male hyacinth

matthew.malthouse · 02 Sep 2002, 09:56 · from urth-v0209.mbox · original

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From: matthew.malthouse at guardian.co.uk
Subject: Re: (urth) male hyacinth
Date: Mon, 2 Sep 2002 10:56:20 +0100
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On 02/09/2002 09:29:43 maa32 wrote:

>A couple months ago I posted on the evidence for a male hyacinth, and I
was
>taken aback to discover that someone else thought that up independently -
it
>was kind of a joke.  Let me briefly go over why I thought so: right
before
>Silk meets Hyacinth for the first time, he finds all kinds of statues of
boy
>toys for the gods: Ganymede and Catamitus, both boy lovers that I
normally
>associate with Musk.  But Hyacinthus is the same kind of mythic figure:
male
>lover of Apollo, stricken dead by the jealous wind.  But instead of Musk,
he
>immediately meets Hyacinth, who has fake breasts.

I too the statuary, Hyacinth's potential androgeny etc as re-inforcement
of Musk's character and lifestyle.  I'm far from convinced that - even
with Wolfe's infamous multi-layered work - there's any need to see more to
it than that.

If one posits that Hyacinth is ex-male, male , chem male or female one has
to answer what purpose it serves.  More what purpose would it serve to
have Silk fall in love with such a being.  That would seem contrary to
Wolfe's normal path in such matters and would require explanation.

Matthew

--=20

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