(urth) South America

[Jerry Friedman]

> From: Lee Berman <severiansola at hotmail.com>

>> Jerry Friedman: I agree with something David Stockhoff said--we can see the 
>> continent as the result of a glance at a map of South America, not detailed 
>> study of the map.  I put it too strongly when I said I didn't think we 
> were 
>> supposed to connect it with South America, but I still see no reason to 
>> connect 
>> the mountains with the Andes or Nessus with Buenos Aires.
> 
> I wouldn't (of course) argue that the Commonwealth is an exact match to 
> South
> America but I don't think you are recognizing how close the match is. The 
> Commonwealth has pampas where S. America has pampas. There are the cold islands
> to the south.

All the continents but Africa have big grasslands at temperate latitudes and
cold islands off their high-latitude coasts.  I don't see these as "defining
features", as you call them below.

> There is the mention of the large Ouroboros river just where 
> we'd would expect the Amazon to be.

Perhaps not "just" where.  It's around the same latitudes.

> Gyoll tracks quite nicely to the Rio de la Plata + Rio Uruguay.

What about the Parana?  Did I miss another river?

> There is even a town named Salto on the route north. There is the 
> mention of "the cataracts" in the vicinity of where Iguazu Falls would 
> be.

Although that area is close to the mountains in the Commonwealth and far
from them in South America.

>And what 
> other mountain range in the world has a lake with floating islands other than 
> the Andes?

The Himalayas.

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

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floating_island, they're fairly common.
To take you less literally, I don't know of another place where people live on
artificial floating islands, and as I think I said, I do think Lake Titicaca is the
inspiration for Lake Diuturna.

> These are not incidental features of S. America but (except Salto) are 
> all major, defining landmarks of the continent. 

As you see, I don't agree.

> With regard to Nessus, it does track geographically with Buenos Aires

Except it's on the west coast, not the east.  Also, Master Ash says Nessus
was once a city by the sea, not a river.  However, at Buenos Aires the Rio
de la Plata has fresh water and isn't a very good choice for the metaphor
for time that Ash is suggesting.

> but there 
> is also the resident blind librarian there who surely can't be dismissed in 
> evoking  Argentinian Jorge Luis Borges.

I did mention him.

> The name "Nessus" sounds a bit like Buenos Aires

A little bit.

> and I'm sure Wolfe was aware of that in picking it.
...

So neither of us thinks it's a perfect match for South America or unrelated to
it, but I think it's less close than you do, and in particular I don't think we can
use geographical details of South America to help us read the book.

Thanks for making me waste lots of time looking up the geography of South
America and other places :-)

Jerry Friedman