<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10pt"><div><br><blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); margin-left: 5px; margin-top: 5px; padding-left: 5px;"><div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><div dir="ltr"><font face="Arial" size="2"><b><span style="font-weight:bold;">From:</span></b> Bruno de Albuquerque Furtado <meuemaildobruno@gmail.com><br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> The Urth Mailing List <urth@lists.urth.net> <br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Tuesday, May 22, 2012 1:43 PM<br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re: (urth) Lake of Birds<br> </font> </div> <br>
<div id="yiv1445629856"><br><div><br></div><div>"<span style="">In fact I think this is one of those points where I can hear Wolfe chuckling at his postmodern joke, because it was of course Wolfe himself who "made the Lake of Birds to look like" Avernus.</span>"</div>
<div><br></div><div>Certainly, specially since Wolfe makes sure to indicate that the author is also part of the story. As I see it, he even includes himself as a character: the "G.W." that translates a text in "a language that has not yet achieved existence". It's easy to forget, but the BotNS is supposed to be a "translation", and furthermore one in which the translator is striving not to invent words. Therefore names and terms that seem to evoke mythology for us, such as "Dorcas" and "Cumaean" and "Typhon", may not be the mythological beings themselves at all, nor even those characters' "real" names. They might actually be conscious choices by the "translator", who in his unwillingness to invent new words, ends up making parallels between the characters of the supposed "original text", and creatures from Earthly lore.<br><br>---Yes, that's his excuse at least. It's good to be reminded of this from time to time.<br> </div></div></div> </div>
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