from the Centipede Press weekly newsletter

Centipede Press <jerad at centipedepress.com> asks:

The list is quite comatose. Op 6-12-2020 om 14:54 schreef Fernando Gouvea:

Interesting - though I can't help suspecting that Wolfe would be disappointed if he let enough details slip to make any sort of definitive map possible! The popular hypothesis, as I'm sure you know, is that the Commonwealth is based in South America and Gyoll is the Amazon. Though this rather begs the question of what happened to Europe, Asia and Africa, as no other continents are mentioned - unless one counts those that will supposedly rise from the sea in the wake of the New Sun's devastation. - Gerry Quinn

In a Gene Wolfe book, either the map is awfully important and nobody has studied it well enough, and presenting a half-accurate version is counterproductive, or the map is a mere detail and worrying too much about it is counterproductive. But if the Comminwealth is supposed to be South America and Nessus is Buenos Aires, then certainly the Gyoll cannot be the Amazonas.

The most important thing is to have six cardinal points of the compass, not four. Second, to have south be up. I'm not certain that the people from earth carry this over to the new sun, but it would indicate an awareness that, in this series, Wolfe deliberately did everything different from the way we do things. Best, Rick Norwood

Wait, what? SIX book series? It's four, with an optional fifth, but what's the sixth? Stay healthy, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes *"Truth is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it. Ignorance may deride it. Malice may distort it. But there it is." -- *Winston Churchill

I think Otter. Get Outlook for Android<https://aka.ms/ghei36> Wait, what? SIX book series? It's four, with an optional fifth, but what's the sixth? Stay healthy, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes "Truth is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it. Ignorance may deride it. Malice may distort it. But there it is." -- Winston Churchill On Sun, Dec 6, 2020 at 1:05 PM Norwood, Frederick Hudson <NORWOODR at mail.etsu.edu<mailto:NORWOODR at mail.etsu.edu>> wrote: The most important thing is to have six cardinal points of the compass, not four. Second, to have south be up. I'm not certain that the people from earth carry this over to the new sun, but it would indicate an awareness that, in this series, Wolfe deliberately did everything different from the way we do things. Best, Rick Norwood Centipede Press <jerad at centipedepress.com><mailto:jerad at centipedepress.com> asks: Okay. I might be sorry I asked this, but who are the “Gene Wolfe” people out there? As you know, I am doing new editions of the six-book The Book of the New Sun series. One nice thing to have would be new maps. I found an artist in France who does this sort of work with flair and panache, but the artist is looking for help with the basic structure of the The Book of the New Sun’s world. If you’re the Gene Wolfe fan who obsesses over this, and has rigorously analyzed all of the maps thus far created (there’s one on Wikipedia, and one created by Gurps, too, among several others) — your help is requested with this project. All I need to know is what is (are) considered the most regarded and considered the most accurate map(s). My map maker can extrapolate from there and make it into something amazing. If you’re that person, who’s really really really into this, and who knows the subject backwards and forwards, please give me a shout!

Can you explain more about the 6 compass points? Sounds like it would lend itself to a hexmap, which I have not seen done. There is a theory about how far Wolfe took the reversal thing. I am not sure I can describe it verbally, but it involves moving Bueno Aires to the other side of the Andes by flipping the globe. It seems to work.

In Urth of the New Son, Wolfe did almost everything differently from what the reading expected, including a compass having six points and south being at the south. Another example is that, in the end end the first book, instead of reaching their destination, the characters are just leaving the city they started in. Another is that, at one point, we find out that the man is the master and the master is the man. It is one of the book's charms. I do not know if this carries over into Book of the Long Sun and Book of the Short Sun. Also Book of the New Sun is a trilogy in four (or five) volumes. Best, Rick ________________________________ From: Urth <urth-bounces at lists.urth.net> on behalf of David Stockhoff <dstockhoff at verizon.net> Sent: Monday, December 7, 2020 11:43 AM To: urth at lists.urth.net <urth at lists.urth.net> Subject: Re: (urth) [EXTERNAL] from the Centipede Press weekly newsletter Can you explain more about the 6 compass points? Sounds like it would lend itself to a hexmap, which I have not seen done. There is a theory about how far Wolfe took the reversal thing. I am not sure I can describe it verbally, but it involves moving Bueno Aires to the other side of the Andes by flipping the globe. It seems to work. On 12/6/2020 4:05 PM, Norwood, Frederick Hudson wrote: The most important thing is to have six cardinal points of the compass, not four. Second, to have south be up. I'm not certain that the people from earth carry this over to the new sun, but it would indicate an awareness that, in this series, Wolfe deliberately did everything different from the way we do things. Best, Rick Norwood Centipede Press <jerad at centipedepress.com><mailto:jerad at centipedepress.com> asks: Okay. I might be sorry I asked this, but who are the ???Gene Wolfe??? people out there? As you know, I am doing new editions of the six-book The Book of the New Sun series. One nice thing to have would be new maps. I found an artist in France who does this sort of work with flair and panache, but the artist is looking for help with the basic structure of the The Book of the New Sun???s world. If you???re the Gene Wolfe fan who obsesses over this, and has rigorously analyzed all of the maps thus far created (there???s one on Wikipedia, and one created by Gurps, too, among several others)?????????your help is requested with this project. All I need to know is what is (are) considered the most regarded and considered the most accurate map(s). My map maker can extrapolate from there and make it into something amazing. If you???re that person, who???s really really really into this, and who knows the subject backwards and forwards, please give me a shout!

Folks,

And on Monday 7 December 2020, David Stockhoff asked:

To which Rick replied:

I imagine this is a typo for "top". You're probably aware that maps with south at the top are the classical Chinese standard, which was influential in east Asia (and remember that there's evidence that Korea may have been a dominant power on Urth for a while, including having launched Jonas' ship). For that matter, medieval European maps often put east at the top, taking their orientation from Jerusalem and Eden. But my impression of the six-pointed compass is that it's a spherical compass that indicates up and down as well as south, north, west, and east. Six coplanar cardinal points seems too arbitrary to appeal to Wolfe's engineering brain. Best, Mark Millman

Thanks. I was trying to find out where in the text a 6-point compass was mentioned. I agree that if you have six you could just as well have seven---but 8 is pretty much universal for obvious reasons.

Dear David,

I have a very vague impression that Severian is given it on the Ship Tzadkiel to help him find his way around, but I haven't had time yet to check and could well be mistaken.

I imagine that you mean eight on the flat here, rather than eight in space. Is that right, or am I confused? Best, Mark

A flipped globe is certainly possible, given the map in /Plan[e]t Engineering. /It looks very much like a mirror-image South America. It didn't occur to me to see if it might be? a plausible "south-up" South America, but it doesn't seem so, especially since Wolfe's notation says "northwest area of the Commonwealth". Is anyone copying the folks at Centipede Press on this discussion? Fernando

Yes, I'm referring to the eight winds of the standard windrose.

Well, east is east and west is west. Everything else can change. The map itself is drawn north-up, but northwest is still northwest.

Dear David,

Thank you for the clarification. I wanted to confirm that you weren't thinking of a three-dimensional quadrant system, which also could be conceived to have eight cardinals. Best, Mark