(urth) Wall of Nessus

[Jerry Friedman]

From: Jeff Wilson <jwilson at io.com>

>
> On 6/17/2010 1:06 AM, Ryan Dunn wrote:
> > I think we should assume Gene Wolfe has considered this, as the Wall is quite a present part of the text, no?
> >
>>  Or perhaps I'm reading you wrong. Could be a bit of n00b-itis on my part.
>
> The notional translator of the BotNS signs his notes at the end of Volume I as "G.W." G.W. is a fictional Gene
> Wolfe, very similar to but much less informed than the author. This allows the author additional license to feint > and mislead with errors from an unreviewed and in fact unreviewable translation to compound those of an
> unreliable narrator.

Not to mention an excuse for him--has he ever used it?--or readers when he makes a mistake.  I feel certain the dimensions of the Wall given in TUotNS are a mistake.  Second choice: the Wall goes around the House Absolute as well as Nessus, and much of it is underground. :-)

Rob: I'm impressed enough by Brunians's 50-mile hikes when he was a soldier, but 1400 miles in 20 days would be in the world-record range, not a brisk walk.  See

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achim_Heukemes

Not that it matters.  The only reasonable way this reader can think about the wall is as a couple hundred miles around, as shown in the author's map in /Plan(e)t Engineeriing/, not thousands.  I think I'm agreeing with you.

Jerry Friedman