careless and violent man, blaming others for his own mistakes. > He loses all of the supplies that he was given for his mission, and then > violently beats the man who was supposed to be looking after the boat, > although he had no proof that he was involved in the theft. > > But worst of all is the savage and brutal rape of Seawrack. His excuse > is that he was acting under enchantment from the Siren's song. (I don't > see that standing up in a court of law: "Honest, Judge, she was asking > for it. She sang at me.") I would argue that, even though Seawrack may > have seduced him with her singing, the brutallity of the attack comes > from Horn's character. It must have been pretty bad if he is advising > her not to go swimming afterwards because the bleeding may start again. > It makes you wonder what his sex life with Nettle was like, and may > explain why she was willing to go off with the new, improved Silk at the > end of RTTW. > > (As an aside, I know that Wolfe's attitude to women has been criticised > before, but these books do seem to bring out the worst in him. Women > seem to be inconvenient accessories, to be picked up or dumped at the > hero's convenience. And I found Silk's chats to the teenage girls almost > embarrassingly unreal) > > So, I don't like Horn. This makes his transformation into Silk more > noticable and dramatic, and may explain why his character is almost > completely erased by the end. I say almost, because the killing of > Jahlee at the end of RTTW could have been the emergence of the violent > nature of Horn, showing Silk that he was not fully redeemed and not > quite the saint that he thought he was. An explanation for his refusal > to stay on Blue and become their leader because the danger of the > corruption of power was still in him? *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