17 megatherians

maru dubshinki · 19 May 2006, 05:51 · from 2006-May.txt.gz

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From: marudubshinki at gmail.com (maru dubshinki)
Date: Fri, 19 May 2006 01:51:11 -0400
Subject: (urth) 17 megatherians
In-Reply-To: <4E036CBE-E825-46CB-AB6D-5893277F663D at io.com>
References: <BAY103-F15C0369C28F26CA7AE9282D7A70 at phx.gbl>
	<4E036CBE-E825-46CB-AB6D-5893277F663D at io.com>
Message-ID: <f5238c30605182251s258bd27ft8082b8ed02088407 at mail.gmail.com>

On 5/18/06, Adam Thornton <adam at io.com> wrote:
> On May 18, 2006, at 8:30 PM, b sharp wrote:
> > There are theories on why the number 17 might be important as a
> > significant
> > and/or evil number to Gene Wolfe in BotNS. Because Noah's flood
> > happened on
> > 'February' 17? Because Gene Wolf was in the 17th company (or some
> > other
> > military division) in Korea? These aren't compelling to me.
>
> It's the number used to mean "infinite" by the Minotaur in the Borges
> story "The House of Asterion."
>
> "Group of Seventeen" thus becomes "Everyone"--quite literally The
> Will of The People.
>
> Adam

Are you sure about that, Adam? In my Collection Fictions, there are
some footnotes and interpolations mentioning that where the translator
rendered as "infinite", Borges wrote in the Spanish, "14"- not "17".

~maru

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