From: "James Wynn" 
Subject: RE: (urth) Marble
Date: Fri, 22 Nov 2002 12:09:33 -0600


Roy asserts:
The hand was custom made to look like
that of an old woman, in anticipation of the need; she couldn't afford to
get new hands for every stage of aging:

Crush responds:
I'm amazed that a mantaeon that could barely afford to feed its staff could
afford prosthetics for its sibs at all. Furthermore, you run with a very
self-confident and spiritually-minded crowd if most the women you know would
prefer to have "old hands" even when they're ninety.


In response to Crush's query, "Do you really believe that technology
existed?," Roy answers:
Absolutely. Tarsier made custom chem bodies for the Ayuntamiento,  plus, see
quote below.
"Digital arms and legs? That sort of thing?" Blood leaned forward,
interested. "There aren't too many of those around any more."
    "She got them some years ago; before I was born, really. There was some
disease requiring amputations." It occurred to Silk that he should know more
about Maytera Rose's history--about the histories of all three sibyls--than
he did. "They were still easily found then, from what she says." (LS1: 7)

Crush responds:
Oh, no. Not at all. Potto says in LS4:1
"As we aged, Cousin Tarsier made us new bodies *out of chems*."

This statement horrifies Mint who asks, "What became of the chems?" To their
minds?" and then, "You got this body from another person. And-and changed it
to look like you? You must have. Did he consent to any of that?"

So Tarsier *customIZED* chem bodies but he had no ability to build them from
scratch. If he didn't, I doubt Rose could.

The quote you offer does not stipulate *where* the digital arms and legs
came from, but Xiphias' came from chems and so did the Ayuntamiento's.
Blood's comment causes Silk to realize how unlikely it was that Rose would
have digital prosthetics, and that there must be an interesting tale there.

So the reason replacement parts for Marble were hard to find was that
*female chems* were hard to find. And, of course, the chem parts that were
available were snatched up by bios.

For these reasons and others, if find the passage you originally quoted
troubling. Do you remember where you read it?

Since you mentioned my own theory, I'd better provide a link to them to so
they can be readily dissected:
http://gene-wolfe.tripod.com/molybdenum.htm

-- Crush




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