<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10pt">(1) I forgot about the triangular faces in 5HC---of course. Are there heart-shaped faces in 5HC?<br><br>(2) I agree that the three maids have been repurposed as three clones, a clue that maids and servants with matching names are clones. Pega and Pelagia fit this.<br><br>(3) I agree that we should probably shift our assumptions a bit to consider cloning as not something just for nobles and mad scientists. I find this to be difficult, but I suppose a palace servant could afford it. What does this do to assumptions about Severian's parentage and why/how he got into the Guild? Was Severian actually born of his mother with Odilo's clone---was that Catherine's crime?<br><br>(4) It fits Wolfe's Greek model to allow ownership of other humans; cloning is an update of that. It allows him to depict a plainly fallen but not thoroughly evil world, and
fits with the Commonwealth as the very last doddering, weak vestige, Constantinople-like, of a global/interstellar empire after a population collapse.<br><div><span><br></span></div><div><br><blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); margin-left: 5px; margin-top: 5px; padding-left: 5px;"> <div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> <div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <div dir="ltr"> <font face="Arial" size="2"> <hr size="1"> <b><span style="font-weight:bold;">From:</span></b> Lee Berman <severiansola@hotmail.com><br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> "urth@urth.net" <urth@urth.net> <br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Wednesday, April 10, 2013 10:52 AM<br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> (urth) Thea's Identity<br> </font> </div> <br>>David Stockhoff: Are any known clones, such as
the uhlans, also described with triangular <br>>faces? If so I can't find it.<br><br>No, but in 5HoC, the Maitre-cloned slave with four arms has a triangular face. Also Number Five<br>bears a strong resemblance to Severian and Phaedria bears a resemblance to Thecla/Thea. I'm <br>pretty sure Wolfe meant there to be some thematic connections between these two stories, if only<br>tangential. Cloning remains shrouded in Number Five's story and I suggest it is even more tightly<br>concealed but just as important in BotNS. In BotNS we get it in veiled hints, throwaway <br>comments by the old Autarch about khaibits and Severian's dreams as child-Thecla but I think cloning <br>is one of the most important and driving forces behind the scenes (including for such beings as Abaia, <br>Tzadkiel and Father Inire). I remain convinced the five caskets in Severian's mausoleum is a 5HoC allusion.<br><br>>(1) We have no *particular *reason to think any of the
four is a clone <br>>except Thais.<br><br>Well, we have Severian, who is problematic, as you say. But on the other hand, each time he<br>is restored as an eidolon, he is cloned in some manner. It is striking that he has been <br>replicated in mind but it can't be ignored that he is replicated in body also.<br><br>With Pega, we have the clues of her name paired with her mistress Pelagia and the mysterious<br>nature of their relationship. Why would Wolfe even write such a debate over "ancilla" vs.<br>"soubrette"? We don't care about that. So why are we asked to question the relationship?<br><br>Then we have Odilo, where the evidence is weakest. But if the reality and ubiquity of cloning<br>has already been established then I think Wolfe expects us to drop the assumption that <br>every time we have a family relationship it is based on sexual reproduction. <br><br>Odilo is almost the same as his father. We know neither is much of a ladies man and what
few <br>opportunities for sex appeared were sidetracked by his (their) obsessive attention to palacial <br>job and duties If we assume that cloning is just as likely a mode of parentage as sex, then I <br>suggest that cloning is the better hypothesis for the appearance of Odilo Jr.<br><br>>(3) Pega and Pelagia makes sense based on Thais and Thea and because one <br>>is owned by the other. Are there any such pairs we can *disprove?*<br><br>If the veiled inclusion of clones within this story was Wolfe's intention I do wish he had been<br>a bit more liberal with his clues. Naturally I accept the possibility that what I see is a <br>product of pattern-seeking and confirmation bias.<br><br>Some imperfectly name-connected pairs are Domnicella and Domnina and Catherine and Carina. Domnicella may be a title, but perhaps it is actually her name which Severian gets wrong. We know that the Pelerines draw members from aristocratic families. Original to the
church, clone to concubinage? Could be.<br><br>The Catherine-Contessa Carina connection is more intriguing in light of the theory that the multiple-<br>appearance, unaging Catherine is a product of cloning and the Contessa Carina's three maids (all with names of beheaded saints).<br><br>As with my similar solutions to such BotNS puzzles such as knowing the members of Severian's family and<br>the nature of Father Inire, there is no one conclusive bit of evidence. For me, the solution resides<br>in a cluster of circumstantial clues which we are supposed to sum up then make an intuitive leap<br>of faith that Wolfe has indeed included such puzzles in his stories. If I have leapt in error on any<br>or all of them looks to be a mystery both Gene Wolfe and I will take to the grave. <br>_______________________________________________<br>Urth
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