(urth) Grotestad & Grandecitta

[Gerry Quinn]

From: "António Pedro Marques" <entonio at gmail.com>


> Someone wrote (08-02-2011 17:50):
>> The Neighbours brought inhumi to the Whorl.  We are told in Chapter 11
>> of _Return to the Whorl_:
>> ***********************************************
>> Then, "Sometime back like you I go, mysire?"
>> "Back to Viron, you mean, Vadsig?"
>> "To Viron, yes, mysire. Also to Grotestad. To go to the Long Sun Whorl I
>> would like. Always of it you talk, and cook, and my old master and
>> mistress. In Grotestad they were born, mysire, but never it I have seen."
>> I told her it was possible she would.
>> "There the Vanished People went?"
>> I nodded.
>> "To greet us it was?"
>> "You might put it so, though they were sensible enough to find out a
>> good deal about us - and infect us with inhumi -"
>> *************************************************
>
> Curious... the two whorl city names we do know how to parse both mean 'Big 
> City'.

There's also Urbs, which I suppose just means 'city'. And 'Viron' might come 
from 'environment' (c.f. Brian Aldiss's 'Total Environment').

Methinks Typhon's planners had the imagination typical of bureaucrats...

- Gerry Quinn