The Katharine maid

Mark Millman · 26 Oct 2006, 16:31 · from 2006-October.txt.gz

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From: millman at heimdallr.dyndns.org (Mark Millman)
Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2006 12:31:59 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: (urth) The Katharine maid
In-Reply-To: <p06230906c165f8c08c30@[209.157.132.35]>
Message-ID: <20061026120834.B58343-100000 at heimdallr.dyndns.org>

Dear Mr. Rabin,

Your suggestions are eminently plausible.  I wish
I could remember whether Severian tells us what
happens to apprentices who aren't elevated to
journeyman; that might also be a source of people
to fill the cook's and porter's roles.

Dear Mr. Wilson:

I don't think that the eidolon technology is as
widespread as the deliberate creation of servants,
which it seems to me you're implictly proposing,
would suggest.  If I've misunderstood, and you're
saying that Severian's interactions with Brother
Cook and Brother Porter are so important that
the men are recreated from his memory for his ben-
efit, then I'd be very interested in your reason-
ing.

Or are you perhaps making a connection with the
khaibits' creation, in which they'd begin as eido-
lons of their (living) models, achieve permanent
existence by living in the world, and subsequent-
ly be exploited by the exultant women?  I think
we'd all assumed that khaibits are the product of
a more conventional cloning technology--perhaps
one related to the medical experimentation in
which Baldanders is engaged at Lake Diuturna--but
this would be a very interesting take on the
issue.

Best,

Mark Millman

[previously in this thread:]

Jeff Wilson:  Does this imply Brother
Cook and Brother Porter are likewise
eidolons?

Roy Lackey:  Huh? They weren't eido-
lons. I don't understand.

Jeff Wilson:  They seem to be menial
functionaries, and they don't have
saints' names, suggesting they are
not like other residents of the Com-
monwealth.

Dan Rabin:  Hmm.  I always assumed
that these two were perfectly ordin-
ary guild members whose names hap-
pened not to be used in these refer-
ences because Severian was talking
about their roles, not their identi-
ties.  This would be something like
referring (in contemporary America)
to "Dean of Sciences" or "Attending
Physician".

I also assume, though I can't put
my finger on any evidence, that
guild brothers in such roles are not
on track to becoming masters.

It's just barely possible that there
is a status of non-guild-member in
service of the guild (something like
a lay brother at a monastery?), but
this doesn't seem likely considering
that members of the Order are clearly
pariahs and that the Order turns away
adult applicants.

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