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[Lee Berman]

>> I've always pictured Typhon as not looking a day over 33.
>
>I’d have guessed 55 or 60 (with Piaton being 20-30). Not really ‘old’ as
> such, but getting on a bit.


>Jerry Friedman: I have trouble imagining how Severian could think a person

>with a fifty-something head and a twenty-something head and body was born that
>way. But then I've long had trouble imagining how he could think it no
>matter what the ages were. Were they matched in skin color, hairiness,
>etc?


I'm with Jerry on this. I always pictured Typhon and Piaton as appearing to be

the same age. I think Typhon speaks as a man in the very prime of life. I've

also thought that 33 makes an appropriate age for them, but the question becomes

whether that is a reference to Alexander or Jesus.(or both? there is a link there

which is emphasized by the gnostic underpinnings of the story)



To reverse the Biblical reference, maybe we can all agree they are 33.3 years old

so their combined age is 66.6.



BTW and FWIW, I would like to sincerly thank Marc Aramini for posting the pic of

his card from Gene Wolfe. I think it is the only view of a manuscript of his

writing most of us will ever see.





>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.



Only one of those continents is in the southern hemisphere though. And Yes, there

are steppes and and veldt and prairies and other grasslands around the world. But

call them "pampas" and only one continent ought to come to mind.





>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 :-)



:-P, yep, Jerry, I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. The theory that South

American geography and culture is of little importance to the story isn't one I am

ever likely to buy. Sorry for the waste of time, btw. I do agree it was. Perhaps

Gene Wolfe had no intention of pointing toward Lake Titicaca, which I've known of

since childhood, when writing about a lake in the mountains with floating islands.

Perhaps he meant Prashar Lake, which I've heard of for about 10 minutes now (I'm

guessing it hasn't been much longer for you). I don't know about Gene WOlfe but I

know he didn't have the internet when he created Lake Diuturna. I gotta go with

such a lake as a defining feature of South America and you don't so I guess we can

leave it at that.