Severian's miraculous eclipse

Jeff Wilson · 26 Apr 2006, 15:33 · from 2006-April.txt.gz

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From: jwilson at io.com (Jeff Wilson)
Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2006 10:33:30 -0500
Subject: (urth) Severian's miraculous eclipse
In-Reply-To: <1f7617370604251329p426856c8r1eb879d801822e83 at mail.gmail.com>
References: <BAY103-F23445D8514D40C93F2C20ED7BF0 at phx.gbl>
	<1f7617370604251329p426856c8r1eb879d801822e83 at mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <444F92CA.4070305 at io.com>

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes wrote:

> Welcome.

> Say, rather, "earlier." The days of Apu-Punchau are within, say, a
> geological period or so of Sev's time: close enough that when he's
> heading north with Dorcas and Jolenta it's still recognizeable as a
> city (albeit ruined), and not subsumed by geological processes into,
> say, a mine, or part of a mountain, as the _really_ old cultures
> (like ours) have been in Severian's time.

I don't think you can support more than a few hundred centuries' 
separation between the eras. the stuff in the mines and mountain sides 
is easily explainable by the same technology that makes mountains into 
figures of rulers. And, "apu" is a surviving word for "god" and 
"mountain" (they're the same thing as far as the Quecha are concerned).

Hmm, so the engines of Typhon literally make new gods out of old....

-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
< http://www.io.com/~jwilson >

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