A is for Abos

As an engineer Genew Wolfe knows that simple forms can support complex structures. Caverns lined with stalagmites and stalactites or ancient forests with overarching trees are often described as resembling cathedrals. This is true but misleading. There is something magical, even sacred about such places which is why those forms were replicated in the great cathedrals that have awed people for over 1000 years One technique that is required when attempting to construct an aleph in a finite number of words, is to overcharge words or phrases with multiple meanings. Let's start with the first word in Borski's concordance : Abos Superficially it is short for aborigines... those who were there from the start. Must usually nowadays it is associated with the Australian natives whose dreamtime came to an abrupt end with the arrival of the Europeans. But let's look deeper. 'Ab os' is latin for 'from the egg', i.e. not clones, plants or machines. So they could be any animal. ABOS. Abbreviation for American Board of Orthopaedic Surgeons... possibly of interest when so many of GWs characters have problems with their legs! Maybe his childhood polio left its mark. Abos... A theatre-lover in Switzerland (remember my Geneve/Saltimbanque theory) could buy an 'Abos' which is a season ticket allowing the holder to visit any production over the course of a year... To avoid forgery they are often 'fancifully decorated' ... what was that odd key M. Million placed on the lintel? Alvaro Abos, South American mystery writer, biographer and historian. I believe he is a contemporary writer, so I regard this connection as spurious... unless you know better. A B O are the major blood groups this may be of interest to geneticists and others.