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<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=dstockhoff@verizon.net
href="mailto:dstockhoff@verizon.net">David Stockhoff</A> </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">On
10/17/2011 10:27 AM, Gerry Quinn wrote:<BR>> *From:* Gerry Quinn <A
href="mailto:gerry@bindweed.com">mailto:gerry@bindweed.com</A><BR><BR>> >
> How the kiss would have worked, I don’t know – perhaps Juturna’s
saliva<BR>> > > contains nanomachines that would have restructured
Severian’s body for<BR>> > > underwater living, or perhaps Wolfe would
have been content to leave the<BR>> > > matter unexplained. But
Baldanders already has his gills, hidden in <BR>> > > plain sight by
Wolfe as he likes to do.<BR>> > And (I should have noted) Juturna has no
antigravity belt, and she <BR>> > could certainly have benefited from one.
Nor, if I recall correctly, <BR>> > does Severian mention any gills,
though I suppose it may be that his <BR>> > eyes were drawn elsewhere. The
technologies, magicks or whatever are <BR>> > different.<BR><BR>> I
like the idea of Baldanders giving himself gills. But then who and <BR>> what
is he? Why is he doomed to grow so large?</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">He
is a man who – inspired by the sea monsters – is trying to make himself into a
god by the use of technology. He intends to attain immortality, and, like
many animals of our own Earth that do not die of old age, this requires
continuous growth. He may well be centuries old already, and when he meets
Severian at the end of _Urth_ he has not aged in fifty years, just grown
larger.</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">Perhaps
his large size also accommodates a larger brain. In any case, he has given
himself gills because he knows he must eventually enter the sea and dwell
there.</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"><BR><BR>>
Would it not work just as well if he's of Juturna's race and size, and <BR>>
those are natural gills Sev mistook for scars? Are we to believe Juturna
<BR>> must come up for air like a whale? What is her race anyway: is she a
<BR>> large human who swims deep, or a fish evolved to be humanoid? Let's get
<BR>> our assumptions straight.<BR></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">Juturna
is not human, I believe, nor fish either. She has been created or spawned
by one of the sea monsters. If we assume that the bean story refers to the
sea monsters, then eggs or nanofactories or whatever were thrown into the seas
of Urth, eventually becoming them. Their origin was off-Urth.</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"> </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">Whether
she comes up for air I don’t know, but I think if she had gills like Baldanders
then Severian, who gave her a good looking over, would have noticed
it.</DIV></DIV>
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<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">As
for Baldanders gills being natural: Baldanders is not natural, he is sui generis
and a self-made man, right down to the gills.</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">-
Gerry Quinn</DIV></DIV>
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