(urth) do the Hierogrammates *care* about the megatherians?

[David Stockhoff]

On 5/23/2011 12:43 AM, Jerry Friedman wrote:
>> Depends how you look at it. There are patterns among primes that I  don't
>> >  pretend to understand. But some primes may be rarer than  others.
> ...
>
> I see you meant that some have rarer properties than others.
Right---thanks for rephrasing me!
>>> Also, this is  fiction,not history.  I don't think Wolfe anticipated what  significance readers
>> would
>>> find in every tiny detail, but this one seems  to have a good chance of
> being
>>> purposeful.
>> >  
>> >  I agree this is  fiction, and that is my point. My theory is derived 100%
>> >  from available  books. Not history. Mine is a literary argument, not a
>> >  historical  one.
>> >
>> >  I think the connection you describe is speculation and must remain  so.
> I agree.  However, the speculative connection I described is entirely from the
> books.  The one you described also involves history (Butler's /Lives of the
> Saints/, Suetonius'/On the Lives of the Caesars/--or is that what you meant by
> "available books"?).
>
>
Yes, I meant those books. I am not sure if we are misunderstanding one 
another because you view those books as history and I do not. But 
consider that Suetonius _chose_ the number 12. There were, of course, 
more than 12 Roman emperors. Suetonius was writing history, but he was 
also telling stories.

And while I am not very familiar with Butler's book, I regard it as both 
more and less than purely factual. The stories of the saints are real, 
but they are unlikely to be all true.


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