u/SpotIsALie

Im reading book 2 of Southern Reach Trilogy, page 206-207. Author details the numbering conventions of the expedition but to me it looks like the math is incorrect and its making me go crazy:

"The Southern Reach called the last expedition the twelfth, but Control had counted the rings, and it was actually the thirty-eighth iteration, including six "eleventh" expeditions.

The hagiography was clear: After the true fifth expedi- tion, the Southern Reach had gotten stuck like a jammed CD, with nearly the same repetitions. Expedition 5 became X.5.A, followed by X.5.B and X.5.C, all the way to an X.5.G. Each expedition number thereafter adhered to a particular set of metrics and introduced variables into the equation with each letter. For example, the eleventh expedition series had been composed of all men, while the twelfth, if it continued to X.12.B and beyond, would continue to be com posed of all women. He woridered if his mother knew of any parallel in special ops, if secret studies showed something about gender that escaped him in considering the irrelevance of this particular metric. And what about someone who doesnt 't identify as male or female?

did Control still couldn't tell from his examination of the records that morning if rations had started as a clerical error and become codified as process (un- the iterati likely) or been initiated as a conscious decision by the director, sneakily enacted the iterations ow the radar of any meeting minutes. It had just popped up as if always there. A need to somehow act as if they weren't as far along without concrete results or answers. Or the need to describe a story arc for each set of expeditions that didn't give away how futile it was fast becoming.

During the fifth, too, the Southern Reach had started lying to the partici- pants. No one was ever told they were part of Expedition 7.F or 8.G or 9.B. and Control wondered how anyone had kept it straight, and how the truth might have raten away at morale rather than buoyed it, brought into the Southern Reach a kind of cynical fatalism. How peculiar to keep prepping the "fifth" expedition, to keep rolling this stone up this hill, over and over.

Grace had just shrugged when asked about the transition from X.11.K to X.12.A during orientation on Monday, which already felt a month away from Wednesday."

How is this possible/correct? At the beginning author states there were 6 11th exepiditions, meaning it would end at X.11.F and then on the next page states the 11th grouping ends in K which would be the 11th number of the 11th expidition.

Further it states that X.12.A is the 38th expidition but how is this possible given the numbers? Assuming X.6 and X.10 only had 1 expidition the total number would be the 40th expidition? And why would they only have one iteration for 6 and 10? Am I crazy? Heres my math:

1 (1)

2 (1)

3 (1)

4 (1)

5 A B C D E F G (7)

6 A (1)

7 A B C D E F (6)

8 A B C D E F G (7)

9 A B (2)

10 A (1)

11 A B C D E F G H I J K (11) NOT 6, otherwise it would be F

12 A (1)