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From: "Talarican" <exultnttalarican@mindspring.com> Subject: (whorl) The Whorl's Calendar? Directions? Shade Rotation? Date: Sun, 2 Sep 2001 18:24:24 I have been rereading BLS and BSS to look for answers for various questions related to the passage of time for the _Whorl_ and its voyage. Has anyone perchance picked up on any clues regarding the length of the year on the _Whorl_? Would it perhaps be equal to an Typhon-era Earth year - and would that be substantially the same as that of twenty-first century Earth? (no, I'm not asking about relativistic time dilation here; this would be strictly the subjective time as perceived by the Cargo) What determines the length of the year on the _Whorl_ ? I thought I read somewhere that the Shade actually narrows and widens in a cycle to vary the lengths of day and create seasons. Has anyone figured out the Whorl's calendar, and what determines the "months", given the lack of anything like Lune? Are years and months in the _Whorl_ just arbitrary groups of rotations of the Shade, to mimic the diurnal rhythms of Typhon's Earth? I saw one named "month"(?) ("Nemesis", of all things) in _Calde_. Mantis, in _Lexicon Urthus_ describes a lunar, 13 month x 28 day = 364 day Urth calendar; if this was Typhon's calendar, there shouldn't be any problem with installing it in his generation starcrossers. Otherwise, I suppose we are to assume an Urth or _Whorl_ year is essentially the same as that of Earth of your time; besides, spacefaring cultures might be more interested in true orbital periods. Also, does anyone have any insight as to why the direction toward Mainframe was named "east", rather than "north" or "south"? (Because the Long Sun "originates" there? I think it actually would originate in the "west", at the reactor, if anything) One would think "west" would be the direction in which the Shade rotates, so that "east" would be "toward" Shadeup (i.e. sunrise), hence "North" is to the left of east. But Wolfe chose to do otherwise. For that matter, in which direction does the Shade rotate? Talarican *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun. *More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.moonmilk.com/whorl/ *To leave the list, send "unsubscribe" to whorl-request@lists.best.com *If it's Wolfe but not Long Sun, please use the URTH list: urth@lists.best.com