From: "James Wynn" 
Subject: RE: (urth) Che's "Gender in TBOTLS" and "Questions"
Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2003 10:45:37 -0600

>From: Che Monro
>
>Chem Onrust ;-) shares his anxieties about gender-bending on the Whorl:
>I've been reading in the archives some speculation about gender changing in
>the Book of the Long Sun, in particular that Chenile and Hyacinth may have
>been male.

Crush responds soothingly:
Since I'm primarily responsible for all this, I'll take some of this on...

First, my opinions have developed about regarding Hyacinth and Chenille
since I made those arguments. I believe I now understand EXACTLY what's
going on with Chenille and why her name is sexually ambiguous. I'm think I
have a **general** understanding of Hyacinth and I no longer see any reason
that she is male. But I'm still developing the evidence both these
characters so that's all I'll say.

You didn't mention the one character with whose cross-dressing I am
satisfied with both the evidence and the thematic value. That is, Incus!


>Then he asks:
> 2a. The Fifth Head of Cerebus. I never understood
>this story at all. Who's a clone of who?
>What service does the house provide,
>just what's going on here? Lovely story, but I can't
>make head or tale of it.

Crush helps as much as he can:
The original of the clones (whom we'll call "Original") cloned himself and
then committed suicide to create Mr. Million. The clone (whom we'll call
Number Two) cloned himself to create Maitre. Maitre (who is fourth in order
after Original, Number Two, and Mr. Million) murdered Number Two and cloned
himself to create Number Five. Number Five murdered Maitre, went to prison,
and was released (perhaps there was a coup or St. Croix lost its war with
St. Anne). He then returned to "the Cave" and cloned himself again.

"The Cave" is a brothel.

For information on this, I strongly recommend you start with Robert Borski's
interesting website, "Cave Canem".
http://webpages.charter.net/rborski/


--- Crush





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