Problematic element in chronology

David Stockhoff · 28 May 2011, 18:36 · from 2011-May.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Sat, 28 May 2011 14:36:11 -0400
Subject: (urth) Problematic element in chronology
In-Reply-To: <4DE0BB7C.2060406 at gmail.com>
References: <87E792FA008E4A679A9EFA68176C4976@jill>
	<4DE0BB7C.2060406 at gmail.com>
Message-ID: <4DE1409B.1000103 at verizon.net>

I think the main reason the NS/LS/SS universes differ slightly (maybe) 
is that Wolfe is too busy paying attention to the stories themselves to 
rack his brain to try to recall some detail from a previous book.

You can only keep that stuff in your head for so long, and if you are 
engaged with a new story and new characters, there is no real need to.

On 5/28/2011 5:08 AM, Ant?nio Marques wrote:
> Gerry Quinn wrote:
>> On Blue, SilkHorn explains to prospective astral travellers that they
>> can, if they peer for some time, see a dim red star - this is of course
>> Sol, etiolated by the black hole inside it.
>
> But we only have the narrator's word for it, and the narrator isnt 
> omniscient.
>
>> On the whole, I put this down to Wolfe not fretting too much about the
>> details (...)
>
> I don't think it's that.
>
> I think GW fretts paranoidly about the details when the details matter.
>
> When the details are unimportant I think he nontheless handles them 
> with some care.
>
> When, as in this case, the details depend on knowledge no one has 
> within the story, he's free and willing to improvise.
>
> When the details depend on knowledge no one has period, he's almost 
> obliged to improvise. One of the things that makes 'hard' sf so 
> ridiculous is its datedness. As-of-time-of-writing scientific 
> consensus dates a work even more than cassette tapes do. Constraining 
> a story by scientific boundaries is not different from constraining it 
> by technological ones.
>
> Of course, it's one thing not to be limited by science, and another to 
> contradict it too much (cf. a story I've read recently which places 
> Sanskrit 11k years in the past). Unless it's got a good reason behind 
> it, it comes across as just uninformed.
>
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