Robbi Holman asked Lois McMaster Bujold:

So now re-reading (listening) to Memory, which is my favorite book of all time, ever, even more than Half Blood Prince. I choked up again, as I always do, when Miles gets canned by Simon. When Duv and Ivan pick up Miles to throw him in the tub, Ivan says, "Yeah but you should see Mark now." I've been trying to visualize Mark in my head - ballpark, is he like 300 pounds?

Lois McMaster Bujold Mark's weight seems to be one of those things that's better to leave each reader to imagine for themselves. It varies over time, both up and down, depending on his current circumstances. But never lower than 2x Miles, which would be about 200 pounds. More, even much more, is certainly possible.

Personally, I suspect Kareen of having a very private and rather transgressive fetish... but that's between Kareen and Mark. And their therapists, physicians, and perhaps body-modification specialists. I expect Vorkosiverse bariatric medicine has all kinds of tricks for keeping people healthy at any weight that we, alas, do not, so overweight, or indeed any weight, does not trail the kind of rather hysterical negative social surround there that it does here. I'm sure people find other things to be busybodies about.

That Mark's overweight freaks Miles is just a delicious bonus, from Mark's point of view. But that's not about social disapproval, but rather Miles's own identity, control, and body-image issues when confronted with this unexpected twin.

Ta, L.

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