17 megatherians

Adam Thornton · 19 May 2006, 06:47 · from 2006-May.txt.gz

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From: adam at io.com (Adam Thornton)
Date: Fri, 19 May 2006 01:47:58 -0500
Subject: (urth) 17 megatherians
In-Reply-To: <f5238c30605182251s258bd27ft8082b8ed02088407 at mail.gmail.com>
References: <BAY103-F15C0369C28F26CA7AE9282D7A70 at phx.gbl>
	<4E036CBE-E825-46CB-AB6D-5893277F663D at io.com>
	<f5238c30605182251s258bd27ft8082b8ed02088407 at mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <CCC87D1E-C7C7-4258-9D22-1ACC01E263D5 at io.com>


On May 19, 2006, at 12:51 AM, maru dubshinki wrote:

> 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".

Well, that would certainly bugger up my theory.

Um, I'll look tomorrow.

Adam

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