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<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=severiansola@hotmail.com
href="mailto:severiansola@hotmail.com">Lee Berman</A> </DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV>
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<DIV><BR>> > Gerry Quinn: Could be. But then the Sun couldn’t be the
Hunter.<BR><BR><BR>> In the sky, the sun isn't the Hunter. Orion is the
Hunter, a mythological fact <BR>> of which Omar Kayaam was as aware as most
of us here. The constellation rises<BR>> in the east like all others.
Persians were obsessed with astrology. Calling<BR>> the sun The Hunter would
be like calling Orion a golden orb. They took names<BR>> seriously back then,
as does WOlfe.<BR></DIV>
<DIV>Sure, Orion rises in the east. But not at dawn, if it wants to be
visible. And Orion doesn’t place a noose of light around turrets.
The Sun does these things. Give Omar Khayyam or his translators a bit of
credit for imagination and logic (Wolfe too).<BR> <BR><BR>> His wife
sang, "Awake, for the Morning in the Bowl of Night, has flung<BR>> the Stone
that puts Stars to Flight"<BR><BR>>Severian: "Yes", I said, "I
understand".<BR><BR>> Wolfe uses the quote in reference to Severian, The New
Sun; Apu Punchau, <BR>> the sun god. The stone is the sun. Severian is a Sun
god in a Stone Town<BR>> Why would Venus be relevant in those words in this
context? (perhaps David has an idea....)<BR></DIV>
<DIV>I said that the original reference in the poem is probably to Venus.
Here I think the main reference is the White Fountain, which will put to flight
the daytime stars of Urth, as the cankered Old Sun fails to. Of course
it’s hard to disentangle references to Severian, the New Sun, and the White
Fountain. I think of Severian as Morning (Head of Day), having flung
the stone (the White Fountain).</DIV>
<DIV><BR>- Gerry Quinn</DIV>
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