From: "Roy C. Lackey" 
Subject: Re: (urth) Free Live Free, corrections and notes
Date: Mon, 2 Dec 2002 01:50:05 -0600

mantis wrote:

>One of the details that might point to the city being Chicago is the
>tunnels under downtown (286).
>
>OTOH, there are cities with a 38th Street going North/South: Kansas City,
>Kansas (nice Oz tie in: any major city in Kansas!); Omaha, Nebraska
>(maybe); St. Joseph, Missouri; Philadelphia (but one chapter is "I'd Rather
>Be in Philadelphia," implying it ain't in Philly, and the Philly street is
>named North 38th).

I'm going to try to work out a personal chronology for Whitten/Free from the
time he set up camp at the Magic Carpet until his death. I think we're
roughly in agreement on the basic facts. But I think you're looking in the
wrong place for the city. It's not in the Midwest, if it exists at all; it's
on the East Coast. I have only the Tor paperback, so I don't know the HC
page number, but on the second page of chapter 59 Free looks out the window
of the cockpit and sees the "tossing waters of the Atlantic".

The _High Country_ doesn't stray from protected US airspace--that's why it
was built. It seems to circle, more or less; at least it doesn't seem to
ever be out of a short-range flight of the shuttle B-17, and the B-17 takes
off and lands from the old military base near the modern airport. And the
Flying Carpet is near the airport. The flask and the matches point to New
York City. I don't think that is the city, but the city is probably close to
NYC. The television commentator said it was a major US city. It's definitely
not Philadelphia. It's far enough north to get cold and have snow. If the
shuttle used in 1942 operated under the same conditions as in 1982-3 (never
too far from _High Country_), then that plane landed at Langley Field,
Virginia. The high and mighty aboard the _High Country_ probably wanted to
stay close to the center of government power in Washington DC. The city, if
it exists, should be between there and NYC, as I see it.

-Roy


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