(urth) House Absolute

[Son of Witz]

Ok, the text does specify it as rock, and thus I suppose you are right. it couldn't be a landfill.

I'm no archaeologist, but isn't the earth a city like UR is found in considered rock and not just dirt.
and if not, isn't it rocky enough for someone like Severian who knows of Lightning rather than Electricity, to take a hardpacked sediment as rock?  I mean, you can stand on it. you can carve steps into it.  What does Severian know of the definition of rock?  It does mention the stuff was deposited chiliads before the first stones of Nessus were laid, but again, this is just Severian's understanding.

I guess I don't have a firm opinion either way.

~witz



>-----Original Message-----
>From: Tim Walters [mailto:walters at doubtfulpalace.com]
>Sent: Wednesday, December 3, 2008 03:54 PM
>To: 'The Urth Mailing List'
>Subject: Re: (urth) House Absolute
>
>
>> surely in that time there would be enough geographical change for some
>> changes in the mountain ranges.
>
>Not really. And the hard part is turning dirt into rock.
>
>> And, if you can't accept landfill,  there are cities under cities under
>> cities within less 10k years of Earth's history.
>
>None of them have fused into rock yet, or come anywhere near the height of
>that cliff, or been worn away by erosion *after* turning into rock.
>
>> Why can we accept some flights of literary
>> fancy and not others?
>
>If there were textual evidence for BOTNS being set a few chiliads in the
>future, I would of course have to accept that the cliff got there somehow
>(with some disappointment, since one of the best scenes in the book would
>be basically ruined). But there is no such evidence, so I prefer the
>obvious and aesthetically superior explanation.
>
>-- 
>Tim Walters | http://doubtfulpalace.com
>
>
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