Urth is a colonised planet

Gerry Quinn · 27 Sep 2017, 02:52 · from 2017-September.txt.gz

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From: gerry at bindweed.com (Gerry Quinn)
Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2017 02:52:12 -0000
Subject: (urth) Urth is a colonised planet
In-Reply-To: <2E4853F3-10E8-4204-B621-48048D9D8134 at gmail.com>
References: <5ed52bfa-d521-5a0d-2f9e-118c9f8692c5 at bindweed.com>
 <2E4853F3-10E8-4204-B621-48048D9D8134 at gmail.com>
Message-ID: <24e0ee4e-0e50-1060-dfb9-92423863ae75 at bindweed.com>



On 26/09/2017 22:32, Ant?nio Pedro Marques wrote:
> But the idea of colonisation involves settlers.

[damn, replied to just you instead of list - you will get this twice]

You're right, in that the very meaning of the word seems to include 
settlers.? But another way of looking at it is to think of the alien 
overlords as using the conquered territory to their perceived best 
advantage, regardless of the details of how they control it.

There are no farms on Urth worked by human serfs.? (Or ARE there? Would 
we even be told?)? But the economy is collapsed, and almost all human 
efforts are expended battling the undersea monsters with their 
unacceptable ideas.? The rest are spent battling the Ascian resistance . 
The local rulers do what the aliens tell them, however crazy and 
irrelevant.

- Gerry Quinn

>
> No dia 26/09/2017, ?s 16:55, Gerry Quinn <gerry at bindweed.com> escreveu:
>
>> This just occurred to me as I was talking about _BOTNS_ in another venue.
>>
>> We often talk about _FHOC_ as a discussion of colonisation, which of course it is.
>>
>> But Urth in Severian's time is surely a colonised planet.  What brought it home to me was that I referred to visiting aliens, and I subsequently remembered they were called cacogens by the poeple of the Commonwealth.  But in fact they are the alien ruling class, enacting their decrees via the local aristocracy.
>>
>> Urth has a glorious history, of course - Typhon conquered many star systems.  But now it has been brought to heel.
>>
>> - Gerry Quinn
>>
>>
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