{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1133",
    "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it.  Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
  },
  "archive": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 1133,
    "subject": "khaibits",
    "messages": 2,
    "voices": 2,
    "first": "1998-10-07T00:38:50+00:00",
    "last": "1998-10-07T09:22:32+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0019-0054@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Robert Borski",
        "address": "rborski at coredcs.com"
      },
      "date": "1998-10-07T00:38:50+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) khaibits",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "I think Barbea is unlikely as a candidate as she is a khaibit and\ntherefore\na clone of the original (somewhere I think Inire or Apian came out and\nsaid\nthat directly).  "
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "In CLAW, Gurloes tells us khaibits are \"common girls that look like the\nchatelaines. [But] I don't know where they get them.\" Severian, in his\nfirst and only visit to the House Azure, believes them to be recruited from\nthe poor. But in CASTLE the Autarch implies they're clones, \"grown from the\nbody cells of exultant women so an exchange of blood will prolong the\nexultant's youth.\" So which is it?\n\nIf clones, as asserted by the Autarch (who is himself a master of\ndeception), why are khaibits somewhat shorter--as both Gurloes and Severian\nassert?\n\nOn the night that Roche and Severian visit the Echopraxia, the Autarch\ntells them the women at the House Azure have been flown in by flier. But\nwhen alone with his khaibit, the \"Chatelaine Thecla\" tells him that she and\nGracia have come by sleigh. Given that it's winter and snowing, is it\nlikely that she and Gracia have come all way from the House Absolute, where\nthe Autarch's seraglio is located? The House Absolute is well outside\nNessus, remember, and even by destrier, in winter this would be some trip.\nAnd what of the other two hookers present--the Chatelaines Thea and Barbea?\nHow have they arrived? (And why are fake Thecla's clothes so tacky?)\n\nIf beloved, alzabo-ingested Thecla has a clone, or has undergone\nrejuvenation via bloodsharing, Severian does not mention the memory of\neither. Nor does the leech who attends Severian when he's recaptured by\nVodalus. His idea of rejuvenation, because \"youth is contagious,\" is to\nsleep with a 13 year old boy. And if cloning is practiced in the\nCommonwealth, are there any other mentions of it in the BotNS?\n\nI claim wiggle room here.\n\nThat being said, I do think Jon Camfield's\nsis-might-be-in-the-Healer's-Tower proposal to be at least worthy of\nconsideration, especially if he can  find any secondary textual evidence.\n\nRobert Borski\n\nps: I'm surprised no one's mentioned Merryn's calling Thecla \"sister\" in\nthe fever dream Sev has in the lazaret. "
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0019-0056@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Peter Westlake",
        "address": "peter at harlequin.co.uk"
      },
      "date": "1998-10-07T09:22:32+00:00",
      "subject": "Re: (urth) khaibits",
      "in_reply_to": "<urth-v0019-0054@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 2,
          "text": "At 00:38 1998-10-07 -0500, you wrote:\nI think Barbea is unlikely as a candidate as she is a khaibit and\ntherefore\na clone of the original (somewhere I think Inire or Apian came out and\nsaid\nthat directly).  "
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "In CLAW, Gurloes tells us khaibits are \"common girls that look like the\nchatelaines. [But] I don't know where they get them.\" Severian, in his\nfirst and only visit to the House Azure, believes them to be recruited from\nthe poor. But in CASTLE the Autarch implies they're clones, \"grown from the\nbody cells of exultant women so an exchange of blood will prolong the\nexultant's youth.\" So which is it?\n\nIf clones, as asserted by the Autarch (who is himself a master of\ndeception), why are khaibits somewhat shorter--as both Gurloes and Severian\nassert?"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "The Hierodules tell Severian that Baldanders is so big because on Urth,\nperpetual growth is the only way to prolong life. The khaibits will be\nyounger than their originals, so maybe a growth hormone or some such\nthing is the active agent in the exchange of blood; but however it works,\nthe exultants are having their lives prolonged, so they become taller.\n\nIt is interesting that Thecla memories don't mention cloning, but then\nSeverian is hardly one to give a complete account of important details.\n\nSBear."
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}