Problematic element in chronology

Gerry Quinn · 28 May 2011, 18:42 · from 2011-May.txt.gz

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From: gerryq at indigo.ie (Gerry Quinn)
Date: Sat, 28 May 2011 19:42:46 +0100
Subject: (urth) Problematic element in chronology
References: <87E792FA008E4A679A9EFA68176C4976@jill>
	<4DE0BB7C.2060406 at gmail.com>
Message-ID: <919CCDA1A13748D3885C08CACA98A8FF@jill>

From: "Ant?nio Marques" <entonio at gmail.com>
> 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.

True enough... but in most Wolfe including all of the Solar Cycle, we only 
have the narratopr's word for *everything*.  One has to ask why he should 
lie, or make a mistake?  And if he hasn't seen the star, why should he say 
it is visible, whereas if he has, why should he mistake a particular star 
for Sol?

>> 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.

But SilkHorn must have chosen the star for some reason - he hardly picked it 
at random.  If he incorporates some of Pas, albeit not yet fully 
assimilated, it may be that he has access to full knowledge with respect to 
the Whorl's trajectory..

> 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.

The speed of light and the distance from which the Sun is visible aren't 
going to change with tomorrow's research.  Some science is permanent.

I think he either (1) didn't think of this point, (2) supports a 350-year 
chronology between Typhon and Severian, or (3) thought it would be cool to 
have Sol visible even if the physics doesn't work.  I think Wolfe is quite 
happy to gloss over lots of dodgy science if it fits the story 
(realistically, it's obvious - leaving aside physics for the moment, 
absorbing not just memories but *memories coordinated into a personality* by 
eating corpses is obviously impossible.

- Gerry Quinn

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