Dorcas and Fechin (and Catherine)‏

b sharp · 18 Jun 2008, 19:59 · from 2008-June.txt.gz

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From: bsharporflat at hotmail.com (b sharp)
Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 15:59:28 -0400
Subject: (urth) =?windows-1256?q?Dorcas_and_Fechin_=28and_Catherine=29=FE?=
Message-ID: <BAY103-W520D8B14DDB73BA1E3817BD7AB0 at phx.gbl>

Dave Tallman,  keep the ideas coming. I think some of your veins of thought are very fruitful!  
>From what I see, Catherine (and Severian and  Jolenta) are tall but shorter than exultants, 
marking them as belonging to the armiger class.  Only the lower classes sometimes think Severian
might be an exultant, due to his height. But I do see many clues that suggest hidden connections 
between witches, Pelerines and exultants, especially the Autarch's inner circle of concubines. We have 
the red garb found in the Stone Town, the Cumaean's artificial beautification skills, the artificial 
beautification of exultant women, Merryn's ageless face, the hints of the powers of the Pelerines, the 
Chatelaine Somebody's hairless rats and the Cumaean's creatures contained in an artificial environment, 
etc. etc.  

I've always assumed the old Autarch's explanation that kaibits were clones of exultant women used, 
through blood exchange, to prolong beauty to be Wolfe's attempt to give us one clear clue to a recurring 
mystery in this series. Both Catherine and Cyriaca (whom I suspect to be sisters), though armigettes 
have some means of prolonging their youthful appearance.

My impression is that Wolfe is a bit horrified by the potential of biological science more than physical 
science.  The mysterious machinery in Master Ash's time travel house is not nearly as scary and 
forboding as the biological science equipment found in the witches' tower, Typhon's round building and 
Baldanders' Castle.  I think this fear of stuff like human cloning (and advanced plastic surgery) produced 
Fifth Head of Cerberus and some of the subtext of this story also.

I've thought for a while that the issue of identity crisis from cloning found in 5HoC is embedded in BotNS.
Thecla's dream of a room full of identical, tall, well dressed women seemed to tie into that. Why are 
exultants the newest group of people on earth and why was there "nothing like them" in the old days? 
But I always wondered what in the world that heart-shaped patch on the cheek of one of the women meant.
It could make the connection to Thea's heart-shaped face. Why are they "half-sisters" anyway?  But I never 
thought of the patch being a blood bat. But "web-fingered wings" just might be saying that.

Severian has his bloodstream linked to the boy Mamas by the old leech. It isn't explained how this is done but
I always assumed the kaibit-exultant blood sharing must be done in similar fashion. Is there any way a blood
bat could be involved? Seems implausible; but maybe.  Perhaps the blood bat patch is meant to be symbolic 
and that dream and others  are meant to symbolically represent the cloning and blood sharing and alien 
admixture that produces Thecla and her ilk.
_________________________________________________________________
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