Horns abilities

António Pedro Marques · 26 Oct 2011, 16:39 · from 2011-October.txt.gz

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From: entonio at gmail.com (=?UTF-8?B?QW50w7NuaW8gUGVkcm8gTWFycXVlcw==?=)
Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2011 17:39:26 +0100
Subject: (urth) Horns abilities
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Dan'l Danehy-Oakes wrote (26-10-2011 17:28):
> Ant?nio Pedro Marques wrote:
>
>> Should Incanto
>> 'dream travel' into the original setting of stories at some point (either
>> before, during, or after they're being told) (a thing for which there isn't
>> any evidence at all), the storytellers wouldn't be able to tell he had done
>> so.
>
> Ummmmm.
>
> It seems to me that Wolfe is deliberately posing a dilemma about
> memory (and time-travel) with Incanto's dream-travel. When he changes
> something in someone's past, they remember it both the "new" way and
> the "old" way. Now, if he "really" changed the past, they should
> remember it "only" the "new" way -- the "old" way now always never
> happened. But if he doesn't, then what is he changing? "Only" the
> memories of the person telling the story? Yet, the changes seem to
> have "real" consequences; and, again, if he really _changed_ their
> memories, they should not remember the pre-change version. Or should
> they?
>
> I believe that the point here is that this is something that can
> _only_ happen in a text...and a text of a particular kind (Postmodern
> SF) at that.

Let's be economical. They're telling stories. The stories set off as 
biographical, but there's no reason they must remain accurate. Just because 
they insert some character into a story they're telling which started off as 
biographical, it doesn't follow that they think the characater really 
existed in their lives. If I tell some story about my childhood and at some 
point put Kirsten Dunst in it, it doesn't follow that I suddenly think 
Kirsten Dunst was part of my childhood.

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