The Rasha is the daily newspaper of Yantra, the technological capital of Theknus. It comes out every day in eight pages, sells for one kun a copy, and carries in its masthead the motto “news from the ring, for those who keep it turning.” It was founded in 1306, on the bank of the river from which it takes its name.
Here you can leaf through the entire issue number 543 of sarvem 22 of the sixth month, year 1342: the edition that came out on the morning of the day the Zena trio plays at the Taval (Chapter 7 - The Concert).
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The name
The newspaper bears the name of the Rasha, the stream that flows down from Mount Uruk and crosses the city from northwest to southeast. The ancient root rash denotes the act of flowing with force, of carving and leaving a mark on matter: the same root gives its name to the Rash, the city’s fast railway. For a daily newspaper it is a programmatic name: the news flows every day, but what is written remains.
The Rasha is the daily newspaper of Kena, the name by which the inhabitants call Yantra (see Exonyms and Endonyms), and its local news section is in fact titled Cronaca di Kena (“Chronicle of Kena”).
The newspaper
The Rasha speaks to those who keep the city running: workers, shift leaders, technicians, department clerks. The motto says so, and so do the pages, where shifts, deliveries, testing hours, and personal time slots carry the same weight as government news.
Its editorial line is that of the moderate wing of the workshops. The newspaper supports the effort of the Southern League in the war against the Northern Alliance, but not in the tone of a proclamation: it presents it as a necessity of production and efficiency, a matter of technique and organization more than of passions. Adru Kemet, the leader of the Southern League, is treated there with respect and restraint. At the same time, the Rasha gives space to the cost of this effort: the crews on long shifts, the accidents, the skipped tests, the schools without teachers.
The style is that of a major daily: long, articulated sentences, news-style headlines, standfirsts on articles, and no bylines. Like every text from Solaria, the Rasha also writes numbers in base seven, according to the island’s numeric system: its figures never include 7, 8, or 9, and the seventh and eighth pages are numbered 10 and 11.
Issue 543
Issue 543, year 34, comes out in the season of waning light, sarvem 22 of the sixth month of the year 1342 (for the names of days and months see Measurement of Time). It is the day on which the first chapters of the story take place: at dawn a driverless mobile workshop enters the city carrying Anesh and the butterfly Ku, and in the evening the Zena trio plays at the Taval, in the rock of the Western Ridge.
The newspaper, naturally, knows nothing of Anesh. But both things are already in its pages: in Cronaca di Kena, among the latest news, A driverless Nerek enters through the Eastern Gate at dawn; in Cultura e costume (“Culture and customs”), an article on Zena Ardei and her variations on recognized form; and in the evening schedule, at hour 12, “Taval, Officina Antica, channel 4, gate 13 — Zena Ardei Trio, variations on recognized form. Free admission.”
The pages also carry advertisements from the city’s suppliers and banks, from the Cassa di Kena to Gubsek & Ardun bearings, the table of the day’s numbers, announcements, and obituaries.
The newspaper outside the story
The Rasha also exists as a physical object: it is printed on two A2 sheets folded to form eight A3 pages, like a real newspaper. It was created alongside the work on Zena’s piece, together with the concert posters in kudamaf, and is recounted in episode 27 of the Music Diary, does the madness start like this?.
The newspaper’s illustrations and photographs are part of the world of Solaria: from here comes, for example, the illustration of the ramps of the nambag.