The green man is a fake

Jeff Wilson · 17 Jan 2011, 02:17 · from 2011-January.txt.gz

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From: jwilson at io.com (Jeff Wilson)
Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2011 20:17:49 -0600
Subject: (urth) The green man is a fake
In-Reply-To: <427784.4810.qm at web114705.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>
References: <SNT123-W358B848CDF3BEC307BB043CFF50 at phx.gbl>	<F62DE84A31734BAA9E76586471608470@jill>	<4D3372B1.1020001 at gmail.com>
	<427784.4810.qm at web114705.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>
Message-ID: <4D33A6CD.10309 at io.com>

On 1/16/2011 6:31 PM, Jerry Friedman wrote:
> He's "the color of pale jade".  This means he absorbs less visible light than
> current
> plants (Ribes?).  If Wolfe had said "blackish jade", it would have been a step
> in the
> direction of plausibility.

He might be bleached out from lack of light, the way grass is when 
something is left covering it for a few days, then removed. On his 
second appearance, he is merely jade colored, indicating a partial recovery.

> However, I'm imagining a world with many fusion plants powering LEDs that shine
> on
> green people as they sleep.  Including shining on them from below through
> transparent
> water or air mattresses.

The green man seems almost atechnological. He wears a kilt for modesty, 
but despite having the run of Severian's lifetime, he doesn't bother to 
stop for anything else that might help him rescue Severian.

> However however, I suspect Wolfe just committed the Sin Against Niven and didn't
> think it through.

Niven's one to talk! Actually, Niven fesses up to lots of "didn't think 
it through" moments, though I can't believe he didn't intentionally 
stick the fossil record under the rug when he decided 1) Kzinti and 
humans are descended from a virus, 2) primates are descended from 
aliens, and 3) all of the above are descended from feedstock designed by 
still another alien race for the benefit of still another unrelated 
alien race.

-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
Computational Intelligence Laboratory - Texas A&M Texarkana
< http://www.tamut.edu/CIL >

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