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<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=biglar1984@gmail.com
href="mailto:biglar1984@gmail.com">larry miller</A> </DIV></DIV></DIV>
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As I posted before the Mandragora was likely a proto chem Typhon built<BR>>
to download into. Theres a point in Long Sun where Silk having<BR>>
discovered that the Gods can possess chems and I remember Echidna<BR>>
mentioning a Prime Calcula in the Citadel. Im sure this was a<BR>>
reference to the mandragora. This would also keep with Wolfes
naming<BR>> conventions as Calculas is I believe the latin word for
stone.<BR><BR>Are we talking about the same mandragora, i.e. the very ordinary
homunculus briefly interrogated by Severian at the end of Citadel of the
Autarch? </DIV></DIV>
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<DIV
style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">It’s
just a random foetus pickled in spirits and magically kept in a semi-alive
state. As it tells us itself</DIV>: “I was deformed, and died before
birth, and have been kept here since in white brandy.”</DIV>
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<DIV>Neither Typhon nor a mandrake are involved. And surely the ‘Prime
Calcula’ must refer to a central processing unit of Mainframe (I would not
surprise me if some of the problems of the Whorl arise from Mainframe being
damaged during the war of the gods, but that’s speculation.) I am pretty
sure it is actually called the Prime Calculator. Echidna is
losing control of Marble as she says the word:</DIV>
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<DIV> Her head swivelled toward the Sacred Window. “The
prime calcula... His citadel.” [—] Her knees would no longer support her; she
crumpled [—] seeming to shrink as she fell.</DIV>
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<DIV>So the ellipses can be naturally interpreted as indicating an interrupted
word/sentence. </DIV>
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style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">-
Gerry Quinn</DIV></DIV>
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