Tom: I was sure you meant that Justin, the character, or some other knight in ancient British literature was transgendered, or purposefully disguised. If it was a play on Mulan/Joan of Arc/Langobard/John Grey of 1602, then cool, I'm with you.
Papers:
Now that I've time, I can explain that whole magical gender stuff I was on about from last page of this thread. As you can see in most of my posts, I tend to relate what I read in Grant's 7S series to learning development and social philosophies. The man references this stuff, and build analogs accordingly –if you look for the patterns. We've established that each of the Soldiers are "growing up" in some way, and I've suggested that each book corresponds to a transition in Clare Graves's theory of Spiral Dynamics.
For instance, Zatanna goes from Red to Blue. Zee's Red behavior is evidenced by her celebrity superstar status, her spellaholic pityfest, and her own "practical" tome of magic that Misty has purchased. She then transitions to Blue by her search for her father's books of magic, and responsible tutelage of Misty, teaching her the old basics of magic, and acknowledging the authority of Ali Ka-Zoom, even after his death.
Similarly, Klarion is leaving authoritarian Blue for opportunist Orange. He leaves a world of definitive tomes and books, full of rules and order (Blue) to explore and experience the world for his own material senses and mortal desires (Orange).
Ystin is the first book, and as such, transitions from level one:Beige, to level two:Purple. Beige is all about self-survival, meeting one's own needs in order to make immediate ends meet. Evidenced most clearly by hir escape from the police and then the lonely living as a bum on the streets of Hollywood/LA, eating from garbage and hearing voices. Ze then defeats level one and accepting level two by acknowledging a mystical sense of truth, order, and justice, and by accepting the help of the "knights of this age". By Ystin's story's end, ze has left behind survival to actually become the manifestation of hir mystical sense of truth, order, and justice. "I am your death..." This is mirrored in many ways by the immortally surviving Don Vincenzo choosing to go down fighting. "This is mutherfucking mythology calling."
What I wondered about, and needed to further explain myself, is that mystic Purple is tribal, us versus them in a very familial sense. Purple antagonism is fueled by blood grudges; see: Hatfeild and McCoy. If the Avalon versus Sheeda is to be taken that way, that means gender roles in the Avalon culture are in some ways tribal as well: mystical and somewhat ritual. Ystin's role as the page/schoolboy might serve that purpose satisfactorily. I was bubbling with ideas at the time, and needed to let them cool with further reading. So no more problems.
And yes, earlier issues of 7S:SK protrayed Ystin with a very masculine musculature. In an androgynous body shape, ze'd have less defined arms and shoulders. Purposeful, and not worth the time to analyze, I know. Faceshots though, very feminine. |
