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confusion got me accused of being an anti Asian racist—which I'm not. Actually, the word "ascian" literally means "people without shadows." It was a word used in the
Classical world for people who lived near the Equator, where the Sun is dead overhead at noon and thus produces no shadow. I felt it would be an interesting touch to show that the ordinary man in the street in the Southern Hemisphere wasn't even conscious that their attackers are coming down from the Northern Hemisphere (they aren't even aware that there is another hemisphere).
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If you read the book carefully, it's clear that the action is taking place in South
America and that the invading Ascians are actually North Americans. What I didn't anticipate was that nine tenths of my readers and reviewers would look at the word "Ascian" and say, "Oh, these guys are Asians!" This
136:(where most protagonists of the books live), there are interpreters in the Ascian army to interrogate prisoners. These speak the language of the Commonwealth, but as they are unable to think outside the approved texts, what they say is merely literal translations of the Ascian approved sentences.
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Nevertheless, Gene Wolfe suggests that in practice, the concept of Ascian does not work out entirely as intended. It is shown that intelligent
Ascians are very well able to express, by means of approved sentences only, meanings that exceed those of the quoted sources. They simply quote sentences
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series, there is a story told by an Ascian prisoner (who identifies himself only as "Loyal to the Group of
Seventeen"), which is translated by people of the Commonwealth into our way of speaking. Some examples from this story are:
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165:. In order to prevent the Ascians from ever developing critical thought (and subsequently inciting revolts), the language is limited as to make it impossible to express any such thought. This corresponds to the
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The Ascian language consists of two levels: On the low level it is an ordinary language, of whose syntax, grammar and vocabulary virtually nothing is known. The second level is more complex and unique.
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Although Ascian is their mother tongue, adult
Ascians do not understand plain Ascian sentences unless they are direct quotations from governmental propaganda materials, referred to as
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247:, literally 'without a shadow'. In the tropics, the sun is exactly overhead at noon twice a year, and at that time a person standing straight up will cast no shadow.
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How are the hands nourished? By the blood. How does the blood reach the hands? By the veins. If the veins are closed, the hands will rot away.
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In times past, loyalty to the cause of the populace was to be found everywhere. The will of the Group of
Seventeen was the will of everyone.
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Although unfamiliar to most readers, this is not a word invented by Wolfe, nor is it a form of "Asians"; rather, it means 'dweller of the
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129:. Thus, in order to communicate, an Ascian has to know by heart thousands of these quotations (sentences) on many different topics.
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to impose on their people this complicated concept of a language is much like Orwell's concept of
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The language is spoken by the inhabitants of the “northern continents” of the future earth, the
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The people meeting in counsel may judge, but no one is to receive more than a hundred blows.
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which have certain connotations, regardless of the actual meaning of the approved text.
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Gene Wolfe: The Book of the New Sun, Volume 4 (The
Citadel of the Autarch),
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How I Lost the Second World War and Helped Turn Back the German
Invasion
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223:"He went to the capital and complained of the way he had been treated."
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297:(3). Interviewed by McCaffery, Larry. SF-TH Inc. at DePauw University
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285:"On Encompassing the Entire Universe: An Interview with Gene Wolfe"
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The Island of Doctor Death and Other
Stories and Other Stories
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Where the Group of
Seventeen sit, there final justice is done.
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A very similar concept of a language is presented in the
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As the northern continents are at war with the southern
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In "The Citadel of the Autarch", the fourth volume of
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103:) in a way much like the people of Oceania in
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214:"He left that farm and took to the roads."
99:, who are enslaved by their masters (the
62:Learn how and when to remove this message
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236:', and it came into English by way of
7:
326:from the original on 11 January 2008
205:"He complained, and they beat him."
34:tone or style may not reflect the
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44:guide to writing better articles
23:
86:for his science fiction series
883:A Walking Tour of the Shambles
142:Star Trek: The Next Generation
1:
869:The Woman the Unicorn Loved
658:Pandora, By Holly Hollander
403:The Claw of the Conciliator
320:"Oxford English Dictionary"
960:
855:The Death of Doctor Island
773:Storeys from the Old Hotel
610:The Fifth Head of Cerberus
419:The Citadel of the Autarch
395:The Shadow of the Torturer
741:Gene Wolfe's Book of Days
487:The Book of the Short Sun
450:Nightside of the Long Sun
474:Exodus from the Long Sun
440:The Book of the Long Sun
725:Short story collections
427:The Urth of the New Sun
411:The Sword of the Lictor
385:The Book of the New Sun
290:Science Fiction Studies
183:The Book of the New Sun
89:The Book of the New Sun
38:used on Knowledge (XXG)
840:Short stories/Novellas
829:The Best of Gene Wolfe
167:Sapir–Whorf hypothesis
42:See Knowledge (XXG)'s
749:The Wolfe Archipelago
626:The Devil in a Forest
466:Caldé of the Long Sun
876:A Cabin on the Coast
757:Plan(e)t Engineering
682:The Sorcerer's House
458:Lake of the Long Sun
240:as an adaptation of
934:Fictional languages
901:Fictional creations
536:Soldier of the Mist
513:Return to the Whorl
196:"Once upon a time…"
157:The reason for the
781:Endangered Species
594:Stand-alone novels
505:In Green's Jungles
159:Group of Seventeen
101:Group of Seventeen
80:fictional language
16:Fictional language
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821:Starwater Strains
805:Strange Travelers
714:Interlibrary Loan
565:The Wizard Knight
283:(December 1988).
228:The word "Ascian"
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36:encyclopedic tone
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813:Innocents Aboard
552:Soldier of Sidon
544:Soldier of Arete
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281:Wolfe, Gene
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690:Home Fires
650:Castleview
583:The Wizard
575:The Knight
376:Gene Wolfe
330:2008-01-16
301:2008-01-16
251:References
153:Psychology
84:Gene Wolfe
52:April 2022
765:Bibliomen
145:episode "
908:Severian
893:" (2007)
891:Memorare
878:" (1984)
871:" (1981)
864:" (1975)
857:" (1973)
850:" (1973)
324:Archived
177:Examples
163:Newspeak
107:'s book
526:Soldier
234:tropics
97:Ascians
886:(2002)
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245:ἄσκιος
147:Darmok
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110:1984
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