City On Green

Lee Berman · 01 Jan 2011, 12:26 · from 2011-January.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Sat, 1 Jan 2011 07:26:48 -0500
Subject: (urth) City On Green
Message-ID: <SNT123-W439BB61891E5D93C54D83FCF050 at phx.gbl>

>Jeff Wilson: Since Nessus moves upriver over time, it cannot be said for certain that 
>the roads and the port were part of the city when they were open in the same way they 
>are in Severian's time.

I was aware of that movement but I think I can still say for certain Nessus was the center
of things on Urth for all intents and purposes. Autarch Somebody closed the roads so it wasn't 
so long ago when that happened. Nessus seems to be the capital city of the capital planet of an 
interstellar empire in Typhon's time. Severian starts in Nessus and returns time and time again. 
If the story is a Labryrinth with twisting paths turning in upon themselves, Nessus is surely 
its center. 

Perhaps Wolfe had no thoughts of the word nexus when he chose the name of this city with 
multi-book importance.  But I don't see the value in postulating that Nessus was not the 
center of civilization in Urth's visible past. We could say, "Maybe it was Yorkessus in 
Ascia. Or maybe Seoulessus in the Xanthic Lands", but what is the point of that? If you 
don't like the idea of the name Nessus being related the word nexus, why not just say that?

[FWIW, poking around the text on this issue uncovered some possible support for James' idea
that Typhon mirrors Alexander The Great. As Severian is being taken from the Citadel to
Typhon's mountain retreat, the accompanying soldiers are described as, "maintained with the 
disciplined precision of hand-colored troops commanded by a child.."

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