bad silk?

Seth Lombardi · 13 Jul 2002, 06:24 · from urth-v0207.mbox · original

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From: "Seth Lombardi" <sethlombardi at hotmail.com>
Subject: (urth) bad silk?
Date: Sat, 13 Jul 2002 01:24:26 -0500
Message-ID: <urth-v0207-1348 at digest.urth.net>
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The current talk about the nature of suicide has me rather baffled.  You're=20
saying that Silk did not in fact attempt suicide, he simply wailed at his=20
forearms with a knife, as resulting from a complete and overwhelming despai=
r=20
of life?
I'm no psychologists, and I don't claim to be an expert on suicide, but thi=
s=20
seems to be rather close to what I'd define as a suicide attempt. Many,=20
many, suicide attempts are unsuccesfull. The man's taking a knife to his=20
forearms; there's a lot of instincts to overcome no matter how adamnt the=20
subject is about taking their life. On the other side of the coin, take a=20
look at your forearms and tell me that you could take a knife to them=20
without your own death being at least one of the possible results in=20
confused, reeling mind. I can't, but that may be because I have pretty=20
skinny and, I suppose, delicate forearms.
I guess to sum up what I'm trying to say here is that cutting into one's=20
forearm is such an extreme act that it is both telling in that you would=20
have to pretty darned crazy and suicidal to do it, but at the same time so=20
paiful an against our instincts that the fact that Silk failed is totaly=20
acceptable. He didn't have a bridge, or a gun, or a bottle of pills handy.=20
Otherwise I think perhaps the story would have ended there.
Ah, but that reminds me; where is the Azoth during all this? I think it was=20
with Mint, which if true backs up my feelings. If it was in their house,=20
then that's a big strike against it. I'm sorry, but I don't have my books=20
handy at the moment.
I'd also like to cast my vote for the most negative possible estimation of=20
Haycinth available. I know Horn takes an incredibly dim view of humanity in=20
general, but either she did the crap (exposing herself, etc.) he describes=20
in the afterword to The Book of the Long Sun or she didn't, and I don't=20
think he's lying. That sounds like someone it wold be hell to live with, an=
d=20
though Silk puts a brave face on his pain, I think it's still there. If Sil=
k=20
wasn't at least partialy to blame for her death, then I don't really have=20
any interpretation for "Though trodden beneath the shepard's heel, the wild=20
haycinth blooms on the ground."
It is also telling that this supernatural phrase is the culmination of=20
Remora's talk with Slik about his suicide attempt. But I think Steve alread=
y=20
pointed this out.
*****************************
Seth Lombardi
sethlombardi at hotmail.com
http://pages.prodigy.net/nlom/blogg.html
AIM: melombardi
"Two faces are alike; neither is funny by itself, but side by side their=20
likeness makes us laugh" -Pascal

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