House Absolute

Son of Witz · 01 Dec 2008, 19:01 · from 2008-December.txt.gz

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From: sonofwitz at butcherbaker.org (Son of Witz)
Date: Mon, 01 Dec 2008 19:01:07 +0000
Subject: (urth) House Absolute
Message-ID: <W575988710316941228158067@webmail15>

regarding whether its meaningless to say it's South America is not really countered by plate tectonics.  Sure, you might name the reshaped continent something else, but it's more or less the same thing.  The edges and mountain ranges have probably changed.

and as has been pointed out

>The pampas are still there, as are the northern jungles, the Andes with its lakes, and the southern mists.

as well as the Mate drinking culture and the Amazon River.

Of course, the amount of futurity is anyone's guess.  I imagine at least 30,000 years but not much more.  As for Urth's core cooling within that timespan, it's as plausible as the sun dying.  Typhon's scientists told him it would take much longer to cool than it actually did.

I originally saw this work as set in a future Ice Age, but, it would seem like its really on the CUSP of a future ice age, where it's still not seen much glaciation spreading from the poles. Some, but not quite enough to call it an ice age yet. I'd thought the Ice Age animals a good clue to that, but it would also seem that ice age animals are the most likely Earth Fauna to be resurrected (fitting) into Urth, because we have frozen dna of them in our time.  They're trying to grow a Mammoth right now.

>>>>>>>>>>
Nessus as B.A. is *not* universally accepted. There is a
small group, of whom I am one, who take it as given that
the continents have changed by the time of the NS. It
appears that the core of the Urth has cooled; this is implies
a futureity of hundreds of millions, probably billions, of years
from our time. And until the core *does* cool to solidity,
tectonics will continue to move the continents around,
submerge some and raise up others, as it has done since
the crust hardened.

Therefore I suggest that to identify the contient of
Severian's journey as South America is not so much
wrong as meaningless.
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes, writer, trainer, bon vivant
>>>>>>>>>>

>As an aside, I'm skeptical about any theory that "extreme" amounts of time have passed. There is simply no thematic or plot need for Urth to drastically change, nor for continents to change for the 20th century to be utterly forgotten and for cities to rise where now no cities are. Myth is as much about changes that occur on the same landscape as it is about what stays the same when the ground changes. Severian describes plastic as being still near the surface. Climate, sedimentation, and minor river movement are all fast changes vs any kind of mountain formation; so are language change/loss, cultural memory loss, and the replacement of political systems.
>
>The pampas are still there, as are the northern jungles, the Andes with its lakes, and the southern mists. 
>

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