(urth) Silk's origin

[James Wynn]

On 10/10/2011 2:06 PM,
> Gerry Quinn wrote:
>
>> 2. We know Silk was an implanted embryo, so it is no surprise that he has
>> two sets of parents; his genetic parents back on Urth a thousand years ago,
>> and his surrogate parents in the Whorl.
>   Andrew Mason wrote:
> I think the two sets of parents actually count against the clone
> theory; a clone does not have genetic parents in the ordinary sense.

> One might call the parents of his source his parents in a way; (this
> seems to be the line taken in _The Fifth Head of Cerberus_, where
> Number Five is shown a picture of his 'mother', i.e. the mother of the
> source of his line, back on Earth). But if Typhon was 'not born' it's
> not clear he has parents, and if he does it's hard to see how they are
> relevant to the story.

That's true, although I think he *does* think of himself as having a 
mother at least in the way that Number Five thinks of his "mother". But 
maybe in the way that Silk thinks of himself as having a "mother". (I'm 
referring to "Early Summer", of course)

And it is troublesome in what sense Tussah considered himself Silk's 
"father". If they ever met, Silk didn't remember it--only having seen a 
bust of him in a closet. Tussah never married Silk's mother, and he 
never officially adopted Silk. Silk did not have to be Tussah's son in 
order to inherit the Caldeship. And to the extent that Silk's connection 
to Tussah could ever be proven, it would only discredit his claim to the 
title since Tussah explicitly said that his "son" would be Calde after 
him. All this suggests that Tussah said that Silk was "not the son of my 
body" merely because it was objectively true in some sense. Not to 
identify him or out of fatherly feelings.

> Moreover, we are told in a couple of places that the embryos are the
> result of selective breeding, rather than clones.

I missed that. What are you referring to?

> Regarding who his parents are: Wolfe was once asked about Silk's
> ancestry, and replied 'He is the son of the Calde and his mistress'.
> This answer, which seems to relate to his birth-mother and adoptive
> father, looks like a deliberate deflection of the question, not
> telling us what the questioner wanted to know. This in turn suggests
> that:
> a. It is a significant question, which has an answer - his parents
> aren't just Some Guy and Some Girl.
> b. It's not meant to be obvious from the story, since when something
> is meant to be obvious and readers don't get it, Wolfe is generally
> happy to explain (e.g. who is Blood's father, or why did Auk kidnap
> Hyacinth).

I agree with this. I have long suspected that the parallel between 
Tussah and Silk's birth-mother and Typhon and Kypris is intended. The 
culture of Viron is the culture of the commonwealth under Typhon. It is 
quite reasonable then that Typhon's title in the commonwealth was 
"Calde". So in some sense, it would help if Silk were somehow the son of 
both Typhon and Tussah.

My working solution has been that Tussah is a clone of Typhon, and that 
Silk is a clone of a son of Typhon and Kypris ("although he is not the 
son of my body"). I think it is significant in a literary sense that Pas 
and Tussah are murdered at around the same time.

My problem is that I feel more and more confident all the time that Silk 
is supposed to be Typhon as well (a clone is the most straightforward 
explanation--and that blond hair seems like an intended reference--we 
don't know Tussah's hair color because he's bald). Yet Silk and Typhon 
do not resemble each other. It's frustrating.
On the plus side to this theory, Silk tells Hide that 
Jahlee-in-dream-travel (who is pretty clearly ensouled by Chenille) 
could be his "aunt or sister". Well, the easiest way that that could be 
true is if Chenille were both daughter of Typhon (through Tussah), and 
the sister of Typhon (through Silk). It's frustrating.

Ya know, everyone acknowledges the parallels between Severian and 
Emperor Claudius in Robert Grave's "I, Claudius". Not enough remember 
all that prophesy about the lineage of Julius Caesar to Nero--where each 
is succeeded by a "son not son". I think that is significant. But I 
can't exactly how it is broken down at this point, because I'm thrown 
off that Silk and Tussah do not resemble each other.

> I think his mother may be Mamelta. I don't know who his father is,
> though I take it the answer is lurking somewhere. I can think of a
> plausible sequnce of events that would allow it to be Typhon, but I
> can also see problems with that - notably, that if spirits on the
> Aureate Path appear as they did when they died, Silk should have
> noticed that his father had two heads.

Well, the problem with all the gods except for Tartarus is how weird 
they look. Maybe Typhon saw himself as having two-heads and that's why 
Pas looked that way. But did Echidna really see herself as a monster 
with snakes for hair? Scylla had an affinity for Big Scylla but could 
she have really thought of herself as a human octopus. If Typhon is one 
of the fathers, he didn't *die* on the Whorl. If Silk meets Kypris on 
the Aureate Path it is significant that he makes no remark about it that 
is recorded. It still leaves open who the other mother is. If he met 
Mamelta there, it would more nicely fit into the recorded conversation.

However, I'll note that Silk doesn't really describe the second father 
(which is reasonable since the account is written by Horn after all, 
anyway). Wolfe has this style of having a person say something, then 
breaking the paragraph, and having the same person say something else. 
It's quite jarring. Silk's father does that (I think) and so readers 
generally assume that both the fathers speak to Silk. I don't think they 
do. I think only one does, and I find that interesting. I want to say 
that it was unnecessary to describe them both since they both look like 
Tussah. But I'm bother that Silk doesn't look like Tussah as well. It's 
a snake pit.

J