not quite Father Inire's mirrors . . .

Son of Witz · 08 Jun 2011, 23:59 · from 2011-June.txt.gz

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From: Sonofwitz at butcherbaker.org (Son of Witz)
Date: Wed, 8 Jun 2011 16:59:10 -0700
Subject: (urth) not quite Father Inire's mirrors . . .
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Message-ID: <2A735A7A-BD23-41E5-9F1E-D7603D776FF1 at butcherbaker.org>

On Jun 8, 2011, at 10:13 AM, "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes" <danldo at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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.
> 
> -- 
> Dan'l Danehy-Oakes
> 

+1

I always trip out at the level of scientific analysis around here. How big the moon should look in the cover pic, and such.  Very interesting, but it cracks me up. I had a laugh when I read about the photon wind driving the sails. I took it as a peotic notion, and not hard science fiction. I think Wolfe's poetic side wins out over his engineer side quite often.

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