What is _Urth of the New Sun_ about?

Matt Austern · 31 Dec 2003, 00:37 · from rec.arts.sf.written.2003.mbox

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From: Matt Austern <austern at well.com>
Subject: Re: What is _Urth of the New Sun_ about?
Date: 30 Dec 2003 16:37:09 -0800
Message-ID: <m2isjxoma2.fsf at Matt-Austerns-Computer.local>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
References: <bss663$593$1 at panix1.panix.com> <20031230142326.07934.00001902 at mb-m16.aol.com> <jjlIb.259418$Ec1.8965246 at bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net>

Mike Ward <m at d.w> writes:
> 
> > 
> > Back to the original subject....That in turn reminds me how that in
> > 'The book of the new sun' Severian would always refer to the "Great
> > jungles of the north" or something similiar....did Wolfe ever give a
> > scientific explanation for this reversal of the Urth's environmental
> > make-up or was it something I missed? 
> 
> I think it was because BotNS was set so far in the future that the earth 
> had just changed that much.

Simpler explanation: most of the action of the book is south of the
equator.  There are lots of places in the world today where you'd go
north to find jungles.  Why not in the distant future, too?  (If
you'd like, you can assume a bit of continental drift so that most of
the big land masses are in the southern hemisphere.)

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