Shaving Clones

James Wynn · 25 Jun 2005, 11:44 · from 2005-June.txt.gz

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From: thewynns at earthlink.net (James Wynn)
Date: Sat Jun 25 11:44:56 2005
Subject: (urth) Shaving Clones
Message-ID: <3568156.1119725093413.JavaMail.root at wamui-mouette.atl.sa.earthlink.net>

>>>Chris said:
>>>I devised the following theory:
>>>everyone on Urth is genetically Severian, including Typhon.

>>Crush said:
>>Ha ha! Dan'l already devised that retort the day I first declared
>>that the explanation for Wolfe's answer was that Tussah was
>>a clone of Typhon (although he may not remember it).

Chris said:
>Not a retort, this post was meant to lighten up where I felt I was getting 
>too serious....I don't think you deserve a glib or dismissive answer to your
>actual argument, which is why I posted this separately. I'll continue separately 
>and on a more serious note tomorrow.

Thank you, Chris. An infinite number of Severians would certainly explain why
one they would need to wear masks. And you are right, if Severian is a clone
then his "grandmother" relation is formal rather than genetic, and there is
still the fact that his crypt is Typhon's family mausoleum.

But I should say that while you did not consider the post as a retort or intend
it as dismissive, I consider "multiplying clones to absurdity" to be the most
difficult response to deal with, because....

It is not self-evident that Tussah is a clone of Typhon,
and many (possibly most) readers find nothing askance in Tussah's "son not
of my body" declaration. 

So, naturally, the most reasonable assumption for those is that a rather
incestuous "clone theory" (there's Severian and his grandmother again)
is a cop-out...that I devised a curly-whorly yarn out of Himalayan thin air
rather than carefully examine the text of the books for Wolfe's true
intent. The opposite is true, but if one sees nothing wrong with Tussah's
"son" declaration, then he is never going to abandon the "spiritual son of
Tussah" reading regardless of how cozily I can show that an alternate
reading fits the story and that the "obvious" reading does not. 

I hope I took it like a man and laughed about it in the sense that I assumed
it was intended. (If you don't like people taking pot-shots at the moon, don't
drop your pants.) But of all jokes, that one stings the most.

~ Crush

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