(urth) Hyacinth

[James Wynn]

On 11/2/2011 7:31 PM, larry miller wrote:
> As someone who is rereading Long Sun in search of mysteries and
> puzzles I would love to hear your theory on Hyacinths nature as well
> as anything in the text that suggests she is not a female.  This is a
> theory I have never heard before and Am interested in hearing more.

I believe Hyacinth is Fava (both beans...and beans were believed by the 
Romans to contain the souls of the dead). I think that after the end of 
SS, the Rajan reclaims Fava from the World of Dreams where she has been 
stuck. Then he goes back in time, says hello to Silk, then goes further 
back with Fava and releases her into the Whorl as Hyacinth. He then 
takes a job at the Juzgado (Silk's mother's intention for him) and is 
identified as her "father".  Thus, Silk meets him but WE never do.

Between that time and when she meets Silk, she "forgets" her origin 
(perhaps the same way the Rajan forgot that he was Silk), remembering 
Green only as a green umbrella and her former form as a dress, both of 
which she got from her mother (who bequeathed to her a human soul). She 
suddenly remembers everything at the end of Exodus of the LS when she is 
faced with the prospect of returning to Green.

This explains why Hy didn't know her mother was dead. The mother she met 
in Mainframe was the mother of her human soul--her inhumi portion has 
been left behind on Blue.

Problems (some small some bigger)

1) Chenille says that Hy's father rented her out to the family of 
Colonel when she was a child. She says "they had a lot of sprats". Many 
have opined from that that Hy had lots of siblings. Actually, no. It was 
the Colonel who had a lot of children. Hy was being hired as a nanny.

2) Hy seems to eat. Auk brings her a fruit which she demands from him.
Actually, though, we don't see her eat it. She claims to have eaten the 
fruit whole, pit and all (improbable).
I'm convinced she ditched the fruit. But what was she doing while she 
was alone when Auk was getting that food?
Also, Marble asserts that Hy doesn't actually eat at all. Remember that 
the Rajan himself claimed to only pretend to eat until Spring came and 
he was ravenous (Hello, trees! --because the Rajan is a Neighbor who has 
possessed the bodies of Horn and Silk consecutively).

3)  Dave Tallman has pointed out that it *appears* Fava is blonde in 
dream world. This is the part I'm still collating. But I don't think so.

4) Hy has some pretty contemptuous things to say about her "father".
This is a real toughy -- -- if one takes it at face value and assumes 
that this is Hy's constant and forever opinion of her father, then it is 
difficult to overcome. I suspect she is in intermittent communication 
with each other and this statement represents a recent falling out with 
him.

So there it is, for what it is worth.
The following was something I wrote even before I came up with the "male 
chem" theory:
http://urth.org/whorlmap/worm.htm