AEG clones

Roy C. Lackey · 13 Dec 2008, 20:55 · from 2008-December.txt.gz

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From: rclackey at stic.net (Roy C. Lackey)
Date: Sat, 13 Dec 2008 14:55:11 -0600
Subject: (urth) AEG clones
Message-ID: <000901c95d65$1a9ac340$3dcf4a0c@rclackey>

Given my past antipathy for clone theories, I hesitate to even bring up the
subject, but it's mentioned in the book (p.-296) and I have a sinking
feeling.

Reis thought dying was a bummer, but inevitable. (pp 268-269)

Cassie never actually saw Rian. Wolfe makes a point of having her tell
Klauser that she had to call Rian to tell him that his father was dead.
(296) This was right after Klauser had expressed some doubt about whether
Reis was really dead or not.

Klauser, looking at the aged Cassie, asked about the "Casey girl" that Reis
was going to marry, the one he had seen on vid. Cassie said, "She's gone,
too." "She's passed away, but I'm hoping to bring her back." Klauser then
said, "I believe I understand that as well. You won't want to say anything
more about it." (296) This was right after he mentioned the anticloning
laws.

Klauser asked if Cassie had always been so skinny, then said "Your genes
will control your weight, unless you get as sick as I am or starve. I . . .
" (300) Then he thinks to give her that picture of his healthier, heavier
self and "A younger William Reis than she had ever seen". (301)

He had lost weight because he was sick; she had lost weight because she had
nearly starved on that island, but neither of them was genetically
predisposed to being skinny.

I believe Klauser suspected that the aged woman he was talking to was
actually the same "Casey girl" he had seen on vid, because when she
mentioned having shot a man on the night of the storm, he asked if that man
had been Reis. (299) That, or he thought that one woman was a clone of the
other.

Anyway, when you put this all together in the context of cloning, I suspect
that the image of the much younger Reis in the picture would have a striking
similarity to young Rian. I don't know if Cassie's upcoming trip to
Woldercan is related to cloning.

I don't know if clones have any bearing on Gid and his father. And I don't
know what, if anything, the subject of clones has to do with the larger
story--but it must be there for a reason.

-Roy

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