Gender in TBOTLS

Che Monro · 03 Mar 2003, 13:21 · from urth-v0303.mbox · original

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From: Che Monro <flirt at technologist.com>
Subject: (urth) Gender in TBOTLS
Date: Tue, 04 Mar 2003 00:21:16 +1100
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I've been reading in the archives some speculation about gender changing in=
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the Book of the Long Sun, in particular that Chenile and Hyacinth may have=
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been male.

I remember the little guardsman character who used to dress up as a woman=
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and hang around in bars, and how he got murdered and his friend missed him.=
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That was sad, and funny.

Now people speculate that Hy might have been a male chem too. Well I=3D20
suppose that there is no evidence against it, right? I find the romance=3D20
between Silk and Hyacinth to be the sweetest and funniest part of the whole=
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book. Her calling him little pet names and him jumping out of second floor=
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windows to escape her clutches. That was so sweet and funny!

If in fact she was a man then it is still sweet and probably even funnier.=
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I wonder though, on the Whorl whether a male chem who wanted to play the=3D=
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feminine part wouldn't be able to get hold of some female parts to play=3D20
with? We know the little guardsman didn't, but perhaps Hyacinth was female=
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in form, um, down there?

I wonder if "The Operation" was available for humans on the whorl? Pig gets=
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his eyes back in the end, surgery that we couldn't do, so perhaps sex=3D20
changes were possible, at least in Chenile's childhood. That would be an=3D=
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interesting character, a poor young boy who goes out gathering water cress=
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with his family to stay alive, they hit hard times so decided to sell him=
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to a whore house where he is made into a she in order to make more money.=
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Talk about a strange existence!

Does anyone else notice Roman parallels in Wolf's work. There are some=3D20
obvious Rome symbols in Nessus, but in the Long Sun both the religion and=
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government seemed very Roman in character to me. Delightfully alien, yet=3D=
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familiar at the same time.

On Blue in Return to the Whorl where Horn and Silk were camped out in the=
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barrel behind the shop, that place seemed a lot like Rome too. Their=3D20
families, the way they treated their servants, the social ordering, the=3D20
stories they told all seemed very Roman. And notice how Silk and Horn=3D20
fitted right in without any difficulties?

I love Wolfe's spin on the Vampires in these books. So tragic, so human,=3D=
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and so strange. Utterly masterful.

Ch=3DE9 Franz Joseph Monro -- http://www.chemonro.com
che at chemonro.com    --     flirt at technologist.com

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