(urth) Hut/Ultan's Library/Catherine

[Jeff Wilson]

James Wynn wrote:
>> James Wynn wrote:
>>>>> "...and quite suddenly I felt that he and I were dead..."
> 
>>>  Jeff Wilson wrote:
>>>> but I think it just the general creepiness that give him thoughts
>>>> of being dead and buried; indeed the 3rd paragraph before the
>>>> end of the chapter includes "To the upper levels of that place
>>>> I returned several times, but I never again entered that tomblike 
>>>> cellar, or ever wished to."
> 
>>> James Wynn wrote:
>>> Although I realize some people have physical reactions to this sort 
>>> of thing, a minor extension of Don Dogget's clone theory would 
>>> provide a narrative (rather than a purely metaphoric --and to my mind 
>>> desperate) explanation for Severian's morbid sensation.
> 
>>   Jeff Wilson wrote:
>> Can you refresh my memory on that, please?
> 
> It connects Severian directly to the magic beans in the Spring Wind 
> story, and identifies him as a clone one of those "children" of Typhon 
> (Spring Wind).  He never claimed that Ultan was a clone to my knowledge, 
> hence the "minor extension". But once you bring clones into a story, it 
> is a given that there is never just one.

That's true, but there's already an awareness of clones in the society 
at large, the khaibit class. I could see Severian and Ultan being 
khaibits that have survived their primaries, and Severian's 
interpretation of this state as a sense of being dead.

This might also play into the "where is Severian's sister?" mystery - in 
this case, one would be down at Echopraxia and one at the Well of 
Orchids, depending on how you count siblings with khaibts.

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