Hyacinth

Alice K. Turner · 07 Feb 2002, 05:40 · from urth-v0202.mbox · original

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From: "Alice K. Turner" <aturner3 at nyc.rr.com>
Subject: Re: (urth) Re: Hyacinth
Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2002 00:40:19 -0500
Message-ID: <urth-v0202-98 at digest.urth.net>
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> From: "maa32" <maa32 at dana.ucc.nau.edu>
>
> > And while I don't take "Hyacinth as possibly a man" seriously,
>
> <snip>
>
> Hyacinth is not a traanssexual, but she is such an artificial woman that
> your idea is perhaps symbolically true.    And actually, she is not a very
> realistic or convincing character at all.  We never see things from her
> perspective;  she is a vacuum of destructive femininity.    Why was the
> little house she and Silk retired to so poor and broken?   How was it that
> Silk's love for her somehow never failed, so that when she died, his
spirit
> died?    Did they find a way to get on with each other?  Or was Silk's
whole
> life with her a torture?   There seemed to be some interaction between
Silk
> and Hyacinth's ghost in the ruined palace:  part mocking, part loving.
> What happened to them?

Nice post, hartshorn. Which is to say that I too have thought about these
things. How in the world could two so fundamentally different characters
have found a way to get along? With Silk it would be the healing power of
sex, but Hy is totally cynical about sex--mocking  With her, it would be
sticking with power, but, as you point out, there's no power eventually.

Well, Wolfe was wise to avoid trying to demonstrate the relationship--I
don't think he could have.

-alga

--=20

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