Hethor's Poppet

Lee Berman · 21 Jun 2010, 02:48 · from 2010-June.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Sun, 20 Jun 2010 22:48:33 -0400
Subject: (urth) Hethor's Poppet
Message-ID: <SNT123-W359797E0350F4B0D8D411DCFC30 at phx.gbl>

I find Gene Wolfe's work to often be veiled but detectably 
autobiographical. I must guess references to violet-eyed beauties were
inspired by Elizabeth Taylor, famous for that color eyes, and a teen movie
star only a year younger than Mr.Wolfe.

I can't imagine Agia as a paracoita; she is small but not violet-eyed 
plus she is a hard-ass and hard-headed (heh heh) stubborn, to boot. Not good
characteristics in a sex toy. Thecla has violet eyes but is hardly small
or doll-like; she is even described as having some masculine qualities.

I propose Phaedria, from 5HoC as the most similar Wolfe character to the
paracoita. She has the violet eyes and is presented as rather poppet- 
doll-like, feminine and on the compliant side. Moreover Borski has proposed
that Hethor is a shape-changer. Perhaps a Shadow Child or Annese decided to 
board the ship and travel to another universe (i.e. another Wolfe story) taking
along Phaedria, or more likely, a clone of her, as a pleasant companion. 
Surely Gene Wolfe had similar dreams in his youth. 		 	   		  
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