Like a good Neighbor

Gerry Quinn · 24 Nov 2011, 12:37 · from 2011-November.txt.gz

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From: gerry at bindweed.com (Gerry Quinn)
Date: Thu, 24 Nov 2011 12:37:18 -0000
Subject: (urth) Like a good Neighbor
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From: Lee Berman 
> > David Stockhoff: I'm not arguing for anything but its plausibility. I think it's a cool 
> > idea. I WANT to believe ... !

> I know you do! Argh! LMAO, I swear I am going to throw a hissy fit tantrum on this. 

> No, NO, NO!! It isn't plausible. Only the "dry, waterless husk body" scenario would
> allow this sort of space travel. It isn't only temperature but also a matter of internal
> cellular pressure. But the effort it would take to launch Inhumi from a planet would 
> require muscular action. Gerry's rotisserie chicken spinning to catch the sun's radiation 
> evenly would also require muscular action. Muscles cannot work without water-filled cells > and those cannot exist in the void.

> I can see debating possibilities for fun. But not plausibility. There isn't any. As an 
> effective Wolfe reader one *MUST* become aware of the lies of unreliable narrators. And
> the inhumi are as unreliable as any narrator in any Wolfe story. This is our responsibility.

Wolfe plays fast and loose with the laws of physics when it suits the story.  Maybe inhumi can generate a hard shell for themselves while flying.  An intitial spin may be maintained without muscular effort.  We don?t know how long the flight takes ? even a human subjected to vacuum won?t die immediately if he exhales beforehand.   
Can Tzadkiel fly in the vacuum?  I?m sure you?ll agree that he can.

> > (He could be lying, but if so the inhumi have a whole ad campaign worked 
> > out, complete with talking points to insert into unrelated 
> > conversations. Which is entirely possible.)

> It is a veritable certainty. The campaign goes by the label of the great secret of the Inhumi.
> SilkHorn has promised them he would not reveal it to us. And he does not. He even provides > the boondoggle of "You are what you eat" as their secret to show solidarity with any lying 
> inhumi who happen to read (or have read to them) the text.

Dorcas has answered this point long ago, when Severian was inclined to doubt the undine?s claim to swim between the stars:
*****************************************
"When I was with Dr. Talos and you were gone, he and Jolenta used to tell me what a simple-minded person I was for believing people we met on the road, and things that Baldanders said, and things they said themselves, too. Just the same, I think that even the people who are called liars tell the truth much more often than they lie. It's so much easier! If that story about saving you wasn't true, why tell it? It could only frighten you when you thought back on it. And if she doesn't swim between stars what a useless thing to say. 
*****************************************

A useful rule in interpreting Wolfe.  The ultimate purpose of unreliable narrators is the same as that of reliable narrators, i.e. to tell the reader what is going on.  They don?t invent stuff randomly as a rule, however naturalistic that may seem in some cases.  Generally they tell the truth, with bits missing or strangely interpreted.

> But what Silkhorn does is provide the discerning reader with the means to determine
>  what the real Inhumi secret is. This allows him to support the good guys against the
> bad guys without breaking his vow. Wolfe's science may not be perfect in his stories
>  but it is damn good. Far, far too good to allow naked biological bodies to perform 
> extended flight in the void.

He has a ship fly faster than light by tacking against the photonic wind.  If he can do that he can have inhumi fly in space.  Or gigantic godlings and undines (who can swim in space), for that matter.

So anyway, what?s the inhumi secret, according to you?

- Gerry Quinn
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