(urth) Agilus and Agia

[Marc Aramini]

The unhatched chick between Jolenta's legs.  Anyway, we know something of number five's first cloning efforts.  He takes unfertilized frog sex cells and doubles the chromosomes, producing a viable 2n cell to then differentiate and split naturally. Could be a similar technique for Maitre, or perhaps more advanced parthenogenesis

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On May 6, 2013, at 5:25 AM, Lee Berman <severiansola at hotmail.com> wrote:

>> David Stockhoff: Who knows how much Inire has to do with the seraglio and 
>> the women held there, but if he does, there's a parallel to Doctor Crane, who 
>> presumably would have used a vaginal speculum quite a bit.
> 
> True. Anyone know of other gynecological references in Wolfe's work?
> 
>> So, hmm. We have no details on the methods of cloning (or half-cloning, 
>> as Thomas suggests?) used by the Commonwealth.
> 
> I find this similar to 5HoC. All we have is a closed door lab and some
> circumstantial evidence of the results. Naturally Number Five doesn't 
> remember the details of his own birth (or whatever). I think this aspect of
> his narrator unreliability is the primary reason Wolfe chose to use him
> as first person narrator instead of Maitre. He might have told us how human 
> cloning is done. Number Five can't (yet). 
> 
> I think this is in parallel to our own normal birthing experience Which is pretty 
> messy and not something we think about much when we think of ourselves. And if we 
> read stories from older time periods (or even our own), we are not likely to get 
> graphic descriptions of how birth happens. We are more likely to get passing references 
> which assume the reader will fill in the missing details with their own level of knowledge.
> Thus do clones feel about their own genesis. 
> 
> I think cloning in BotNS is like Typhon's science chamber with its mysterious machines, 
> Baldander's lab, with its gruesome results, the Witches tower with its hairless, crippled 
> creatures and wherever Inire produces his dog men and cat women. Blood sharing also. We
> don't know how khaibits and their mistresses do it and Severian is maddeningly vague in
> telling us about the old Leech linking his bloodstream to Mamas'. Not giving us the
> scientific/clinical details helps add to the sense of horror Wolfe always seems to want 
> to maintain at a certain level.                         
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