17 megatherians

Roy C. Lackey · 19 May 2006, 04:43 · from 2006-May.txt.gz

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From: rclackey at stic.net (Roy C. Lackey)
Date: Thu, 18 May 2006 23:43:58 -0500
Subject: (urth) 17 megatherians
Message-ID: <000801c67afe$da83f240$f93ec6d8 at rclackey.stic.net>

bsharp wrote:
>Since the Ascians, the slaves of Erebus, have often been compared to
>communist/socialist societies (Group of 17, Gang Of Four?), the possibility
>of a 17 member Politburo as inspiration is appealing.  I think there is
>circumstantial evidence to suggest Wolfe is no fan of communism.  But my
>research suggests the  typical politburo membership was 12-15 in the USSR
>and 7 for the equivalent in China. Why pick 17 to be important?

Fwiw, according to M.A.-D. in LEXICON URTHUS, "The number seventeen alludes
to the Soviet politburo, which typically had seventeen members (eleven to
twelve full members and six to nine alternate members)." (p-118)

-Roy

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