Subject: (whorl) Cities and Night

From: David_Lebling <david_lebling at avid.com>
Date: Fri, 28 Feb 1997 17:40:38 +0000

[Posted from Whorl, the mailing list for Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun]

Don't forget Wick.  Mentioned by Quetzal in _Calde_, p. 156.  I don't
recall seeing an "Urbis," just "Urbs."

Other than Palustria and Trivigaunte, all these cities look like they
could be hack names:

  (en)Viron
  (sub)Urbs
  (bruns)Wick     // is there a Brunswick, IL?)
  (*something-or-other*)Gens

It reminds me of Leguin's "Omelas," which is "Salem, O." backwards.

Let me ask another question (and this one is prompted by laziness, I
fear -- I haven't searched for quotes).  What is the shade and how does
it work?  Is the night sky of Viron dark but lit with the lights of the
cities on the other side of the whorl, or is it bright with the sunlight
shining on those cities?

It would seem to me that if it's bright, there would never truly be a
night anywhere on the whorl -- think how much light a full moon, which
is a tiny fraction of the sky, provides us on earth.  If it's dark, what
happens at shadeup and shadedown?  It would be affecting the entire
whorl at once.

Remember the confusion associated with the near-dark daylight of Urth?

     -vizcacha
     (david_lebling at avid.com)

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