From: Kieran Mullen <kieran@phyast.nhn.ou.edu>
Subject: (whorl) Re:  Digest whorl.v009.n005
Date: Sat, 31 Oct 1998 17:26:29 


>From: "Greg Neyman" <Greg.Neyman@gte.net>
>Subject: what's up with hy? ... plus building fusion reactors
>Date: Thu, 29 Oct 1998 20:45:48 -0800

[deletia]

>Anyhoop, I've always wondered about Hy ... I mean, Silk is a sophisticated,
>mild-mannered clergyman, and Hy, is basically still a fourteen years old
>girl, and not a well educated one at that ... every time  the two
>interacted, starting with the "wee flea" letter, I got this sensation in the
>pit of my stomach, reminiscent of the one I get when people scratch their
>fingernails across a chalk board ... basically, I could never shake the idea
>that the two were ALL wrong for each other ...

  Well, she is beautiful and passionate, a combination that is pretty
attractive.  If you want a more literary interpretaion, I figured that
it was related to the allegory of the church as the bride of Christ
which is also tied up with Mary Magdelene imagery ("whoring after false
gods" sort of thing).  Silk is a redemtive figure (though not exactly
Christic) and Hy seemed to me to be the worldly person who is loved, for
all of their faults and failings.  Certainly Silk is on a mission to
save her - especially at the very end of the book.

  I'm still not sure I understand the change in Silk that takes place
after he and Hy sleep together and he has a second illumination from
the Outsider.  (It's also been a while since I read that part.)  Silk
certainly seems changed to me.  But the storyline also seems to get
murkier.

  [deletia]

>Finally, a mil plus years after all of us are dust ... why are people STILL
>speaking English?  (or is it explained in Urth, in which case, don't ruin it
>for me ... )

   Didn't you read "Heh-asugh !ktungari" in the original?  Or did you
read its English translation, "Nightside the Long Sun"?   ;-)

              Kieran Mullen

 

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