Agilus and Agia

Lee Berman · 06 May 2013, 12:25 · from 2013-May.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Mon, 6 May 2013 08:25:13 -0400
Subject: (urth) Agilus and Agia
Message-ID: <BLU175-W38CD1646568FF4BB3EDE66CFB90 at phx.gbl>

>David Stockhoff: Who knows how much Inire has to do with the seraglio and 
>the women held there, but if he does, there's a parallel to Doctor Crane, who 
>presumably would have used a vaginal speculum quite a bit.

True. Anyone know of other gynecological references in Wolfe's work?

>So, hmm. We have no details on the methods of cloning (or half-cloning, 
>as Thomas suggests?) used by the Commonwealth.

I find this similar to 5HoC. All we have is a closed door lab and some
circumstantial evidence of the results. Naturally Number Five doesn't 
remember the details of his own birth (or whatever). I think this aspect of
his narrator unreliability is the primary reason Wolfe chose to use him
as first person narrator instead of Maitre. He might have told us how human 
cloning is done. Number Five can't (yet). 

I think this is in parallel to our own normal birthing experience Which is pretty 
messy and not something we think about much when we think of ourselves. And if we 
read stories from older time periods (or even our own), we are not likely to get 
graphic descriptions of how birth happens. We are more likely to get passing references 
which assume the reader will fill in the missing details with their own level of knowledge.
Thus do clones feel about their own genesis. 

I think cloning in BotNS is like Typhon's science chamber with its mysterious machines, 
Baldander's lab, with its gruesome results, the Witches tower with its hairless, crippled 
creatures and wherever Inire produces his dog men and cat women. Blood sharing also. We
don't know how khaibits and their mistresses do it and Severian is maddeningly vague in
telling us about the old Leech linking his bloodstream to Mamas'. Not giving us the
scientific/clinical details helps add to the sense of horror Wolfe always seems to want 
to maintain at a certain level.

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