Pike's ghost

António Pedro Marques · 30 Nov 2011, 14:48 · from 2011-November.txt.gz

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From: entonio at gmail.com (=?UTF-8?B?QW50w7NuaW8gUGVkcm8gTWFycXVlcw==?=)
Date: Wed, 30 Nov 2011 14:48:05 +0000
Subject: (urth) Pike's ghost
In-Reply-To: <CE7C89CC8AE245448E8E8DFA53E18956@Rover>
References: <SNT123-W2096DB0970A132510B8AC4CFB00 at phx.gbl>
	<CE7C89CC8AE245448E8E8DFA53E18956@Rover>
Message-ID: <4ED64225.9010308 at gmail.com>

Gerry Quinn wrote (30-11-2011 13:18):
> *From:* Lee Berman <mailto:severiansola at hotmail.com>
>> David Stockhoff:
>>> Gerry has a point, however, in saying that Typhon did not have two
>>> penises.
>>
>> The only point made by this observation is that this is meant as a work
>> of art not a photographic portrait. The two penises are clearly a
>> reference to Typhon's two heads (I think it might be auctorial error
>> on WOlfe's part to give Pas two heads, as we all know Typhon's two
>> heads were a deeply kept secret). It may also reflect the Typhon
>> family's snake-like nature. Many snakes have two penises and my
>> impression from his work is that Wolfe's zoological knowledge is
>> sufficient for him to know this.
>
> This argument is just silly. Why would the artist put in two penises to
> refer to the two heads, when he has also drawn the two heads, and twice
> over? As for snakes, maybe the inhumi have two penises, and it?s not at
> all unlikely that the Neighbours and the other large animals of Blue
> have. But Typhon doesn?t. Severian would have noticed; one imagines he
> would have found it even more alarming than the heads.

What snakes actually have is their phallus split in two, and they're only 
able to use one of the halves at a time. While of no consequence to a parody 
painting, it is fundamentally different from the actual doubling we see in 
Blue's wildlife.

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