(urth) Wall of Nessus

[David Stockhoff]

Indeed!

Ryan Dunn wrote:
> I guess, in the words of Thecla...
>
> "One can't found a novel theology on Nothing, and nothing is so secure 
> a foundation as a contradiction."
>
> Big dumb wall, after all?
>
> ...ryan
>
>
> On Jun 16, 2010, at 1:06 PM, DAVID STOCKHOFF wrote:
>
>> The discrepancies that have been uncovered could fit into any or all 
>> of at least 3 categories:
>>
>> Unintentional error (oops!)
>> Conscious error (So what? It sounds cool.)
>> Intentional error (Bwa ha ha!)
>>
>> Only the last is of any real interest. Certainly, Severian's 
>> incomplete attempt to present a flat, simple version of himself and 
>> his life becomes a little more flawed as a result, and the 
>> relationship between the Translator and his text correspondingly more 
>> problematic. What does either one know about estimating height and 
>> distance? Why would they inflate what they saw? How would their story 
>> benefit from obfuscation?
>>
>> Truly the Wall is a Wonder, and it cannot be expected to survive 
>> close, quantitative scrutiny. If the Translator were to write about 
>> his travels in far Cathay, the results would not be much different.
>>
>> --- On *Wed, 6/16/10, Ryan Dunn /<ryan at liftingfaces.com 
>> <mailto:ryan at liftingfaces.com>>/* wrote:
>>
>>
>>     From: Ryan Dunn <ryan at liftingfaces.com
>>     <mailto:ryan at liftingfaces.com>>
>>     Subject: Re: (urth) Wall of Nessus
>>     To: "The Urth Mailing List" <urth at lists.urth.net
>>     <mailto:urth at lists.urth.net>>
>>     Date: Wednesday, June 16, 2010, 10:21 AM
>>
>>     Forgive me if this hasbeen asked, but was it needed to keep out
>>     Typhon? Was it supposed to? What else? Any megatherians want to
>>     cause harm?
>>
>>     I can't reimagine a scenario where a 9 mile high wall would be
>>     critical to Nessus. And I don't want to believe Wolfe just liked
>>     the idea of a 9 mike high wall. Unless it was a sarcastic jab at
>>     immigration reform.
>>
>>     ...ryan
>>
>>     On Jun 16, 2010, at 7:28 AM, David Stockhoff
>>     <dstockhoff at verizon.net> wrote:
>>
>>     > So it's truly a Big Object.
>>     >
>>     > But how Dumb is it? That's the question ...
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