Mystery of Ascia

Son of Witz · 20 Jan 2011, 21:20 · from 2011-January.txt.gz

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From: Sonofwitz at butcherbaker.org (Son of Witz)
Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2011 13:20:59 -0800
Subject: (urth) Mystery of Ascia
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTimmqUjTExJXuOD=m1O+3ED9WV3v57WEaeL9+KBv at mail.gmail.com>
References: <AANLkTimmqUjTExJXuOD=m1O+3ED9WV3v57WEaeL9+KBv at mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <AA527346-C4B6-4AC1-8D7B-53F3B1DF4774 at butcherbaker.org>

On Jan 20, 2011, at 1:03 PM, Andrew Mason <andrew.mason53 at googlemail.com> wrote:

> Son of Witz wrote: .
> 
>> Sure, I suppose I can swallow the asian androgeny bit. Severian describes her eyes as "strangely tilted" and her nose as upturned.  I think this is more or less safe to say she is asian or Ascian. The tilt would seem strange to him because they seem novel.
> 
> She may be Asian, but not Ascian. Wolfe has been quite insistent that
> Ascians are not Asian - they are North American. Asians are
> Xanthoderms or from the Xanthic lands.
> 

Hmmm,
Frankly, I think the comment is ass-covering in a PC era.
North Americans could very well be Asian by the time of the story.
Wolfe leans Libertarian. I've heard many a Libertarian express the concern/prediction that China will overtake the US in the near future.  Not implausible at all, really.
Clearly, these stand-ins for the "Godless Communists" embodied in Wolfe's life by the asians he combatted.  The description and name seems so asian to me I think Wolfe is just back-pedaling in the interview.

And, you know, Wolfe said "Green is Urth" as well, but that is routinely dismissed.

Isn't Halavard from the Xanthic lands? He seems Scandinavian.

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