Carrions Siblings

[eitherangel]

Minor ( but not so serious) spoiler warning:


This is something that bothers me more than the magical Hats. How many siblings, brothers and sisters, did Carrion actually had?

In the second book, he tells us directly that he had 26 brothers and 1 sister, Nice and clear. But in the third book, on page 4, Zephario Carrion informs us that he had 23-24 children.

"-had taken the infant and disappeared into day or night, perhaps in her madness to hide the one survivor of her twenty-three grandchildren...." (page 4)

Not only that, Clive Barker seems to forget that C Carrion only had one sister, not sisters.

"There are my brothers and SISTERS" ( book three, page 538)

Why?!

[Abaratian]

I didn't notice the "sisters" thing at all. I think in the heat of the moment, brothers and sisters is more natural to say. He seems very aware that he had one sister as of the first books. This is probably more of an editing problem than an actual discrepancy between the books.

But as the 23/27 thing, I really don't know, and I've been thinking about it for weeks. I'm so glad you said something. I have no answer!

[carrionsprincess]

Hahahahaha Im so glad Im not the only one who realized it. Theridia was supposed to be his only sister....and yeah he was supposed to have 23 brothers and sister......but Clive seems to change that number up a bit....

[requiax]

This is probably something we should bring up to him on twitter. Perhaps he will clarify.

[eitherangel]

I think this is a very serious mistake from his side to forget this important thing. He knows we all favor Christopher Carrion and when you`re a big fan of this character, you want to know every detail and all the dark stories about him. How could he miss that?

Unfortunatly I dont have any twitter account so someone else needs to write a letter to him about this mistake. Anyone interested?

[Abaratian]

It's not really that serious of a mistake, it's almost as insignificant as a typo. It doesn't change how we read the books, and it doesn't change the meaning behind what we've read. Carrion is the same person, whether he has twenty-three siblings or twenty-seven siblings. We will never meet these characters and, as Carrion was an infant, he has zero memories of them that could possibly be of any importance to the story. Only one is ever even given a name.

Almost every series has some small discrepancy like this (JK Rowling had to make up details to account for errors like this in her books, for example she had to say in an interview that one character was held back a year because a fan pointed out that she wrote about him when he was supposed to have graduated), and I'm sure that the almost decade between this book's release and the first book's release has something to do with it.

[RedStockings]

I have a couple of "theories" ;D,

One: I don’t suppose Carrion had anyone to ask for confirmation about his past. If he had, he would have known that his father loved him, and that he was a wanted child. I can’t imagine Motley sitting him down and telling him the family history, and recounting the good old days. Carrion probably only knows what he knows from rumours, which are probably very unreliable. Considering all the stories flying about the Abarat about him, (some well earned.)

Two: Carrion’s mother had kids with another man, which would be why Carrion has 27 siblings, and Zephario has 23 children. Meh, OK unlikely, but it’s a possibility!

Three: Most likely it is just an error. It would be nice if CB gave us the definitive answer, just out of interest to solve the mystery. But nothing about the story has been damaged for me. If anyone is going to know how many Carrion children there were, it’s going to be the dad. ... oh and CB.