Typhon's nature

David Stockhoff · 10 Oct 2011, 00:38 · from 2011-October.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Sun, 09 Oct 2011 20:38:59 -0400
Subject: (urth) Typhon's nature
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A simpler explanation of Typhon's remark is that he was born as Silk was 
born, i.e., from a surrogate mother.

Recall Macbeth, where the witches' prophecy "not of woman born" was 
fulfilled by a cesarean birth. Surely Typhon outdoes Macduff (we are not 
much impressed by c-sections today) but probably it doesn't need to be 
by much. Perhaps he was grown in a vat and "decanted" or even 
genetically "designed," but he'd still need a human body to parasitize.

On 10/9/2011 6:49 PM, larry miller wrote:
> In the Sword of the Lictor Typhon says a few things that seems to
> indicate an alien origin. He tells  Severian that "I was not born, at
> least not in the way you mean it".   Also Typhon says that though he
> has lived a day he has sent his thoughts to far places, seemingly
> making contact with the megatherians.  This seems very similiar to the
> astral abilities possessed by the Nieghbors.  Was Cillinia born on the
> Whorl or Urth?  Perhaps she has a saints name because she was fathered
> by Piaton and then later adopted by the alien Monarch?
>
> On 10/9/11, Andrew Mason<andrew.mason53 at googlemail.com>  wrote:
>> Larry Miller wrote:
>>> On first read I imagined Typhon as human native of Urth.  But Wolfes
>>> naming strategum points at Typhon being of alien origin.
>> I don't think it does, really. It's not humans, as such, but
>> Commonwealth citizens who have saint's names; Ash, for instance, or
>> Loyal to the Group of Seventeen don't. (Also Baldanders seems to be
>> human in origin but to have adopted a monstrous name when he became a
>> monster.)  And this principle is carried on into Long Sun/Short Sun;
>> people born in the Commonwealth region on Urth (Mamelta, Roger) have
>> saints' names, though no one else does. Also, here Typhon's daughter
>> has a saint's name - Cilinia - which seems to imply that she is human.
>>
>> I don't know if Typhon is an Urthling, or an off-earth human from one
>> of the planets settled during the first empire; but I don't think he's
>> totally alien.
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