What is _Urth of the New Sun_ about?

Steve Simmons · 02 Jan 2004, 14:41 · from rec.arts.sf.written.2004.mbox

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From: Steve Simmons <scs at lokkur.dexter.mi.us>
Subject: Re: What is _Urth of the New Sun_ about?
Date: Fri, 02 Jan 2004 14:41:10 -0000
Message-ID: <slrnbvb0q6.1gkg.scs at lokkur.dexter.mi.us>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
References: <bss663$593$1 at panix1.panix.com> <20031230142326.07934.00001902 at mb-m16.aol.com> <Xns946188F9C4513mss2mediaonenet at 130.133.1.4>

>> 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? 

> Severian lived in the Southern Hemisphere . . .

Well south of the Equator, too.

> (South America, specifically, from clues in the text that I don't
> currently remember.)

There were a number of references to the pampas, but given Wolfe's
tendency (in BoTNS, anyway) to reuse words for new meaning, that probably
doesn't mean much.  I got the impression that there had been major
re-arrangements of the continents, not dissimilar to what happens
near the end of EoTNS.

Note also that the timescales are often over-estimated by readers,
not to mention Severian.

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