At 07:57 PM 3/13/97 +0000, Joshua Solomon wrote about Nessus.
Nessus is Buenos Aires. Say "Nos Aires" fast ten times. Location is part of the evidence, but so is the fact that Blind Ultan is the famous blind librarian of Buenos Aires, Horky-Borky (Jorge Borges), known for his labyrinth fiction, tying in to the labyrinthian library, etc.
But this is about 100 million years in the future (in a previous oscillation of the universe). The mountains Severian climbs are not the Andes, because he sees layers of cities and human civilization in them as he climbs. Thus, these mountains were uplifted in historic time, but in a future far from us -- or rather, from the equivalent of us.
This being the case, surely the rivers are also different. We might find a river that is the same as the Gyoll, but I would not look for one. Nor does Nessus have to be located where Buenos Aires is today, given 100 million years of geological changes.
JBJordan
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