interview questions

Jack Smith · 27 Dec 2010, 09:23 · from 2010-December.txt.gz

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From: jack.smith.1946 at gmail.com (Jack Smith)
Date: Mon, 27 Dec 2010 04:23:49 -0500
Subject: (urth) interview questions
In-Reply-To: <28230.40147.qm at web58207.mail.re3.yahoo.com>
References: <4D16BA1E.3060700 at gmail.com>
	<28230.40147.qm at web58207.mail.re3.yahoo.com>
Message-ID: <AANLkTin4AC1Qxyg6N=te5GV7HVwDTfpadE9soGAhhq-1 at mail.gmail.com>

"Is there any chance the whorl is an excavated Lune or is it way too small?"

Yes, it's way too small.  The Whorl is gigantic but not that gigantic.  One
characteristic of most asteroids is that they are oddly shaped, not
spherical.  Planets and moons are so massive that their gravity shapes them
into spheres.   No so with asteroids.  The Whorl seems to have been shaped
into a regular cylinder from a raw asteroid that may have looked like a
potato.  I once tried to calculate its dimensions from the hints Wolfe
drops, and decided it had to be at least 200 miles long.  That's a big
asteroid.  I visualize the Whorl as having the proportions of a beer can,
but that may just be because a beer can is my favorite cylinder.


On Sun, Dec 26, 2010 at 11:22 AM, Marc Aramini <marcaramini at yahoo.com>wrote:

> Its not an easy answer, but
> lets luck at the evidence for and against without bias.
>
> There is a huge city on Green that is compared to Nessus several times, the
> story the Neighbors or Vanished People make Horn enact that resembles
> Severian, the tower which seems like a giant ship (Roy has a point about the
> structure of the wall), the narrator is thinking about Green before the
> corruption hit or something during their astral trip there, the Rajan in the
> old story with crow, the time bending properties of the green man, at least
> a hint that hybridization is occurring between vegetative life and any life
> it "eats" catholic communion style to explain the lack of recognizable
> species.  That tall man with stiff bird like gait seems mighty like somebody
> we may have seen before.
>
> And I honestly believe the people don't know where they are, at all, and so
> there assertions are not trustworthy.
>
> HOWEVER, being able to see the light of the Red Sun Whorl in the sky is a
> BIG PROBLEM as Roy states, and I am trying to figure out in Urth of the New
> Sun if there is any description that allows light from a distant past to be
> seen on a time travelling big ship, if movement across a certain barrier
> turns the universe back on itself MIRROR LIKE, so that time and distances
> can be obfuscated.  Inire's mirrors or something.  I don't know.
>
> Is there any chance the whorl is an excavated Lune or is it way too small?
> Another problem is what the hell is Blue?  What is that water from?
>
> Marc
>
>
> --- On *Sat, 12/25/10, James Wynn <crushtv at gmail.com>* wrote:
>
>
> From: James Wynn <crushtv at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: (urth) interview questions
> To: "The Urth Mailing List" <urth at lists.urth.net>
> Date: Saturday, December 25, 2010, 7:44 PM
>
> Well, here's the deal on Sol vs Blue/Green.
>
> Marc, you have a couple quotes that give me pause--that have always made me
> feel that Sol and the sun of the Neighbors are very close. When the Rajan
> says
>
> "I've been thinking about it, and about the City of the Inhumi on Green.
> Those were ruins left by the Neighbors' ancient race; these [ruins in
> Nessus] were left by ours, I believe -- we are as ancient as they, or
> nearly"
>
> ...it reminds me of the scene in Dicken's "A Christmas Carol" where the
> Spirit of Christmases Yet to Come takes Scrooge to hear discussions about a
> man who has died. At last Scrooge says:
>
> "Spirit, I see. I see. The case of this unhappy man might be my own. My
> life tends that way, now."
>
> On the other hand, the quotes supporting this view are scanty and obscure.
> And Roy--although IMO his refutations often prove far less than he believes
> they do--in this case I must admit that they are at least as weighty as
> yours.
>
> Secondly, the change from the Ushas we know to the jungles of Green, is
> _really_ extensive and not really explained. If it resolves any riddles, it
> seems to create many more.
>
> Aesthetically, I really wanted this to be true. But, at this time, the task
> of swallowing all the implications is just too great.
>
> u+16b9
>
> -----Inline Attachment Follows-----
>
>
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-- 
Best wishes,
Jack
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