(urth) [SPAM] Re: Ouen's Catherine

[Jeff Wilson]

Roy C. Lackey wrote:
> bsharp wrote:
>> The maid playing St. Katharine doesn't change appearance year to year in
>> Severian's memory, which I think suggests she is making use of a kaibit
>> rather than her being one.  Can her unchanging appearance be ignored?  This
>> maid is described as being of armiger height.  If she was the kaibit of an
>> exultant wouldn't she be exultant height?
> 
> I know of no examples in the books of any class other than exultants having
> khaibits. The maid who played Holy Katharine was not as tall as Thecla. The
> other women who are presumed to be khaibits -- the whores at the House
> Azure -- were likewise not so tall as their originals.
> 
> Severian believed (or at least conveyed the impression of belief) that his
> mother was tortured to death when he was very young. That a dead woman could
> or would make an appearance, unchanged, from year to year is no less
> remarkable than that a khaibit should do it.

An sufficiently wealthy exultant lady could have a series of khaibits, 
each one sustaining her youth and beauty for a few years, then replaced 
by another, newer one. Thus Holy Katharine could be played by a 
succession of clones, each one serving for a few years before being 
replaced by one that much younger, so that the onlookers who only see 
"her" for a few minutes each year notice no particular difference in age.

-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
< http://www.io.com/~jwilson >