(urth) House Absolute

[David Stockhoff]

Thanks for the links, Tim. It looks like the "exact" origin of Nessus is unsettled enough for my theory to fit without contradicting anyone else's South American theory. I agree that a nod to Borges is extremely likely---without necessarily dictating exact coordinates.

And I think the posters' suspicions about Severian's descriptions of spatial relations is fair on several levels. He has occupied several different bodies---how could he comfortably describe Thecla's left hand, just as a random example, as being on his (Severian's) right, when he also had known it to be on his (Thecla's) left? 

As an aside, I'm skeptical about any theory that "extreme" amounts of time have passed. There is simply no thematic or plot need for Urth to drastically change, nor for continents to change for the 20th century to be utterly forgotten and for cities to rise where now no cities are. Myth is as much about changes that occur on the same landscape as it is about what stays the same when the ground changes. Severian describes plastic as being still near the surface. Climate, sedimentation, and minor river movement are all fast changes vs any kind of mountain formation; so are language change/loss, cultural memory loss, and the replacement of political systems.

The pampas are still there, as are the northern jungles, the Andes with its lakes, and the southern mists. 


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Message: 4
Date: Mon, 1 Dec 2008 16:43:42 -0000
From: "O'Donnell, Tim (BOSI)" <Tim.O'Donnell at bankofscotland.ie>
Subject: (urth) House Absolute
To: <urth at urth.net>
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	<63FB9AC7E0AEC7459DBCC99DC44247CA01F6AFEA at BOSIDEXDB.Bankofscotland.ie>
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Hi David,

I thought that Nessus = Buenos Ares was accepted here but I could be wrong.

In the archives I can find the following discussions:

http://lists.urth.net/htdig.cgi/urth-urth.net/2008-September/010056.html

http://lists.urth.net/htdig.cgi/urth-urth.net/2007-December/008446.html

Although I do remember further discussion on the older lists (I had a great few months in a new job where I had the opportunity to read through the entire archives).

Your objection based on the flow of the river came up.  At least one person (Raster) suggested that Severian may have spatial dyslexia and raised some interesting points in this regard:

http://www.urth.net/urth/archives/v0001/0021.shtml


Just on the point of the House Absolute connecting to Nessus (and I am in no way welded to the idea, just throwing some ideas around)
at least 2 ways in which this could be the case and the two could be at a long remove:
i)  Some transport device like the one Typhon uses to ascend to the top of the mountain with his face carved on it could be used to move around.  IIIRC there is a suggestion of anti-gravity device in operation here
ii) One of Father Inire's devices could be at work here.  Some variation on mirrors for transport to allow rapid transport.

Is it established how long it takes to walk between the House Absolute and Nessus?  The tunnels are certainly extensive enough to allow children to be lost and possibly for timber wolves to live in the tunnels.
There is also the possibility that the tunnels joining these two are extremely long.

As I say, I don't think it is that important to the story, just idle speculation...


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