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size=2>></FONT>James, I really admire the insights you bring to this topic.
<DIV>>I am curious, though--if Severian is a clone of one of</DIV>
<DIV>>Typhon's children, what is Ouen's function? </DIV>
<DIV>>Just a red herring?<BR><BR><FONT face=Arial size=2>I would presume that
it would have to be a given in that case that Ouen is a clone too (given his
resemblance to Sev), and that Dorcas is Ouen's birth mother and Ouen is likely
the husband of Sev's birth mother. This seems the most obvious route
to Dorcas becoming Sev's "grandmother".</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Remember that Mucor was the "granddaughter" of
Marble and that the Raja said Jahlee "could be" the sister of Hide (or
maybe Hoof--I can't remember right now) and that Number Five called Maitre his
father and Jeanine his "aunt". All this is fair warning that that familial
titles in a Wolfe story should be read with suspicion or at least laxity.
</FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>There are mythical/theological reasons IMO that
lead Wolfe to choose to make familial titles to be true/untrue in his
stories.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Why would an important clone like Ouen be a
commoner in Nessus? There were dozens (or hundreds) of Number Fives running
around in The Fifth Head of Cerberus. If Ouen was married to Sev's birth mother,
I guess it implies a more deliberate plot, however. Further, once you move
down this corridor, the possibility cannot be ignored that all of Sev's
patrilineal heritage are clone's of himself, so that amnesiac Dorcas found it
very easy to take Sev as her lover. But all this, is not part of Don's theory.
It is just a potential logical extension of it.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>J.</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>