Wall of Nessus

David Stockhoff · 11 Jun 2010, 12:31 · from 2010-June.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Fri, 11 Jun 2010 08:31:22 -0400
Subject: (urth) Wall of Nessus
In-Reply-To: <61898d711ab4ed68c0b21512b7f9be31.squirrel at brunians.org>
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	<61898d711ab4ed68c0b21512b7f9be31.squirrel at brunians.org>
Message-ID: <4C122C9A.9090903 at verizon.net>

The flood wall theory does not explain the soldiers (either their 
presence or their location) in Severian's day.

One thing has not been addressed. Presumably there has been social and 
political decay since Typhon's time, as the Commonwealth shrank from 
near-global (correct?) to almost a city-state. This is all you really 
need to know to explain the Wall and the curtain wall, whether one 
approaches it from a rational or a thematic perspective. The identity of 
a few individual enemies is not important; the people and aristocracy of 
the Commonwealth, such as they are, have always been at least potential 
enemies of the state. Typhon was probably at least somewhat paranoid anyway.

The Wall suggests ancient Greece and the Dark Ages and Byzantium; 
therefore it is intended to suggest ancient Greece and the Dark Ages and 
Byzantium, pointing both to Earth's future/deep past and to its 
historical counterpart(s).

brunians at brunians.org wrote:
> I like the idea of a flood wall.
>
> Of course, I would.
>
> .
>
>
>   
>>>       
>>> But those all have plot functions - The Wall is just a Big Dumb Object.
>>>
>>>
>>>       
>> Well let's face it this is Wolfe we are talking about, perhaps it is just
>> a
>> metaphor to show the separation of Nessus (and by that measure Severian)
>> from the rest of Urth as all the scattered places are separated from one
>> another.  I doubt he just meant it to be there just to be there.
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