The Floating Islands of Lake Diuturna

John Smith · 07 Sep 2008, 00:32 · from 2008-September.txt.gz

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From: jsmith2627 at att.net (John Smith)
Date: Sat, 6 Sep 2008 17:32:35 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: (urth) The Floating Islands of Lake Diuturna
Message-ID: <606455.40658.qm at web83713.mail.sp1.yahoo.com>

In The Sword of the Lictor, Wolfe populates Lake Diuturna with floating islands which move about with the wind.   This, I had thought, was another strange and exotic invention that the author used to separate our world from the future Urth.

Well, I've been reading Charles Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle, a book I had always meant to read.   When Darwin gets to Lake Titicaca high in the Andes, he describes the floating islands in the lake.  

Looking at Wikipedia, I find that even to this day there are Indians who live on the floating islands.

So what I took to be fantastic was simply fact.  I wonder if there are more such fantastic realities in TBOTNS.

Best wishes,

Jack

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