Fairy Hardcastle

[jo]

[David]

[jo]

Yes I was thinking about our exchange last night and thought that I might have reacted to you wrongly. I tend to be a lousy judge of character, especially on short acquaintance :). I apologise if I have offended you in any way.

[rusmeister]

[jo]

[rusmeister]

[sehoy]

[jo]

Hi Chris :)

Rereading THS I am struck anew by how much I dislike Fairy .. I know we all used to joke to Stan about his 'obssession' with her and I can see why she is an interesting character but not at all that she is a likeable one (to do Stan justice, he never said that he LIKED her, just found her fascinating). But there's a sort of inhumanity there, that's shown in the way she arranges the murder of Hingest and the torture of Jane.

I wonder if it was a mistake for Lewis to use her obvious homosexuality and distasteful appearance to make us dislike her more, though? That's not a judgement of mine, merely a question that I don't know the answer to. Everything about Fairy's appearance is calculated to cause a shudder, from the way she stands and sits to the way she chomps on her cigar - presumably an emasculating metaphor. Could the disgust not have been subtler, better accomplished, if the physical had not been so obvious?

[Stanley Anderson]

[jo]

[Theo]

[jo]

[Stanley Anderson]

[sehoy]

[sehoy]