Seventeen

Nicholas Gevers · 23 May 2011, 09:43 · from 2011-May.txt.gz

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From: vermoulian at yahoo.com (Nicholas Gevers)
Date: Mon, 23 May 2011 02:43:36 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: (urth) Seventeen
Message-ID: <110412.27544.qm at web32104.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

A possible reference by Wolfe is to the Dutch East India Company of the 17th and 
18th centuries, which was governed by a board of managers or factors called the 
"Heere Seventien" or Group of Seventeen. Given the Company's association with 
the sea, and origin in a country partly reclaimed from the sea, Wolfe might have 
intended a coded pelagic reference, thus to Abaia, Scylla, and the rest. The 
DEIC didn't have a very savoury reputation. Of course, the only overt reference 
to the Dutch in the entire Briah Cycle is in *On Blue's Waters* and *Return to 
the Whorl*, with Dorp and its doughty sailors...

--Nick Gevers.

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