(urth) Short Story 61*: Civus Laputus Sum

[Marc Aramini]

Mo, I was thinking of Cain and Abel as well, since Jeremy does say that
every story should begin "In the beginning God created the heavens and the
Earth" (paraphrasing off the top of my head)... BUT he is an academic, and
one considering murder ...  I don't think it is a reference to a
non-Christian myth, but just kind of a "rounding" of 6,000 to 5,000.

I am not a Latinist, but is there a distinction between adjectives and
objects in Latin?  A difference between, say, I am of Laputa or I am
Laputan?  Probably irrelevant without something like the Spanish "de"
anyway.  Probably because the Romanus echo sounds more like Laputus and
because these guys are useless scholars, and they are the ones speaking.
Even the Kennedy quote then immediately made a mistake, something about
jelly donuts, right?



On Tue, Apr 29, 2014 at 2:47 PM, Mo Holkar <lists at ukg.co.uk> wrote:

> At 19:33 29/04/2014, you wrote:
>
>> There is an odd statement Jeremy makes, saying his murder will be "the
>> first time in five thousand years one of us has taken the life of one of
>> them."  If taken literally, this really complicates the time line. More
>> likely he is just exaggerating the importance of their animosity. Is he
>> talking about Biblical creation?
>>
>
>
> In the Ussherian Biblical chronology, five thousand years prior to the
> 1990s (ie. 3000 BC) is some time prior to the Flood, among the uneventful
> list of patriarchs in Genesis 5. I had wondered if Jeremy was referring
> loosely to Cain and Abel: but that would be more like six thousand years.
> Also, hard to make that story match the theme of scholars vs athletes.
>
> (Of course, it may be a reference to a non-Christian myth.)
>
>
> On another note, I'd be interested if any Latinist can explain why it's
> 'Laputus' rather than 'Laputanus' in the title. It seems an unlikely slip,
> for Wolfe.
>
> best,
>
> Mo
>
>
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