Time, Not Cloning

David Stockhoff · 31 Jul 2013, 22:18 · from 2013-July.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Wed, 31 Jul 2013 18:18:20 -0400
Subject: (urth) Time, Not Cloning
In-Reply-To: <8edd037b94d46b01a32dca194b1406dd.squirrel at webmail.prismnet.com>
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	<8edd037b94d46b01a32dca194b1406dd.squirrel at webmail.prismnet.com>
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On 7/31/2013 4:54 PM, Jeff Wilson wrote:
> I don't think she exists at all during the year, but is projected anew
> each feastday. While she is there, Aquastor-Katherine may not disperse
> from the loss of her head, because that is the entire purpose of her
> casting, in either sense of the word. I'd like to include a persuasive way
> to connect the her appearance to Sev's mother's and/or the Contessa-woman
> at the Path of Air, but it may be a coincidence.
>
> I think the link may be the Yesodis' working backward through Urthly time,
> because the night of Sev's elevation is also the first posthumous
> apparition of Aquastor-Malrubius, and Sev experiences an unknown ill
> feeling about the time he is to play-behead Katherine, perhaps a sign of
> his mind and body being probed.

Severian's real-time mother and the projection machine are separated by 
chiliads at least. I guess the unanswerable question is whether the  
machine can be used to project new eidolons (when the old ones wear 
out?) or is stuck playing the same old 8-track tapes forever. That, or 
how many times can a person be cloned over millennia? Otherwise, barring 
time travel, it must be a coincidence.

Do you propose that the Yesodis made the ancient Katherine from Sev's 
mom? I wonder if going back to the Katherine story that preceded BNS 
might help here.

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