(urth) Ansible Interview

[Matthew Groves]

On Tue, Jan 27, 2009 at 8:55 PM, James Wynn <crushtv at gmail.com> wrote:
> Wolfe said:
> "Where is the difficulty, unless all the valleys run
> parallel to the Long Sun? Naturally they don't. "
>
> I have always understood
> "run parallel" to mean "on a plane that is in congruence with the line Long
> Sun" such that it was perpendicular to the light coming from the Long
> Sun...which is the only way there could be shadows.

I agree that this is the only way there could be shadows, but I think
it's pretty clear that when Wolfe talks about "valleys [that] run
parallel to the long sun," he's imagining a valley whose long
dimension aligns with the east-west axis of the whorl, implying that
he believes that a valley whose long dimension runs at an angle to the
east-west axis would somehow be in shadow.  I don't see how that's
possible without Stanisław somehow being right about light coming from
the east or west but not overhead, but I think that's contradicted by
the text at several points, though I admit I don't fully understand
Horn's and Silk's conversation about the Pylon and how it generates
the shade.

All of this is admittedly of very little importance, but there's snow
and bitter cold here in the Midwest, and nothing to do but sit inside
and think about the geometry of the Whorl.  What I wouldn't give for
even a long sun on a day like today!