The Commonwealth: North or South

mark millman · 26 Oct 1999, 10:19 · from urth-v0028.mbox · original

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From: mark millman <millman at us.ncipher.com>
Subject: Re: (urth) The Commonwealth: North or South
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 10:19:06
Message-ID: <urth-v0028-0241 at digest.urth.net>
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At 7:25 pm 25 October 1999, Steve (Redhaven1 at aol.com)=20
wrote:

> I'm new to this list, so I apologize if this has already been=20
> discussed.  In TBOTNS the Commonwealth is always re-
> fered to as being in the south and the Ascians are from the=20
> north, giving rise to the speculations that the Common-
> wealth might be in present-day South America.  But I seem=20
> to remember reading somewhere that scientists believe that=20
> the Earth's magnetic poles had reversed sometime in the=20
> past (perhaps more than once).  Has anyone else heard of=20
> this?  In the movie 'Waterworld' the heroes finally found the=20
> legendary 'Dry-land'  by realizing that when an ancient map=20
> said 'North', it actually meant 'South' because the north pole=20
> was now the magnetic south.  If TBOTNS is far enough in=20
> the future, couldn't it be possible that this had happened in=20
> its past and then the Commonwealth could possibly be in=20
> the US or maybe Europe?  Again, sorry if this theory has=20
> already been put forward.
>
> -Steve

and at 9:13 am 26 October 1999, Mitchell A. Bailey=20
<MAB at lindau.net> responded:

> Since I've taken an interest in the 'magnetic' aspect of the=20
> issue, I'll repeat that Urth, having been said to have solid-
> ified nearly through, is unlikely to have a significant mag-
> netic field. This is because a planetary magnetic field is=20
> believed to be generated by the convection and shear of=20
> a conductive more-or-less liquid core. . . .  Therefore=20
> magnetic compasses and the magnetic poles, which may=20
> have been utterly forgotten perhaps ages before Severian's=20
> time to judge by their absence from the text, evidently are
> nonexistentent and moot.=20

Welcome to the list, Steve.  You might like to know that our
esteemed alga is . . . doubtful . . . of the South American set-
ting that most of the rest of the list accepts, so you're in good
company.  That said, alga doesn't base her opinion on rever-
sal of the magnetic poles.  It's pretty clear that the sun (and=20
other celestial objects) rise in the east and set in the west on
Urth, so even if there had been magnetic reversal at some=20
point in the past, it would have meant that compasses pointed
south, not that the North Pole (the geographical one, at least;=20
it's true that the magnetic direction labeled "north" would have
changed) had suddenly relocated to Antarctica. =20

Furthermore, at 9:30 am 26 October 1999, Rostrum (Michael=20
Straight) <straight at email.unc.edu> wrote:

> The ideal solution, of course, is to pass out copies=20
> of PEACE to all my friends.=20
>
> -Rostrum

Which I do.  It helps to have a lot of good used-book stores
around.

Mark Millman

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