From: David_Lebling@avid.com
Subject: (urth) "Another ancient greek of the same name"
Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1999 09:08:38 



Roy C. Lackey wrote:
> Jonas says: "I know where we are," ... "and raised one arm stiffly to point
toward
> something I had taken to be a folding screen." Sev asks where, and Jonas
answers
> "On Urth", then walks across the room to the panels.

I've always taken this to mean that only at that moment does Jonas realize that
he's on Earth, rather than some very odd colony world. His knowledge is
obviously based on reading the odd glyphs (there must be mirror-teleporters all
over the galaxy).

Perhaps this is too simplistic a reading, but I have a mental picture of the
software that does his speech having a slot for "the planet I'm on = 'Urth'",
"the home world = 'Earth'"; but of course, the two are homophones, so Severian
is a bit confused when Jonas says "On <the home world>."

     Dave Lebling
     (aka vizcacha)



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