(urth) The Apu-Punchau Eclipse

[Roy C. Lackey]

Jeff Wilson quoted and wrote:
>> Dan'l is correct. The Ship has seven sides, the decks covered by "masts
>> beyond counting". (URTH, I, 2) Some of the masts are "separated by tens
of
>> leagues at least". (I, 6) Many sails are improbably *huge*:
>>
>> "Rising over the topmost sail as the New Sun of Urth
>> might someday rise above the Wall of Nessus (yet far, far
>> larger and more beautiful than even the New Sun can ever
>> be, just as that smallest and uppermost sail was an entire
>> continent of silver, compared to which the mighty Wall of
>> Nessus, a few leagues in height and a few thousand long,
>> might have been the tumbledown fence of a sheepfold),[...]
>> (XIV, 103)
>>
>> The Ship's overall size has to be on a planetary scale.
>
>I don't think this is supported by "Masts sprout from every deck, a
>hundred times taller than the Flag kepp of the Citadel," or by Severian
>being able to leap clear the distance from the deck to the startop
>wihtin a few minutes of indulging himself. (At least, he does not remark
>on the passage of time or become concerned over needing to eat or drink.)

Then your quarrel is with Wolfe, not me. The text says what it says. Like I
said before, the Wall of Nessus just can't be that tall and not be visible
from ground level virtually anywhere in the city, either.

>> This eclipse business just isn't that hard. All the Ship has to do is
travel
>> in a straight line between the sun and Urth, at the appropriate distance
to
>> achieve eclipse, and veer to one side to uncover the sun at the right
>> moment.
>
>A straight line with a sudden veer require the removal of gravity and
>inertia from the picture. Not that the Yesodis can't do that if they
>need to, but why bother with sails at all if you can do that?

Indeed. And why bother manning and operating the Ship at all when they can
use a "dimensional portal" (your term) to move people (and maybe planets)
from Yesod to Briah, and time-walk to anywhen?

-Roy