From: "Seth Lombardi" 
Subject: (urth) bad silk?
Date: Sat, 13 Jul 2002 01:24:26 -0500

The current talk about the nature of suicide has me rather baffled.  You're 
saying that Silk did not in fact attempt suicide, he simply wailed at his 
forearms with a knife, as resulting from a complete and overwhelming despair 
of life?
I'm no psychologists, and I don't claim to be an expert on suicide, but this 
seems to be rather close to what I'd define as a suicide attempt. Many, 
many, suicide attempts are unsuccesfull. The man's taking a knife to his 
forearms; there's a lot of instincts to overcome no matter how adamnt the 
subject is about taking their life. On the other side of the coin, take a 
look at your forearms and tell me that you could take a knife to them 
without your own death being at least one of the possible results in 
confused, reeling mind. I can't, but that may be because I have pretty 
skinny and, I suppose, delicate forearms.
I guess to sum up what I'm trying to say here is that cutting into one's 
forearm is such an extreme act that it is both telling in that you would 
have to pretty darned crazy and suicidal to do it, but at the same time so 
paiful an against our instincts that the fact that Silk failed is totaly 
acceptable. He didn't have a bridge, or a gun, or a bottle of pills handy. 
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 
with Mint, which if true backs up my feelings. If it was in their house, 
then that's a big strike against it. I'm sorry, but I don't have my books 
handy at the moment.
I'd also like to cast my vote for the most negative possible estimation of 
Haycinth available. I know Horn takes an incredibly dim view of humanity in 
general, but either she did the crap (exposing herself, etc.) he describes 
in the afterword to The Book of the Long Sun or she didn't, and I don't 
think he's lying. That sounds like someone it wold be hell to live with, and 
though Silk puts a brave face on his pain, I think it's still there. If Silk 
wasn't at least partialy to blame for her death, then I don't really have 
any interpretation for "Though trodden beneath the shepard's heel, the wild 
haycinth blooms on the ground."
It is also telling that this supernatural phrase is the culmination of 
Remora's talk with Slik about his suicide attempt. But I think Steve already 
pointed this out.
*****************************
Seth Lombardi
sethlombardi@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 
likeness makes us laugh" -Pascal


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