not quite Father Inire's mirrors . . .

Gerry Quinn · 08 Jun 2011, 18:49 · from 2011-June.txt.gz

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From: gerryq at indigo.ie (Gerry Quinn)
Date: Wed, 8 Jun 2011 19:49:22 +0100
Subject: (urth) not quite Father Inire's mirrors . . .
References: <8FCA404E8BAE024CA6CED299DA8223DB09CFDC2694 at VA3DIAXVS291.RED001.local><4DEF63B7.9080104 at verizon.net><ED24FF6F77DF4AB9B6C35A54F58E23A7@jill>
	<BANLkTikuy1ZaFx0F43OAxpDGGEZg=dE0rA at mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6C1B0158DB5143958C93711D380E29C4@jill>

From: "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes" <danldo at gmail.com>
> Gerry Quinn wrote:
>
>> "How foolish to call them mirrors. They are to mirrors as the enveloping
>> firmament is to a child's balloon. They reflect light indeed; but that, I
>> think, is no part of their true function. They reflect reality, the
>> metaphysical substance that underlies the material world."
>
> I think what they really reflect is a great deal of handwaving on
> Wolfe's part, and a not insignificant quantity of willing suspension
> of disbelief on the reader's part.

Indeed, the whole idea that the Ship tacks across the photon winds...

Apheta: "The worlds are very far apart. If one of our ships goes from one to 
another as fast as the starlight, the voyage takes many centuries. It does 
not seem so to those on the ship, but it does. If the ship goes even faster, 
tacking in the wind from the suns, time runs backward so that the ship 
arrives before it sails."

...might be considered a clear indication that when Wolfe finds a conflict 
between neat ideas and valid science, the neat ideas win out.  Tacking 
across the photon wind is a neat idea, but obviously it only works if you 
can get some sort of traction on the vacuum.  And if you could do that, 
special relativity would be completely DOA.

- Gerry Quinn

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