From: Matthew Freestone <matthew@matthewf.demon.co.uk>
Subject: (urth) hellish hues
Date: Sun, 6 Jul 1997 14:27:27 +0100


[Posted from URTH, a mailing list about Gene Wolfe's New Sun and other works]

Hi,
A few more points on 'Hues...'

Nutria:
>Moreover, it is clear that Kyle (largely a machine) wants Marilyn. Did 
>he kill Skip? The implications are that he did.
Where did you infer this from? Near the end of the story, Marilyn asks
Kyle, 'Can you cure him (Skip)?'. Kyle answers, 'I think so...' Surely
this implies he's still alive. Or do you think Kyle is lying? If so, how
did he get away with the murder in what seems to be a pretty small ship?

>When the shadow man dies, Marilyn feels her baby move. Clearly, the 
>shadow man has moved into her womb. Antichrist is soon to be born. 
I agree with this, and that it's the fundamental point of the story. In
particular, Polyaris' cry of 'Danger! Fire! Flood!' made me think of the
apocalypse. 

Alga:
>(I thought it was a parrot, not a macaw)
Definitely a macaw, on the first page: 'like all macaws, Polyaris doted
on microgravity.'

Ron:
>The shadow being is kept in some type of stasis field, not called that
>but referred to as a "yolk;" this "yolk" only appears when the shadow
>being is brought on board.
I thought what was happening here was that the yolk was just part of the
shadow matter (a theorised form of dark matter that only interacts with
our universe through gravitation, hence the fact that it can only be
seen using visualisers linked to the gravity field generators) the crew
picked up before they got the shadow man/demon. 

One final quote: 
"Marilyn asked, 'How does he look, Ky?'. 'Like hell,' Kyle muttered."

And one question: 
What's the film Kyle is thinking of when he tells Skip that for as long
as he is ill, 'I am the master.'?
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