Subject: (urth) A is for Abos

From: Jim Raylor <rjraylor at yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2005 08:52:39 +0000

As an engineer Genew Wolfe knows that simple forms can
support complex structures.

Caverns lined with stalagmites and stalactites or
ancient forests with overarching trees are often
described as resembling cathedrals. This is true but
misleading. There is something magical, even sacred
about such places which is why those forms were
replicated in the great cathedrals that have awed
people for over 1000 years

One technique that is required when attempting to
construct an aleph in a finite number of words, is to
overcharge words or phrases with multiple meanings.

Let's start with the first word in Borski's
concordance :

Abos

Superficially it is short for aborigines... those who
were there from the start.
Must usually nowadays it is associated with the
Australian natives whose dreamtime came to an abrupt
end with the arrival of the Europeans.

But let's look deeper.
'Ab os' is latin for 'from the egg', i.e. not clones,
plants or machines.
So they could be any animal.

ABOS. Abbreviation for American Board of Orthopaedic
Surgeons... possibly of interest when so many of GWs
characters have problems with their legs! Maybe his
childhood polio left its mark.

Abos... A theatre-lover in Switzerland (remember my
Geneve/Saltimbanque theory) could buy an 'Abos' which
is a season ticket allowing the holder to visit any
production over the course of a year... To avoid
forgery they are often 'fancifully decorated' ... what
was 
that odd key M. Million placed on the lintel?

Alvaro Abos, South American mystery writer, biographer
and historian. I believe he is a contemporary writer,
so I regard this connection as spurious... unless you
know better.

A B O are the major blood groups this may be of
interest to geneticists and others.

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