Recent human crash-landing on Sainte-Anneþ

Lee Berman · 10 Jan 2011, 21:42 · from 2011-January.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2011 16:42:00 -0500
Subject: (urth) =?iso-8859-1?q?Recent_human_crash-landing_on_Sainte-Anne?=
 =?iso-8859-1?q?=FE?=
Message-ID: <SNT123-W49331B6231887C32FB19F3CF0E0 at phx.gbl>

>Dan'l Danehy-Oakes: I would suggest that, to the extent ego, greed,despotism, territoriality, 
>or aggression take part in the acceptance or rejection of a hypothesis, the process is _not_ 
>"real science."

First, let me say, Dan't that I think we are essentially on the same page on all accounts. What
I post in response to others is not exactly what I would post to you. Each deserves his/her own
appropriate response, I think. So..to respond to you:

Since science is always performed by human beings, these things always intrude. Yet somehow
"real" science gets done perhaps in spite, but sometimes perhaps because of our humanity. Surely
we've all read Watson's Double Helix and are aware of the skullduggery and ego battles with Linus
Pauling in the DNA race. Similar stuff for Human Genome project and, in reality, all great discoveries.
They are cleaned up for consumption of the science community and public but we all know what goes on 
behind the scenes.

Likewise for literary analysis. We all have our parts to play in this messy business. There couldn't
be some golden standard of perfection but to even get to silver or bronze we gotta hash things out.
And when things get imbalanced...something has to balance them.

>But a theory which contradicts some aspect of the text is _not_ such a theory. A theory that says that, 
>clearly, the Lady came out of the door is reasonable. A theory that says the Tiger came out of the door 
>is also reasonable. But a theory that says the Daleks came out of the door and exterminated the young man, 
>the princess, and the king, is _not_ reasonable (though it is amusing).

Yep agreed. But that was Stockton's version. What if Gene Wolfe had written it? Are there ambiguous SF/Fantasy
answers that would serve given the sorts of clues Wolfe would provide? How about a woman in a lifelike tiger suit? 
Maybe a female weretiger created by Father Inire? (not good examples but the best I can do right now)

We all agree that Daleks coming out is not a reasonable answer. So, by accusing someone of theorizing 
Daleks when they have proposed a lady weretiger, we have a psychological ploy designed to discredit the person, 
and leave the idea of complex ambiguity unexamined. Thus is mediocrity enforced. Thus is Wolfe reduced to 
Stockton. Lady or Tiger. Must pick one. No ambiguity allowed. It is a common dynamic seen in all human social 
settings. Peer pressure and fear of derision are powerful motivators, even, apparently, online. I'm not so
judgemental. Bullies DO have their function in society. Wouldn't want to elminate them. But they need control.

It is all part of the game. I have been willing to point out the psychological/personal ploy used above
only because it serves my purpose which is to pick the brains of certain interesting people. I have deliberately 
tried to make the list more friendly to those who have amazingly creative theories but are easily bruised by 
criticism and psych tricks. It has been successful. A few posters have been drawn out of retirement and I have 
been exposed to some very interesting theories that would have remained buried. In trotting out these theories, 
the posters have explicitly remarked that they were only willing to do so because they had the sense of a receptive 
audience. I freely admit I have my own competitive tendencies and in this current conflict of creativity vs.
stifling criticism I am happy to report that I have won. For now.

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