House Absolute

Son of Witz · 03 Dec 2008, 23:24 · from 2008-December.txt.gz

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From: sonofwitz at butcherbaker.org (Son of Witz)
Date: Wed, 03 Dec 2008 23:24:24 +0000
Subject: (urth) House Absolute
Message-ID: <W4603814689195461228346664@webmail27>

>>> What's the artistic point of the cliff scene, world-famous for its
>>> evocation of deep time, if not to show that a gazillion years have
>>> passed?
>>
>> To show that many, many human societies have arisen, fallen, and been
>> trampled unto dust, and the dust piled upon dust until it has become
>> fused into rock.
>
>Well, yes, exactly. That takes a gazillion years, not 20,000, and is more
>powerful for representing a gazillion years of human futility rather than
>20,000.
>
>I thought you (or somebody) was proposing that Typhon had artificially
>created these cliffs, which completely vitiates this reading. Certainly
>there's no natural process that can create such a cliff in 20,000 years.

I don't see why not.
surely in that time there would be enough geographical change for some changes in the mountain ranges.
That could have been a Landfill sheared in half by a fault in the mountain range.
And, if you can't accept landfill,  there are cities under cities under cities within less 10k years of Earth's history.

What I find a bigger mystery is What did that mosaic depict?  Are there any clues?

When I asked "are there rules to fiction now" I didn't frame my question right.
what I meant to say is, Are we to presume Wolfe has worked this thing out perfectly so that there are no scientific implausibilities.  It was in response to a statement like "There SHOULD be internal consistency".  And of course, as the Mark Twain Rules would suggest, that there should be.  But that doesn't mean its' not a fiction if it breaks the rules.
I think the most implausible idea posited yet would be that Wolfe has perfectly crafted a world that 'could' exist exactly as he's written it in his Science Fantasy.   

The stone town would have weathered more in 20,000 years. Ok. sure. notch one on the implausibilities list.
you know, while there are solar ship designs out there, I still find 1000 masts and 100,000 spars with continent size sails  implausible.  And then this bit about Aquastors.  Why can we accept some flights of literary fancy and not others?

~witz

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