Wall of Nessus

James Wynn · 14 Jun 2010, 13:35 · from 2010-June.txt.gz

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From: crushtv at gmail.com (James Wynn)
Date: Mon, 14 Jun 2010 08:35:40 -0500
Subject: (urth) Wall of Nessus
In-Reply-To: <C04E9C844995425CA3A67B647E6007B8@jill>
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	<C04E9C844995425CA3A67B647E6007B8@jill>
Message-ID: <4C16302C.1070907 at gmail.com>

>> The Ship, said that the Wall was "a few leagues in height and a few 
>> thousand
>> long" (p-103). Bah! That's a Big Dumb Object.
> At one point in URTH Sev, going on about the size of the mirrored 
> sails on
>
> Too big.  I prefer to maintain my original assumption that the Wall is 
> of ordinary height and Severian made a typo.

One obstacle with the "several leagues" description is that that would 
make the wall at *least* 4.5 miles high. That's the height of the 
Himalayas -- not Everest but the higher peaks in the range. Meanwhile, I 
think it is safe to presume that the citadel is not far above sea-level.

Someone recently mentioned this quote by Severian:

"No. I've spent my life so near the middle of the city that the Wall was 
no more than a dark line on the northern horizon when we looked from the 
glass-roofed room at the top of our tower. I am astounded, I admit." 
SHADOW XXXV

What would the radius of the city need to be for a wall of that height 
to disappear beyond the horizon at ground level?

J.

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