Thea's Identity

David Stockhoff · 11 Apr 2013, 21:33 · from 2013-April.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2013 17:33:27 -0400
Subject: (urth) Thea's Identity
In-Reply-To: <BLU175-W377A01B9220539BFAB54C2CFC00 at phx.gbl>
References: <BLU175-W377A01B9220539BFAB54C2CFC00 at phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <51672C27.7010208 at verizon.net>

On 4/11/2013 4:53 PM, Lee Berman wrote:
>> 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)

OK, I can see that.
>
>> 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.
Hmm.
>
>> 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.

The Ottoman seraglio had a political, legal, and physical purpose---they 
were hostages who could be killed if their parents got out of line. And 
the sultans pumped them full of, er, genetic material to produce heirs 
AND give the nobles a *positive *incentive to send their daughters to 
him. So ...

I'm suggesting another, parallel purpose for them that I haven't worked 
out but that has to do with cloning technology: a source of stem cells, 
forced production of heirs, wombs for (male) clones, etc. Ideally, the 
Autarch "adopts" his successor without recourse to sex and without 
regard to lineage, but consider that threats to the throne could still 
arise in a world of clones. Controlling your nobles' wombs could be 
useful. What if an Autarch died without passing on the throne? The 
seraglio could at least produce an heir.

There ought to be consequences to cloning technology---impacts on the 
seraglio model---that we could work out logically.

>
>> 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.

Right, I'd forgotten Catherine's status. Hmm.

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