Severian's skin color

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes · 16 Jun 2005, 20:13 · from 2005-June.txt.gz

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From: danldo at gmail.com (Dan'l Danehy-Oakes)
Date: Thu Jun 16 20:13:10 2005
Subject: (urth) Severian's skin color
In-Reply-To: <BAY7-F17E16D21895DA99F419090D7F40 at phx.gbl>
References: <006701c572ae$8ea39b90$a51b0101 at gensym.com>
	<BAY7-F17E16D21895DA99F419090D7F40 at phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <1f7617370506162013140667ef at mail.gmail.com>

This is a clear case of artists assuming that the generic SFF hero
is white no matter what the writer says.

Somewhere in there Wolfe (or Severian) makes a comment to
the effect that each of the continents has a characteristic 
physical "type," and that peoples who live on a continent long
enough will tend towards that "type." (Something like a hundred
generations?) Since the Commonwealth (a) is on - roughly - 
the South American continent, and (b) has been there a long 
time, we can reasonably conclude that its citizens resemble 
contemporary native South Americans.

--Dan'l

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