Severians Later Appearance (Spoilers)

James Wynn · 16 Jan 2010, 04:08 · from 2010-January.txt.gz

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From: crushtv at gmail.com (James Wynn)
Date: Fri, 15 Jan 2010 22:08:50 -0600
Subject: (urth) Severians Later Appearance (Spoilers)
In-Reply-To: <1bf4dd41001151616n3a3237abye83496a8fbb643ba at mail.gmail.com>
References: <1bf4dd41001151616n3a3237abye83496a8fbb643ba at mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <e8e9702e1001152008s12423d3fu32a78e8eed8f8a79 at mail.gmail.com>

> The "eight or nine sprats" are actually Hyacinth's brothers and sisters.
> Here is the context. The commissioner said he wanted a maid, not a nanny.
> The interjection about sprats suggests why her father could spare her, and
> his desperation to have a better-paying job. It looks like a sale to me. And
> if this is the Rajan, what is his relationship to all these sprats?

The number of sprats were the commissioner's.With 7 or 8 brothers and
sisters, I would think one of them would make an appearance or a the
very least get named. I admit the way Chenille put it is ambiguous,
but it makes the narrative rather weird if Hy has lots of siblings. I
mean, their sister married the Calde'. Don't you think they'd want to
reconnect with her after that?

> It's interesting that the name Hyacinth has triple ambiguity in the Viron
> naming system.
>
> 1) A type of plant (female)
> 2) A name for yellow zircon (chem)
> 3) A species of pigeon (male)

Yeah, I noted for some time that there was grist for arguing that she
is female, male, and chem. So a male chem made sense to me once upon a
time. Each of them has backing frommore than the name. Mainly, though,
they are all hints that there's something not quite right about her as
a woman.

Here's another reference via name, though:

Hyacinth and Fava are both beans.

J.

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