Thea's Identity

Lee Berman · 11 Apr 2013, 20:53 · from 2013-April.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2013 16:53:18 -0400
Subject: (urth) Thea's Identity
Message-ID: <BLU175-W377A01B9220539BFAB54C2CFC00 at phx.gbl>

>David Stockhoff- ---Hm. I don't find that sufficient. Cloning is associated with 
>a drive toward perfection and stasis, or a return to it. There must be a reason 
>women go around calling each other half-sister but men don't call each other 
>half-brother; troopers are "as akin as brothers"

Sorry I didn't fully explain what I meant about a literary interpretation. I meant
to add that I think Wolfe felt he covered what it was like to be a male clone in
5HoC so BotNS was more devoted to what it might be like to be a female clone, 
through Thecla (and esp. her dream full of half-naked sister-mother figures)
(I can understand why this also is insufficient. I am attempting to get into
Gene Wolfe's head while he wrote, and my interpretations are apt to be highly
personal)

>There must be a reason women go around calling each other half-sister but men don't 
>call each other half-brother; troopers are "as akin as brothers"

Perhaps we would hear them do so if we were given as intimate a view of them as we
are of Thecla and Thea? I dunno. 

>And what about the seraglio of noble female hostages the Autarch keeps (as did the 
>Ottoman sultans) even though he can't enjoy them as a castrado? Have they been 
>"repurposed" as well?

I'm not sure what you are asking here but I'll mention that the Autarch's concubines
were said to occasionally switch places with their khaibits in the House Azure.

>Was Thecla one of these?

Given her zest for life and naughty escapades like whipping the ante-chamber residents,
I would suspect she was.

>Was Catherine?

I think the text suggests armigettes like Catherine, Cyriaca and Pelagia have their own 
lower level of cloning, intrigues, naughty secret trysting etc. in parallel to the 
shenanigans found among the exultant women.

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