planetary problems

Lee Berman · 28 Dec 2010, 03:58 · from 2010-December.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Mon, 27 Dec 2010 22:58:15 -0500
Subject: (urth) planetary problems
Message-ID: <SNT123-W57EC8C9207E6E60FCD9434CF010 at phx.gbl>

>James Wynn: I'm not sure I understand what it is. Are you saying Green/Blue circle 
>the Black Hole?

Heh. What? Noooo! But does ask an interesting question. Did Blue/Green's sun ever have
a black hole in it?

Here is an abbreviated version of my suggestion. The words of Duko Rigoglio:

>"Nessus is our city...A city larger than the whorl on which it stands...
>Do you grasp it?  Why, no one ever succeeded in counting the towers in the Citadel alone..
>..one could have walked all around the Citadel in three days, or four...It was only a
>small area....> Then underneath all our buildings were cellars and sub-cellars, dungeons
>and caverns and tunnels without end."

Marc is suggesting that Green=Urth because Nessus can be seen on Green. But what if they were
separate planets but that city manages to be in both places- "a city larger than the whorl on 
which it stands".

Not being able to count the towers seems likely to refer to Valeria's tower,(and others) which 
cannot be found by Severian by flying around the top of the Citadel. Valeria's tower is in the 
Atrium of Time, making it likely the tower top exists in another time. The future, I think. But 
then Duko also mentions the sub-cellars. Some of them would also exist in another time, the past; 
and perhaps in another place. Green? We have discussed whether there are/were Inhumi on Urth.

Antonio recently asked whether undine space travel ought to be considered in light of dream
travel. I think this is a good question and not only for undines. The Cumaean seems to do 
something like dream-travel to Fomalhaut. Perhaps there is more to that connection and Wolfe
tries to make it clearer in Short Sun.

There is an Inhumi-Green-Urth connection established with dream travel. Perhaps it isn't only 
living beings but cities which can connect in this manner.

(as far as ecological succession, trying to work with Marc's hypothesis, Green had long ago been 
flooded and now supports mostly Inhumi. Blue has been flooded for a while and may be on its way to 
becoming like Green. We see swarms of Inhumi at the end of RttW.  Urth has relatively recently been 
flooded to become Ushas, has a greenish demon in Juturna and Ushas is the future of the Green Man....
...If I understand Marc's theory correctly)

[p.s. thanks, Jerry. Dark Sun, not Dark Star]

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