More on Iron Men

Roy C. Lackey · 27 Apr 1999, 16:28 · from urth-v0026.mbox · original

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From: "Roy C. Lackey" <rclackey at stic.net>
Subject: (urth) re: re: More on Iron Men
Date: Tue, 27 Apr 1999 16:28:17
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Tony Ellis wrote:

>>You can't have it both ways, you know :-). If Sidero is the size of a
massive man in armour, he is by definition far bulkier than a human
being. He isn't just the size of a massive man, he's the size of a full
suit of armour big enough for that massive man to wear. That's pretty
bulky.<<

>>Uh-uh. He isn't saying Sidero is the same -kind- of android as Jonas,
merely that -like- Jonas, Sidero is an android too.<<

>>Just so. Two -slender- automatons. Not two automatons the size of
massive men in full armour. Severian isn't saying that Jonas was the
same sort of android as Sidero, he's saying that he was the same sort of
android as the slender pair that he can now see beside Sidero, which are
clearly of a different design.<<

    Uh, if I "can't have it both ways, you know", then neither can you! <g>
If the first citation merely establishes that Jonas was an android, not that
he was the same size as Sidero, then the same logic applies to the second
citation; it was merely reinforcing the fact that Jonas was an android, not
that he was the same size as the other two androids. "Such" and "as" are the
terms used in both descriptions.

    BTW, I went back through all the places in _Shadow_ and _Claw_ with
Jonas in them and could find no reference to his height, which is odd in
itself, as Sev often makes note of the relative height of other characters.

Roy





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