Subject: (whorl) Hy-jinx

From: m.driussi <m.driussi at genie.com>
Date: Fri, 01 Aug 1997 01:34:00 +0000

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

Reply:  Item #5559522 from WHORL at LISTS.BEST.COM@INET01#

So Auk's Hy-napping is still more "odd" ("mysterious," "wrong") than
Auk's pushing Silk off a =cliff=?!  Contributing to Silk's =death=?!

Hmmm.

(Maybe it is just that we didn't ask, "How come Auk pushed Silk down
the hole to a painful death--I thought they was friends?" <g>)

The problem with linking Tartaros to the Hy-napping is that Tartaros
relinquishes control of Auk before Auk pushes Silk and grabs Hy.
What we are seeing is a layer of Auk-behavior which seems most like
his uninhibited killing down in the tunnels.  It seems to me to be
that layer of Auk which is a "wolf" or a "bear," "with teeth that
would sever a man's hand at the wrist," to return to terms used when
Auk was first met by Silk.

To put it another way--the episode by itself and out of context
(i.e., ignoring that Auk and Silk are allies) looks very much like
the usual "Charles Atlas" primates-at-the-beach routine.  Auk sees Silk
as a =rival= (or dark twin) and sees Hyacinth as a =good mate=
(rather than seeing her as a sister by profession to his "real" mate,
Chenille; or actually seeing her as clone by Kypris possession, since
it is arguable that Auk is in love with the Kypris in Chenille rather
than Chenille herself).  Like Den pushing Bobby Black down the stairs;
like Hildegrin wrestling with Apu-Punchau; like Peter and Pete in "The
Changeling"; and other cases.

There's a war going on and he's lashing out, looking out for number
one.  Not unlike the chaos and confusion that leads Mint to
mistakenly launch an attack that costs far too many lives for no real
purpose.

=mantis=