(urth) Thea's Identity

Lee Berman severiansola at hotmail.com
Thu Apr 11 10:02:32 PDT 2013


>David Stockhoff- I wonder if male cloning works differently from female cloning here. 
>For one thing, can a man have a daughter clone?

Well, removing the Y chromosome and doubling the X doesn't seem too difficult. I think
Aunt Jeannine was meant to represent a female clone of Maitre/Number 4 (or was there
some outcrossing there?).

>For another, why is it that we have several clear female clones but the only clear male 
>clones are House Absolute troopers? Are male clones forbidden?

Well, we do have Severian. But I think the female bias on Urth may be literary in nature.
I think Wolfe is most interested in the subjective nature of it. "What is it like to be a
clone?" is a more interesting question for him than "How would Cloning affect society?"

>Are male clones forbidden? Again I ask, was this Catherine's crime? 
>(and if so, why not Odilo's too?

I really don't think cloning is a crime on Urth. I think it may be more of a social 
embarassment...on a par with being the product of incest in our own society. It's something
that happens but you find ways of talking around it..euphemisms like "half-sister" and
"soubrette" 		 	   		  


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