(urth) Severians Later Appearance (Spoilers)

James Wynn crushtv at gmail.com
Fri Jan 15 20:08:50 PST 2010


> The "eight or nine sprats" are actually Hyacinth's brothers and sisters.
> Here is the context. The commissioner said he wanted a maid, not a nanny.
> The interjection about sprats suggests why her father could spare her, and
> his desperation to have a better-paying job. It looks like a sale to me. And
> if this is the Rajan, what is his relationship to all these sprats?

The number of sprats were the commissioner's.With 7 or 8 brothers and
sisters, I would think one of them would make an appearance or a the
very least get named. I admit the way Chenille put it is ambiguous,
but it makes the narrative rather weird if Hy has lots of siblings. I
mean, their sister married the Calde'. Don't you think they'd want to
reconnect with her after that?

> It's interesting that the name Hyacinth has triple ambiguity in the Viron
> naming system.
>
> 1) A type of plant (female)
> 2) A name for yellow zircon (chem)
> 3) A species of pigeon (male)

Yeah, I noted for some time that there was grist for arguing that she
is female, male, and chem. So a male chem made sense to me once upon a
time. Each of them has backing frommore than the name. Mainly, though,
they are all hints that there's something not quite right about her as
a woman.

Here's another reference via name, though:

Hyacinth and Fava are both beans.

J.



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