do the Hierogrammates care about the megatherians?

David Stockhoff · 23 May 2011, 11:48 · from 2011-May.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Mon, 23 May 2011 07:48:56 -0400
Subject: (urth) do the Hierogrammates *care* about the megatherians?
In-Reply-To: <4DD9D116.3010909 at gmail.com>
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I disagree completely! The nice round number of Apostles was chosen by 
human "editors" and by tradition. The number 12 preceded the New 
Testament, much as significant parts of the mythology of Christ preceded 
Christ by centuries, as Wolfe is well aware.

However, it hardly matters. Let's say that 12 has a real significance in 
our universe, so that God indeed chose 12 apostles, and Wolfe agrees.

Then I posit that 17 has a real significance in Severian's universe. 
That explains why it pops up 3 times in (to me) unrelated contexts. This 
is exactly what you'd expect if 17 was Severian's 12.

This is what you would expect if Urth was a gnostic parody of Earth.

On 5/22/2011 11:14 PM, James Wynn wrote:
>
>> David Stockhoff:
>> I'll answer a question with a question:
>>
>> Q: Why are there 17 Megatherians and 17 Ascians in their ruling 
>> Group? Are they the same?
>>
>> A: Why are there 12 Apostles and 12 Caesars? Are they the same?
>
> The Gospels and Suetonius are history. Their numbers were not selected 
> by an author unless it was God. There's the difference.
>
> J.
>
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