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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>
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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
11/30/2011 9:20 AM, Brian wrote:
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<BLOCKQUOTE cite=mid:20111130142055.3288.qmail@server281.com type="cite">
<DIV>Since we all agree Wikipedia is never wrong ;), I'll just stick with
their definitions. Mandragora is the genus of the plant mandrake,
which often has a somewhat man-shaped root. It is also the name of a
type of demon. These demons are little dolls given to a sorceror by
the Devil for the purpose of consulting "in time of need". They are
thought to be related to the "<EM><A title=Fetishism
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fetishism"
moz-do-not-send="true">fetish</A></EM>, which is nothing else than a
dwelling-place made by a <A class=mw-redirect title=Shaman
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaman" moz-do-not-send="true">shaman</A>
or <A class=mw-redirect title=Medicine-man
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicine-man"
moz-do-not-send="true">medicine-man</A> for the reception of any wandering
spirit who chooses to take up his abode therein."</DIV>
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<DIV>Admittedly, Wikipedia has this last quote labeled as "citation needed",
but this does sound remarkably like a spare
body.</DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE>
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<DIV><BR>Very nice. And again, this points me to BLS/BSS, and their multitude
of riders and ridden. Regardless of how much detail Wolfe had worked out by
the time he finished BNS, the concept plainly was fully developed even though
BNS *seems* to have little possession going on.</DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>
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<DIV>Except that Severian talked to the mandragora in question, and there was no
indication of possession in the sense used elsewhere in the Sun series.
One might postulate a hybrid spirit like Mani in Wizard Knight. But the
homunculus itself claimed to be a deformed fetus, preserved artificially in a
semi-living state.</DIV>
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<DIV>As for Typhon, I think he’d find a homunculus in a jar a bit
confining. That is, if he weren’t dead a couple of thousand years
anyway.</DIV>
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<DIV>- Gerry Quinn</DIV>
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