Subject: (urth) Urth's Unknown Names

From: C R Culver <crculver at aol.com>
Date: Fri, 27 Mar 1998 02:49:20 +0000

[Posted from URTH, a mailing list about Gene Wolfe's New Sun and other works]

Just been thinking lately about secret, forgotten, or just plain unknown names
in the BotNS:

1) Hethor's real name
2) The real name of the town that forgot Fauna
3) Valeria's second husband (who *was* he? any ideas?)
4) The names of the planets beside Urth, Verthandi, Skuld, and Dis.
5) The names of the 17 Megatherians (doesn't really matter, though), or a
single member of the Group of Seventeen
6) The previous Lictor of Thrax.
7) Cyriaca's husband.
8) The name of Dorcas' ("Cas") husband.
9) The Cumaean's real name, if any.
10) The name (and purpose) of Baldanders' undine.

Christopher R. Culver <crculver at aol.com>
http://members.aol.com/crculver/index.html

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

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From: Peter Stephenson <pws at ifh.de>
Date: Fri, 27 Mar 1998 08:55:38 +0000

C R Culver wrote:
> Just been thinking lately about secret, forgotten, or just plain
> unknown names in the BotNS:
>

I always assumed the latter were referred to simply as `Member of the
Group of Seventeen', or something such?  It doesn't seem likely they
go in for shining dinner party repartee (reminds me of a comedy sketch
in a car factor with the punchline `Built by Roberts').  Is there any
indication that the leaders, unlike the rest, have real names?  I
always associated Ascians with ASCII, maybe they're called NUL, BEL,
...

Peter