traveling north

Jane Delawney · 07 Jun 2010, 00:30 · from 2010-June.txt.gz

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From: jane_delawney at sky.com (Jane Delawney)
Date: Mon, 07 Jun 2010 01:30:20 +0100
Subject: (urth) traveling north
In-Reply-To: <009b01cb0535$75580760$9ace4a0c@rclackey>
References: <4C06DFE0.3040805 at sky.com>	<4C06E4C7.7020706 at sky.com><476916.92692.qm at web50707.mail.re2.yahoo.com>	<4C0AF273.7070303 at sky.com>
	<009b01cb0535$75580760$9ace4a0c@rclackey>
Message-ID: <4C0C3D9C.4000106 at sky.com>

Thanks Roy, however I'm still wondering a little, because of the 
frequently stressed similarity in terms of materials between the City 
Wall and the Citadel wall. While the City Wall is obviously a great deal 
more sophisticated than that of the Citadel (the City Wall is large 
enough to contain barracks for both human and alien soldiers, weapons 
emplacements, and presumably much more besides - it seems to be a 'city' 
of sorts in itself) the *materials* of which these walls are composed 
are very similar and must have been constructed using similar levels of 
technology.

And the City Wall of Nessus is incontestably far far to the North 
(Severian's north :) ) of the Citadel, at Severian's time - yet the 
technology to build such a structure  has not existed for millennia, 
indeed given the (apparent?) comparative levels of technology displayed, 
the City Wall could as well have been built *before* the wall of the 
Citadel as after.

I guess the question is whether you believe the curtain wall of the 
Citadel represents an earlier version of the extreme high tech that 
build the Wall of Nessus, or whether the Citadel wall is a decadent 
version of the City Wall, built in the same unsmeltable metal but with a 
lower level of sophistication.

regards

JD

On 06/06/10 06:02, Roy C. Lackey wrote:
> Jane Delawney wrote:
> [snip]
>    
>> Anyway - I finally remembered the other place (well actually one of the
>> others, but this is the most immediate one) where my vague recollection
>> of a sense of north/south 'wrongness' came from.
>>      

>> Nessus started out on the Gyoll on or near the southwest coast of the
>> continent. As the river became polluted, the city kept growing upstream, in
>> a generally northern direction. At some point, the rulers built the Citadel
>> to the north of the city as it then existed. Over many years, the living
>> city grew and caught up with the Citadel, then grew beyond it, so that by
>> the time Sev was born the Citadel was near the southern edge of the
>> inhabited portion of the city.
>>
>> -Roy
>>
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