(urth) The Lochage's Rant...

[Jerry Friedman]

On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 12:28 AM, Gwern Branwen <gwern0 at gmail.com> wrote:

On Mon, Aug 30, 2010 at 10:31 PM, Ryan Dunn <ryan at liftingfaces.com> wrote:
>> Hello All,
>>
>> I have had a hard time with a passage from Shadow... the rant the lochage gives 
>>to Severian in the bartizan. He is telling Severian how vast Nessus is, how all 
>>attempts to count them have failed, and so forth.
>>
>> But he describes the city in this passage, as follows:
>>
>> "The city grows and changes every night, like writing chalked on a wall. Houses 
>>are built in the streets by clever people who take up the cobbles in the dark 
>>and claim the ground - did you know that?"
>>
>> I think I understand the second part. I'm not sure what taking up the cobbles 
>>in the dark means exactly, but this has something to do with clever people 
>>claiming land as their own by stealing it in the dark? Anyhow...
>
>He's referring to the practice of extending houses out into the street
>(just plop your timbers on top of the cobblestones, or remove the
>stones first, and build upwards), or just brazenly building an entire
>house in the street. Once the building is *there*, who's going to
>object? He's being pretty literal there.

I think the people are even clever enough to use the pried-up cobblestones as 
part of the material for their houses.

Jerry Friedman


      
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