On May 12, 2005, at 7:45 AM, <tladatsi AT charter.net> <tladatsi AT charter.net> wrote:But would the readers have known that the geography was impossible? It seems to me that very few would have done, and so that the author's purpose would not have been very effective. In fact it is most unlikely that the author was aware of this either. More likely, his geographical knowledge was no better than that of his contemporaries, and he believed or speculated that these four rivers had a common source.
The
minor detail that the headwaters of these rivers are
actually many miles apart and do not share a literal common
source would be known to very few and be of interest to
even fewer.
Jack: I actually don't think it's a minor point at all, and I thank you again for making it. Please see my other post on this subject for why I think the narrator describes an impossible geography on purpose assuming that readers will know the geography is impossible.
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