# NORTH/SOUTH *The Urth list — 6 messages, 5 voices, 27 Oct 1999* > 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. --- ### Urash, Tom *27 Oct 1999, 15:28* Jim Jordan wrote: "My own thinking started by noticing that Blind Ultan is Borges..." That's brilliant! My love and admiration for BONS has just gone up another level. Borges as old Ultan - I can only grin like an idiot and shake my head. Thanks, Jim. Tom Urash --- ### Alex David Groce *27 Oct 1999, 17:04 · follows Urash, Tom* And someone (I forget who) on here has pointed out that Cyby is described as roughly what Wolfe might have looked at when he wrote BOTNS, so we have Wolfe as the humble apprentice to the master of the archives. "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32 ``` Alex David Groce (agroce+ at cs.cmu.edu) Ph.D. Student, Carnegie Mellon University - Computer Science Department 8112 Wean Hall (412)-268-3066 http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~agroce ``` --- ### Greene, Carlton *27 Oct 1999, 17:16 · follows Alex David Groce* > Jim Jordan wrote: <<"My own thinking started by noticing that Blind Ultan is Borges..." >> Tom Urash wrote: <> Jim, can you give some support for the assertion that Ultan is Borges? Haven't read the passage in some time, but Im a big Borges fan (it was Wolfe's resemblence to Borges that got me interested in TBOTNS) and would love to see the connection. Carlton --- ### Jim Jordan *27 Oct 1999, 16:51 · follows Greene, Carlton* > At 05:16 PM 10/27/99 -0400, you wrote: > > Jim, can you give some support for the assertion that Ultan is Borges? > Haven't read the passage in some time, but Im a big Borges fan (it was > Wolfe's resemblence to Borges that got me interested in TBOTNS) and would > love to see the connection. > > Carlton Well, I'd read Eco first, so I was set up for it. He's a librarian. He's blind. One of the books contains all books, Borges's Aleph. The city is Buenos Aires. jbjordan --- ### Greene, Carlton *27 Oct 1999, 18:04 · follows Jim Jordan* >> I wrote: >> >> Jim, can you give some support for the assertion that Ultan is Borges? >> Haven't read the passage in some time, but Im a big Borges fan (it was >> Wolfe's resemblence to Borges that got me interested in TBOTNS) and would >> love to see the connection. >> >> Carlton Jim wrote: < He's a librarian. > He's blind. > One of the books contains all books, Borges's Aleph. > The city is Buenos Aires. > > jbjordan>> Good food for thought there, and thank you. Carlton > works --- ### Matthew Malthouse *28 Oct 1999, 11:07 · follows Greene, Carlton* > "Urash, Tom" wrote: > > Jim Jordan wrote: > > "My own thinking started by noticing that Blind Ultan is > Borges..." > > That's brilliant! My love and admiration for BONS has just gone up > another level. Borges as old Ultan - I can only grin like an idiot > and shake my head. Thanks, Jim. Reading this I was suddenly struck by the posibility of hubris on Wolfe's part. Sure, Cyby as apprentice to Ultan; Ultan knowing exactly where to lay hands on so many books, and knows much of their contents: so learned, so wise. Wolfe (as Cyby) figuratively sitting at the feet of Borges (as Ultan). But Cyby still has eyes to read, and learn and grow. And any apprentice can hope to inherit the master's mantle.... Matthew ---