{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1804",
    "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it.  Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
  },
  "archive": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 1804,
    "subject": "Floating Islands",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1999-09-30T18:46:24+00:00",
    "last": "1999-09-30T18:46:24+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0028-0151@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Greene, Carlton",
        "address": "cgreene2 at hunton.com"
      },
      "date": "1999-09-30T18:46:24+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Floating Islands",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Just wanted to cast my votes for those who argue that the backdrop for the\nevents in TBOTNS is a much transformed So. Am.\n\nIn addition to Severian's description of the autochthons, the town of\nApu-Punchau, pampas, jungles at the waist of the world, blood bats, mate\n(so. am. tea -- very good), and countless other references, I note that lake\nDiuturna bears a strong resemblence to Lake Titicaca at the border between\nPeru and Bolivia.  In SOTL the lake is described as an enormous freshwater\nbody at an elevation significantly above sea level.  Lake Titicaca fits this\ndescription.  But the real clincher is the existence of floating islands\nmade by binding river rushes together to form platforms.  The Aymara indians\nof the lake Titicaca area make such rafts, and  a small few still live on\nsuch islands to this day.  They also make and use reed boats of the type\nSeverian describes in the Hetman's village.  Another note: I believe, though\nits been a while, that the Aymara in the Titicaca area have a long running\nrivalry with the land based Quechua that inhabit the shore regions around\nthe lake, the same Quechua who inhabit Peru's Cuzco -- ancient home to Inti,\nthe head of day.  These same Quechua appear to be the model for Wolfe's\nautochthons.  Thus, I believe Wolfe's depiction of the rivalry between the\nlake people and the shore people is based on this real, historical rivalry\nbetween Quechua and Aymara.\n\nOne final note:  Cuzco (which I believe is the stone town of Apu Punchau)\nlies to the north of Lake Titicaca.  Since Severian recounts travelling\nnorthward from the stone town to the lake, could it be, as others have\nsuggested, that the magnetic poles are reversed in Sev's time?  Does he ever\ntalk about the sun rising in the east?\n\nC/"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}