Pike's Ghost

Lee Berman · 23 Nov 2011, 13:29 · from 2011-November.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Wed, 23 Nov 2011 08:29:00 -0500
Subject: (urth) Pike's Ghost
Message-ID: <SNT123-W1235A697A42BDF266821A3CFC90 at phx.gbl>

>James Wynn: 
>**Incidentally, recalled this statement by Incus in "Calde of the Long Sun":
>"I was born some _seven years_ after my youngest sibling, Femur.

>"Femur" in Latin is //feminis// which also means "woman".
>Assuming I am correct, this is another out-of-narrative hint (there seem 
>to be only those for this) that Incus is female.

There is something odd about the gender of Incus. I think that's clear. 
I don't know if Wolfe was aware of and using the Latin version of femur as
a play on the word "feminine". It may be. But I'm 100% sure he was aware of 
something else.

The femur is the biggest/longest bone in the human body. The incus (middle ear bone) 
is the smallest/shortest bone. Of 200+ bones Wolfe had to choose from, these two 
choices cannot be a coincidence.

It could simply designate the body size of Incus but that doesn't seem significant 
enough for such a cryptic but clearly presented puzzle to solve. If it relates to
gender, as you propose, perhaps (ahem) the size of the bone is meant to reflect
degree of maleness.

Is it possible Incus, instead of simply being female, is hermaphroditic or 
transgendered in some way? Consider the theories regarding Hyacinth's ambiguous
gender, based both on mythology and textual clues. Doesn't this present a very clear
reason for a confusion between Hyacinth and Incus?

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