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<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=severiansola@hotmail.com
href="mailto:severiansola@hotmail.com">Lee Berman</A> </DIV></DIV></DIV>
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<DIV><BR>>Gerry QUinn: </DIV>
<DIV>> > Also, Baldanders needed no mermaid’s kiss. When Severian
<BR>> >shares a room with him, he notices the strange scars on his
neck. Baldanders <BR>> >knows he will have to move to the water at
some point in the near future (even <BR>> >now he can only get about on
land with the aid of an antigravity belt), and has <BR>> >already equipped
himself with gills.<BR><BR> <BR>> What dreams does sleeping next to
Baldanders inspire in Severian? What is the <BR>> name of the lake Baldanders
lives next to? WHat is the name of the town of the <BR>> lakemen who are
subservient to Baldanders?</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>He dreams of the undines, and they show him his future, in which he fights
Baldanders. The lake is called after Juturna, certainly, and I can’t
remember the name of the village. But I do recall, I think, Juturna saying
elsewhere that they watch Baldanders, because he has something in common wirth
them. He is, of course, doing by his own technological means the
equivalent of what the undersea monsters have done by unknown means. There
should be no surprises that certain linkages are made.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>As for the mermaid’s kiss, the fact remains that Baldanders doesn’t need
it. How the kiss would have worked, I don’t know – perhaps Juturna’s
saliva contains nanomachines that would have restructured Severian’s body for
underwater living, or perhaps Wolfe would have been content to leave the matter
unexplained. But Baldanders already has his gills, hidden in plain
sight by Wolfe as he likes to do.<BR><BR> <BR>> I think the text gives
us plenty of hints that Baldanders' association with undines<BR>> (and Abaia)
starts before the time we and Severian meet him. Moreover his dependence<BR>>
on B, F and O for technology should make us question how capable he is of
equipping<BR>> himself with gills. (the "kelpie" watery origin of B and F
should also give us pause <BR>> for thought)
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<DIV>If I am correct and the undines are “watching” Baldanders, then he has no
real direct association with them. Instead, he gets technology from other
sources – including the Hieros - and from his own research. The Hieros
would not engage in technology transfer to the ignorant. He has already
apparently created Dr. Talos, as well as a monstrous child to slake his lust or
provide spare parts, or both - so a set of gills would not seem too much of a
stretch.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>- Gerry Quinn</DIV>
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