Wall of Nessus

brunians at brunians.org · 17 Jun 2010, 03:08 · from 2010-June.txt.gz

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From: brunians at brunians.org (brunians at brunians.org)
Date: Wed, 16 Jun 2010 23:08:33 -0400
Subject: (urth) Wall of Nessus
In-Reply-To: <F3FE0653-76D1-47A7-A592-FD47F8B04A74 at liftingfaces.com>
References: <844581.46262.qm at web84103.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
	<F3FE0653-76D1-47A7-A592-FD47F8B04A74 at liftingfaces.com>
Message-ID: <df53da94e75abce4a09f25dbc408fcc3.squirrel at brunians.org>

Ain Elohim.

.



> I guess, in the words of Thecla...
>
> "One can't found a novel theology on Nothing, and nothing is so secure a
> foundation as a contradiction."
>
> Big dumb wall, after all?
>
> ...ryan
>
>
> On Jun 16, 2010, at 1:06 PM, DAVID STOCKHOFF wrote:
>
>> The discrepancies that have been uncovered could fit into any or all of
>> at least 3 categories:
>>
>> Unintentional error (oops!)
>> Conscious error (So what? It sounds cool.)
>> Intentional error (Bwa ha ha!)
>>
>> Only the last is of any real interest. Certainly, Severian's incomplete
>> attempt to present a flat, simple version of himself and his life
>> becomes a little more flawed as a result, and the relationship between
>> the Translator and his text correspondingly more problematic. What does
>> either one know about estimating height and distance? Why would they
>> inflate what they saw? How would their story benefit from obfuscation?
>>
>> Truly the Wall is a Wonder, and it cannot be expected to survive close,
>> quantitative scrutiny. If the Translator were to write about his travels
>> in far Cathay, the results would not be much different.
>>
>> --- On Wed, 6/16/10, Ryan Dunn <ryan at liftingfaces.com> wrote:
>>
>> From: Ryan Dunn <ryan at liftingfaces.com>
>> Subject: Re: (urth) Wall of Nessus
>> To: "The Urth Mailing List" <urth at lists.urth.net>
>> Date: Wednesday, June 16, 2010, 10:21 AM
>>
>> Forgive me if this hasbeen asked, but was it needed to keep out Typhon?
>> Was it supposed to? What else? Any megatherians want to cause harm?
>>
>> I can't reimagine a scenario where a 9 mile high wall would be critical
>> to Nessus. And I don't want to believe Wolfe just liked the idea of a 9
>> mike high wall. Unless it was a sarcastic jab at immigration reform.
>>
>> ...ryan
>>
>> On Jun 16, 2010, at 7:28 AM, David Stockhoff <dstockhoff at verizon.net>
>> wrote:
>>
>> > So it's truly a Big Object.
>> >
>> > But how Dumb is it? That's the question ...
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