Week 3

[Charlene]

Week three

Probably about pages 100 to 150.

[Ginny]

Obviously, "The Earth's Navel" is a city, and represents cities in general. But there is a city, Cusco or Cuzco, in Peru, whose name actually means this: "Cuzco, whose name derives from a Quechua word meaning “navel” or “centre,” dates from the 11th or 12th century and was the capital of Tawantinsuyu (“Realm of the Four Parts”), an empire that by the late 15th century extended to the northwest some 1,100 miles (1,800 km), reaching approximately to the northern border of present-day Ecuador, and to the south 1,600 miles (2,600 km), reaching the centre of present-day Chile, as well as to the southeast to portions of modern Bolivia and Argentina." From https://www.britannica.com/place/Cuzco

[Carol]

Ginny wrote: "Obviously, "The Earth's Navel" is a city, and represents cities in general. But there is a city, Cusco or Cuzco, in Peru, whose name actually means this: "Cuzco, whose name derives from a Quechua w..."

Thanks for this, Ginny. The references to the Great Navel were baffling to me, and I was delighted to see your "research" note.

[Anastasia Kinderman, The Only]

For me this was a hilarious part. I felt like she was making fun of modern society and all the petty things we worry about, only she used navels as a metaphor and it made it all seem so silly.