(urth) This week in Google Alerts

[Lee Berman]

>Jerry Friedman: But I don't think we can say Lake Diuturna /is/
> Lake Titicaca, or say, "At this point Severian is near a place where children were
> ritually exposed, which tells us something about what he encountered here."
 
Hm. I'm not so quick to dismiss. The Inca rulers of the area were, like most other
southern Native American groups, pretty damn brutal (we see the precursor to it with
Apu Punchau's tribe). Pia's slavery and Baldanders' human sacrifices might be 
intended as a reflection of the pre-Christian culture of the area (which continues on
to this day? http://www.religionnewsblog.com/5970/peru-police-probe-possible-human-sacrifice
 
(Did anyone see Apocalypto? I see it as Mel Gibson's answer to the anti-Christopher Columbus
movement and the Sun Series may have similar intent. The hours of Mayan barbarity and cruelty
we are drenched in is enough to make the sight of Christian conquistador ships at the end 
cause a sigh of relief in the most steadfast atheist, progressive/liberal)