Date: Wed, 31 Jul 2002 21:08:10 -0500
Subject: Re: (urth) Another Avern for you
From: Adam Stephanides 

on 7/31/02 11:01 AM, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes at ddanehy@siebel.com wrote:

> Actually, the text makes clear that they are from _north_ of
> the equator (or "waist of the Urth"), and that this is a false
> belief, a folk-etymology common among the people of the
> Commonwealth.

Well, it's not a "folk-etymology" in the sense of being an incorrect
etymology; it's a true etymology based upon a false belief (cf. Ash's
remarks in TCotA, chap. 16, pp. 121-2 of Timescape ed.).

> The real reason they are "shadowless" is not
> given ... but note the title of the first volume of tBotNS.

Ash goes on to say "In a fable made in the earliest morning of our race, a
man sold his shadow and found himself driven out everywhere he went.  No one
would believe that he was human."  Earlier, Ava told Severian that "Ascians
are not human." (TCotA, chap. 10, p. 72).

--Adam


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