Wall of Nessus

Jack Smith · 14 Jun 2010, 18:12 · from 2010-June.txt.gz

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From: jack.smith.1946 at gmail.com (Jack Smith)
Date: Mon, 14 Jun 2010 14:12:03 -0400
Subject: (urth) Wall of Nessus
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A 9-mile-high wall would cast a long shadow across the city while the sun
was rising or setting.


On Mon, Jun 14, 2010 at 1:41 PM, Roy C. Lackey <rclackey at stic.net> wrote:

> Gerry Quinn quoted and wrote:
> > > At one point in URTH Sev, going on about the size of the mirrored sails
> on
> > > 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.
> >
> > Too big.  I prefer to maintain my original assumption that the Wall is of
> > ordinary height and Severian made a typo.
>
> It's not a typo. Sev also went on about the Wall's improbable height
> (clouds; the few birds that could fly over it) just as the theater troupe
> got to the gate. The gate itself is like a huge cave in it.
>
> James Wynn wrote:
> > What would the radius of the city need to be for a wall of that height
> > to disappear beyond the horizon at ground level?
>
> Mantis made some calculations along these lines, based on scattered
> comments
> in the books about the Wall's height, in the Wall entry in LU2.
>
> And later:
> > I presumed that Wolfe would use the "Roman" league which is 2.22 km or
> > 1.4 miles. It's still to tall for "several leagues".
>
> FWIW, in an appendix to CLAW, Wolfe said that his use of league means a
> distance of "about three miles".
>
> -Roy
>
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-- 
Best wishes,
Jack
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