{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/589",
    "note": "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.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
  },
  "archive": "whorl",
  "thread": {
    "id": 589,
    "subject": "New/Long Sun; Derivation of \"talus\"",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1999-02-15T23:19:08+00:00",
    "last": "1999-02-15T23:19:08+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<whorl-v0009-0078@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Robert Patterson",
        "address": "rpatters at midsouth.rr.com"
      },
      "date": "1999-02-15T23:19:08+00:00",
      "subject": "(whorl) New/Long Sun; Derivation of \"talus\"",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I searched the archives and also for a FAQ, but I cannot find any\ndiscussion of direct links between New Sun & Long Sun. Has anyone proved\nthat they are from the same universe? Or do we simply take it on faith\nbecause Amazon says so? (I worry that this is a bone-crushingly stupid\nquestion, but I can't remember any obvious connections.)\n\nI noticed in the archives a discussion of the derivation of some of the\nLong Sun words. The one I saw for \"talus\" failed to give the most\nimportant  reference. Talus was a demigod character in Spencer's \"The\nFairie Queen\" who accompanied one of the knights on many of his\nadventures. He was invincibly strong, fairly stupid, and rather\nunpleasant for a \"good\" guy. His whole purpose was to implement justice\nuntempered by mercy or extenuating circumstances. In one scene he\nslaughtered an entire town for a minor infraction. He was similar to\nLong Sun taluses in many important ways, and I am certain that is where\nWolfe got the name.\n\nI would quote chapter and verse, but the copy of Spencer that I read is\nat my local library. I hearitly recommend Spencer. You can get the hang\nof the verse and the Elizabethan English within a few pages. Spencer's\naccount of St. George's battle with the dragon is as vivid a dragon\nslaying as I've ever read. (Another great dragon slaying is of course\nthe one in Tolkien's \"The Unfinished Tales.\" However, Turin killed\nGlaurung in an afternnoon. St. George required several days of\ncontinuous fighting.) Anyway, I would not be surprised if Spencer is the\nsource of other Wolfe references that I missed.\n\nBTW, as I recall, the Talus character doesn't show up until about\nhalfway through \"The Fairie Queen.\" I remember what an epiphany it was\nfor me. At the time I had already read Nightside. I had (as we all\nprobably have) looked up that \"talus\" word in my dictionary and been\nvery puzzled and frustrated by the definition therein. When I\nencountered Talus in FQ, it was a wonderful revelation.\n\nRobert\n\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun."
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}