Parentage

Alice Turner · 07 Feb 1997, 11:50 · from whorl-v0002.mbox · original

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From: "Alice Turner" <al at interport.net>
Subject: (whorl) Parentage
Date: Fri, 7 Feb 1997 11:50:54
Message-ID: <whorl-v0002-0123 at digest.urth.net>
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[Posted from Whorl, the mailing list for Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun]

Checked those refs re Mucor's parentage, mantis, and you are wrong, wrong,
wrong. Silk is speaking metaphorically in each case. In the first he has
just met her and is thinking of her a young girl; in the second he refers
to the fact that she has already been responsible for two sad deaths. Two
hard knuckle-raps with Maytera Rose's ruler for mantis!

I don't think we will ever know who Silk's or Mucor's parents are, nor does
it really matter. But it may interest some to know that both mantis and I
think that Orchid carried Mucor to term. Who else, after all, would do it?
Orchid admits to Silk that she had "lost" a child before Orpine. At first I
thought that Mucor wasn't old enough to be older than Orpine---but Orpine
may have been pretty young, and Mucor, like other brain-damaged people, may
be somewhat older than she seems. There is also a possible clue in her name
(it means "mould") which combines Musk and Orchid. (Of course it's a bit
far-fetched to think that Musk, who is fairly young himself, was already
Blood's lover when Mucor was born.)

-algae-

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