(urth) 17 megatherians

[maru dubshinki]

On 5/18/06, Adam Thornton <adam at io.com> wrote:
> On May 18, 2006, at 8:30 PM, b sharp wrote:
> > There are theories on why the number 17 might be important as a
> > significant
> > and/or evil number to Gene Wolfe in BotNS. Because Noah's flood
> > happened on
> > 'February' 17? Because Gene Wolf was in the 17th company (or some
> > other
> > military division) in Korea? These aren't compelling to me.
>
> It's the number used to mean "infinite" by the Minotaur in the Borges
> story "The House of Asterion."
>
> "Group of Seventeen" thus becomes "Everyone"--quite literally The
> Will of The People.
>
> Adam

Are you sure about that, Adam? In my Collection Fictions, there are
some footnotes and interpolations mentioning that where the translator
rendered as "infinite", Borges wrote in the Spanish, "14"- not "17".

~maru