planetary problems

Gerry Quinn · 29 Dec 2010, 21:40 · from 2010-December.txt.gz

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From: gerryq at indigo.ie (Gerry Quinn)
Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2010 21:40:02 -0000
Subject: (urth) planetary problems
References: <SNT123-W57EC8C9207E6E60FCD9434CF010 at phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <F1EBB91DD83C40F2BD2A7CCF572027BF@jill>


----- 
From: "Lee Berman" <severiansola at hotmail.com>
>
>>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.

Not being able to count the towers is a common enough way of saying there 
were a lot of towers.  The city is enormous with its towers and sub-cellars. 
Rigoglio's assertion that the city is bigger than Urth is simply hyperbole 
IMO.

- Gerry Quinn

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