Subject: (whorl) Silk Hoseary

From: Nigel Price <nigel.a.price at virgin.net>
Date: Sun, 11 Feb 2001 23:14:18 +0000

Recently, Dennis/Endy wrote...

>>I see Silk and Hy after the end of Exile
>>as the relationship of Hosea and
>>Gomer of the Old Testament Bible.
>>Hosea constantly had to go to the
>>marketplace and drag Gomer back
>>home to keep her from sleeping with
>>other men.

I agree with you, Dennis, about the echo of Hosea in Silk's situation. I
mentioned this to Nick Gevers a year or so back as a response to his
interpretation of Silk's failure to leave the Whorl as an indication of
moral failure.

Did I mention this in private correspondence, Nick, or on the Whorl list?

I can't remember.

Anyway, Nick had compared Silk's failure to see Blue with Moses' failure to
reach the promised land, and I had suggested that, in contrast, Silk's
refusal to abandon the beautiful but unworthy Hyacinth evoked for me strong
echoes of Hosea's love for his faithless wife Gomer, which is interpreted in
scripture as an allegory of God's love for his unfaithful people Israel. I
still see Silk's love for Hyacinth as in some way echoing Christ's love for
the world ("...while we were yet sinners..."), rather than a sign of his
failure to overcome earthly temptation.

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