Date: Sun, 19 May 2002 20:14:47 -0500
Subject: Re: (urth) 5HC: woodhenge without abos
From: Adam Stephanides 

on 5/7/02 11:05 AM, Michael Andre-Driussi at mantis@siriusfiction.com wrote:

> If there are no abos, really, and never were, then how to explain the
> astronomical observatory--the trees predate the French colonists by around
> 120 years.

To pick a nit, 127 (Annese) years is the age of the trees when they were cut
down, not when the French first arrived.

When I first read your post, I assumed that the observatory was proof
positive that the Annese existed.  But upon rereading the passage in 5HC,
the "observatory" became frustratingly indefinite, like all the other traces
of the Annese.  Did Marsch actually see 402 stumps, evenly spaced in a
circle?  If so, that would be proof that the Annese existed.  Mantis's
suggestion of trees "exploding" their seeds might account for trees growing
naturally in a circle, but not for their being evenly spaced, or for their
number equalling the number of days in a year; and there should also be
other "tree circles," but we don't here of any.  (But if things are so
clearcut, it's hard to see how anyone could maintain that the "observatory"
is "possibly of natural growth" (208, Ace pb).)  But an equally plausible
reading is that Marsch only saw, say, a dozen stumps and rotten trees, and
from this extrapolated a ring of 402, prompted by Victor's father's lore.
In that case what Marsch sees could have come about naturally, Marsch's
beliefs notwithstanding (I don't think Marsch is a fool, but he is
predisposed to believe in the existence of the Annese).

I'm becoming more and more convinced that the existence of the Annese is
unknowable, and was meant to be unknowable.

--Adam 


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