I love that story, so beautiful and refreshing after the weirdness of the three that precede it. I feel like Chambers started with a daydream of his own in some library with an old book on falconry. Thank you!
So the name Sylvia comes from 'sylvan' meaning 'of the forest' as in Silvanius, the guardian of the forest. And Elven as you mentioned can mean 'elf-like'... so the full name does have these portents of the supernatural, of woodland sprites and spirits. Severn is the river that cuts through forests of Wales and England, possibly meaning 'seafarer'. So here is a British seafarer in France haunted by the memories of an English lover named for haunted forests. It's wonderful tension built only from names. The name Severn also kept reminding me of Venus in Furs by Velvet Underground which has a good mood for this story.
I have been having a great deal of fun with your Yellow series. Read Chambers King several times over the years. 18:00 do a little research involving burial customs of the time. Freak ya right out. I would be very interested in your views, say 40 years down the road and say seven times through. Life experience and further research of the era and Chambers open new Vistas.
The verse at the beginning reminds me of Hatia the Shepherd, and his predicament with desiring happiness, in fact this whole story (especially with the connection to "The Yellow Sign" which I had not picked up, I'm so glad you did and shared that observation!) feels like a companion to Hatia the Shepard in a certain way. Silvia recalls "Sylvan" and although this would literally refer to woodlands, I've seen many authors of a romantic bent use the term as a general metaphor for nature and/the wilder parts of nature specifically, and if we can assume that is the case here, this describes a character not unlike Hatia, but older now, Severen, but alas, poor Silvia has "changed" just as the wilderness of Hatia's youth have become no more, but in this case we mean Hatia as Severen, not the actual Hatia. I hope that makes sense, I'm mildly sleep deprived.
I need to get back into that book! I got distracted by the Great War in Salonika\, but your videos reminded me that I have most of that book to finish. Chamber's writing affects me in a strange way; more like Clark Ashton Smith and Jack Vance than HP Lovecraft. But hey, I'm weird, I guess. Thanks for reminding ,me!
Makes perfect sense. Neither Smith, nor Vance dealt with the massive paranoid xenophobic mental issues of Lovecraft. Chambers is at his heart a writer of romance and relationships with sprinklings of the strange. Smith nor Vance have ever caused me to look into the night sky searching for what we all know lies within the emptiness. The alienation within. 🍎 or 🍌.
@@michaelsmyth3935 Wow. Eloquently said, sir. Thank you. I can only say Here! Here! I'm embarrassed to say how many times I have read The Dying Earth books over my lifetime.
I read this some time ago, when I read the entire collection. Like you, I didn’t much care for the romances, not my genre. This story is just as you say, very disturbing, very well-executed. I never thought of the Sleeping Beauty comparison; thanks for that! I do wonder if this sort of open-ended story would be publishable in today’s landscape of short stories.
I love that story, so beautiful and refreshing after the weirdness of the three that precede it. I feel like Chambers started with a daydream of his own in some library with an old book on falconry. Thank you!
So the name Sylvia comes from 'sylvan' meaning 'of the forest' as in Silvanius, the guardian of the forest. And Elven as you mentioned can mean 'elf-like'... so the full name does have these portents of the supernatural, of woodland sprites and spirits. Severn is the river that cuts through forests of Wales and England, possibly meaning 'seafarer'. So here is a British seafarer in France haunted by the memories of an English lover named for haunted forests. It's wonderful tension built only from names.
The name Severn also kept reminding me of Venus in Furs by Velvet Underground which has a good mood for this story.
I have been having a great deal of fun with your Yellow series.
Read Chambers King several times over the years.
18:00 do a little research involving burial customs of the time. Freak ya right out.
I would be very interested in your views, say 40 years down the road and say seven times through.
Life experience and further research of the era and Chambers open new Vistas.
The verse at the beginning reminds me of Hatia the Shepherd, and his predicament with desiring happiness, in fact this whole story (especially with the connection to "The Yellow Sign" which I had not picked up, I'm so glad you did and shared that observation!) feels like a companion to Hatia the Shepard in a certain way.
Silvia recalls "Sylvan" and although this would literally refer to woodlands, I've seen many authors of a romantic bent use the term as a general metaphor for nature and/the wilder parts of nature specifically, and if we can assume that is the case here, this describes a character not unlike Hatia, but older now, Severen, but alas, poor Silvia has "changed" just as the wilderness of Hatia's youth have become no more, but in this case we mean Hatia as Severen, not the actual Hatia.
I hope that makes sense, I'm mildly sleep deprived.
Important book. Thanks for this !
I need to get back into that book! I got distracted by the Great War in Salonika\, but your videos reminded me that I have most of that book to finish. Chamber's writing affects me in a strange way; more like Clark Ashton Smith and Jack Vance than HP Lovecraft. But hey, I'm weird, I guess.
Thanks for reminding ,me!
Makes perfect sense. Neither Smith, nor Vance dealt with the massive paranoid xenophobic mental issues of Lovecraft. Chambers is at his heart a writer of romance and relationships with sprinklings of the strange. Smith nor Vance have ever caused me to look into the night sky searching for what we all know lies within the emptiness. The alienation within.
🍎 or 🍌.
@@michaelsmyth3935 Wow. Eloquently said, sir. Thank you. I can only say Here! Here! I'm embarrassed to say how many times I have read The Dying Earth books over my lifetime.
I read this some time ago, when I read the entire collection. Like you, I didn’t much care for the romances, not my genre. This story is just as you say, very disturbing, very well-executed. I never thought of the Sleeping Beauty comparison; thanks for that! I do wonder if this sort of open-ended story would be publishable in today’s landscape of short stories.