From: "James Wynn" 
Subject: (urth) Emigrating chems
Date: Mon, 7 Oct 2002 14:14:57 -0500

Roy noted:
Marble ending up on Blue was a fluke; as Mucor's guardian she was just in
the right place at the right time, and being the calde's friend didn't
hurt. Cijfer was married to Wijzer, who was a bio, so I don't think she
was a chem. Silkhorn traveled to several other cities and was even the
ruler of one. There is no textual evidence to indicate that any chem other
than Marble ever went to Blue or Green that I am aware of. Chems would
have been impervious to inhumi attack and near invincible as a weapon
against them, which is probably why Wolfe left them on the _Whorl_.

Crush interjects:
I was intrigued at the lack of interest any chems had in escaping the Whorl.
I hypothesize that the reason is that as totally artificial people, they
belong in a totally artificial world. Marble contained within her Betel and
Rose, which is why she chose to leave the Whorl. By the same token, even
though Chenille is also an "artificial" person (in the sense that she's been
genetically engineered), she also contains divinely-created humanity.

The more I delve into this, the more I believe this story is underscored
with a disdain for human cloning and the genetic engineering of embryos. On
how Wolfe personally feels on these issues I am not qualified to speculate.
But while I'm not Catholic, I do recall the Pope sermonizing against "making
Man a product of his own technology."
-- Crush




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