(urth) Urth Digest, Vol 76, Issue 173

[Son of Witz]

I have "aesthetic blowback" to the idea of Severian as a clone as well.
Here is an idea:
Spring Wind and Bird of the Wood have a sort of tryst, a brief encounter when he comes to Urth. If S.W. Is Typhon, couldn't BotW be Catherine the tim travelling Contessa, shuttered back to Typhon's era for an engineered tryst, then she is back through the corridors of time, or the mirrors, to birth in Severian's era.
Fish and Frog are set adrift on a STREAM. I think thys is a metonymic relation to The Brook Madrigot, and the story reads, "Far that basket sailed..." perhaps the womb-basket sailed up the stream of time.

All I'm saying is the potential exists for Severian to be Typhon's son without cloning, and without needing to be Typhon's father.  I'm not suggesting that this IS what happened. Just an idea that came to me that seems to fit within the given limitations.

On Dec 21, 2010, at 10:18 AM, Andrew Mason <andrew.mason53 at googlemail.com> wrote:

> Because it would not conflict with what the narrative seems to tell us
> about his parentage. (It would have to be a time-travlling Severian
> who becomes Typhon's father, of course. I've no attachment to this
> theory; I'm just saying it produces less of an obvious conflict.)  And
> I didn't say 'the story'; I said 'this story'. I proposed a specific
> story about Severian's ancestry and its significance; I think it helps
> to make the work a coherent one; it shows how the world is being
> guided - whether by an actual conspiracy or by the Increate - towards
> the birth of the New Sun. This story is spoiled by making him a clone.