Urth Net
Of lost books and millenia
↰ answers David_Lebling
· by quotation
03/02/98
09:36
Of lost books and millenia
2 quoted lines
Alga wrote:
teliss, I love your locution, but Ultan's mythic Alexandrian Library is hardly Thecla's "local library!"
<g>
The point I was really trying to make is that you don't ask for
a "lost" book from any kind of library. If Ultan's library really does extend to other times and places, well and good, but if even someone as un-academically minded as Thecla knows that you can find TBOTNS there, TBOTNS is surely not lost.
I suppose one answer might be that Thecla never asked for
TBOTNS by name, but for some differently-named book which
just happened to be a BOTNS text, or perhaps simply for
"a book on the Conciliator".
2 quoted lines
David Lebling wrote:
On geography, to CRCulver: The action of the tetralogy takes place in South America, and yet there is a great river that flows southwestward over a plain, and great mountains to the north and east of the plain. This isn't our South America.
I hate to use the "C" word, but is there any chance you could provide citations for the mountains-to-the-east claim? Or at least point me in the right direction?
1 quoted line
Deep Time: The hardest thing to believe about TBOTNS taking place 50 million years in the future is that so little has changed. People are still people, exactly as they are now. The average species lasts on the order of three million years. Even with all sorts of advanced technology, would 50 million years have changed so little?
The average species hasn't discovered civilisation. Evolution requires a nasty, cuthroat competitive environment, where the least genetic advantage or disadvantage decides who survives and who doesn't. Humanity more-or-less stopped evolving when it started caring for the sick and the weak.) Whoops, that sounds a tad pro-Nazi, sorry...)
Having said that, I think you're right anyway that 50 million
years is just too damn far in future. My money is on any
number between two to nine million.
2 quoted lines
Mantis wrote:
Re: the polychrome sand, I know what you mean, but no, I don't know where it is at the moment.
TCOTA, the chapter near the end where Severian is on the beach and re-discovers the Claw. I think.
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Date: 02/02/98 22:23
To: Tony Ellis
From: urth at lists.best.com
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-------------- BEGIN urth.v006.n026 --------------
001 - m.driussi at genie.geis.com - (urth) Cumaean's Star
002 - raster at highfiber.com (Cha - Old now is Urth, and none may count her days
003 - David_Lebling at avid.com - Time
004 - m.driussi at genie.geis.com - (urth) Time & Map Tidbits
005 - Paul C Duggan <pduggan@wo - 1000 to 2000 years from Typhon to Severian
006 - "Kieran Cleary" <kierannw - Re: (urth) Time
007 - "Alice Turner" <al@interp - Deep Thoughts: The Play, the Worm, the Rose
008 - "Alice Turner" <al@interp - p.s.on The Play
009 - "Kieran Cleary" <kierannw - Re: (urth) Time
010 - "Kieran Cleary" <kierannw - Re: (urth) Time
URTH Digest -- for discussion of Gene Wolfe's New Sun and other works
--------------- MESSAGE urth.v006.n026.1 ---------------
From: m.driussi at genie.geis.com
Subject: (urth) Cumaean's Star
Date: Sun, 1 Feb 98 15:45:00 GMT
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Christopher,
The Cumaean might be addressing the White Fountain in a metaphoric manner, but on the surface the real star she is talking about is the Fish's Mouth, aka Fomalhaut (or "Formalhaut" for epopts of the typos--you know who you are). The target of their ftl (faster than light) telephone call attempt; once again, unobstructed line of sight is required.
Nutria,
You are raising most of the points about posthistory that I raised in "Additions, Errata, &cetera: volume 2," which I applaud. Now all that remains is for you to whip up the timeline that you believe strongly enough to take the whipping for! Go to! Look forward to seeing it!
=mantis=
--------------- MESSAGE urth.v006.n026.2 ---------------
From: raster at highfiber.com (Charles Dye)
Subject: Old now is Urth, and none may count her days
Date: Sun, 1 Feb 1998 11:06:49 -0700 (MST)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
CRCulver at aol.com asks:
3 quoted lines · 1–2 deep
Charles Dye said:
Severian's careless hint in chapter 1 that the universe no longer expands. File this one in the tens-of-gigayears-to-never range.
That's news to me. Would you mind typing that sentence or paragraph in?
A more useful reference wouldn't hurt either, huh? That's chapter 1 of "Urth." Severian, recalling his determination to launch his manuscript entirely out of his universe, ponders:
... And I marveled to recall that all this had seemed too small for
my ambition, and wondered whether it had grown (thought the mystes
declare it no longer grows) or I had.
At first I figured that this is what comes of receiving your "scientific" education from leeches. But Severian credits "the mystes" for this tidbit, not Mal & Pal. He's either picked this up from a book, or during his years at the House Absolute. (Still can't be right, though. Can it?)
raster at highfiber.com
--------------- MESSAGE urth.v006.n026.3 ---------------
From: David_Lebling at avid.com
Subject: Time
Date: Sun, 1 Feb 98 13:37:54 -0500
In-Reply-To: <199801311711.JAA10043 at lists1.best.com>
What a great flurry of new activity! And some new blood as well. Yumbo!
On the illness of the sun: It is stated in several places that the sun is being devoured by a black hole. That much is impossible to argue with. The debatable point is whether it's natural causes or murder. It seems pretty clear to me that it was done on purpose to weaken Typhon's empire. The coincidence is too unlikely otherwise. Who dunnit? The obvious SFnal idea is that it's "the rebels," whomever they might be. The unobvious idea is that it's Severian himself, or more generally the forces of good. It's pretty clear that the sort of empire Typhon was ruling is one you don't want as a neighbor, so...
On the mountains: This may just be me reading things into the text that aren't there (what! never!), but the mountains are clearly "all" carved in the shape of people. And it isn't just autarchs, either. You could look it up.
On geography, to CRCulver: The action of the tetralogy takes place in South America, and yet there is a great rive