IJ study archive

Orin at B.U.: punting and Joelle

quote

The twirler induced in heterosexual males what U.H.I.D. later told her was termed the Actaeon Complex, which is a kind of deep phylogenic fear of transhuman beauty.

Context

The theme's hinge sentence, dropped a decade before its payoff: U.H.I.D. — the fellowship of the deformed — turns out to have doctrine for the far end of the scale too. Actaeon was torn apart for seeing Diana; the myth makes the gaze the casualty, so the veil protects the viewer as much as the wearer — the exact logic of "hiding by hiddenness" Joelle unpacks at 104 and 178, and the reason her membership never settles what's under the linen.

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