S&S vs. SF in BotNS

Daniel Petersen · 20 Dec 2011, 21:24 · from 2011-December.txt.gz

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From: danielottojackpetersen at gmail.com (Daniel Petersen)
Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2011 21:24:02 +0000
Subject: (urth) S&S vs. SF in BotNS
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On Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 7:12 PM, Jerry Friedman <jerry_friedman at yahoo.com>wrote:

> > From: Daniel Petersen <danielottojackpetersen at gmail.com>
> >Actually, I should just paste it here for ease:
>
> Very interesting essay.  Of course Wolfe's world-building is the kind that
> Heinlein championed, "The door dilated", but taken much farther than
> Heinlein ever did, even in /The Moon is a Harsh Mistress/.
>
> >' The other way Wolfe is generally different than Tolkien is that most of
> his world-building is in authentically science fictional terms (barring, of
> course, the Soldier series and the Wizard-Knight series). That is, in all
> twelve books of the Solar Cycle Wolfe is creating not 'alternate realms' of
> 'sword and sorcery' (oh yes, it sometimes looks and feels like this to a
> large degree so that he is often labeled 'science fantasy'), but genuine
> far-future, technologically advanced (so vastly advanced that it is in long
> forgotten decay), space-faring, interplanetary, alien ecospheres and
> economies. The Solar Cycle is indeed a subversive or alternative or 'punk'
> form of classic Heroic Fantasy, but it is in irreducibly science fictional
> terms. Of course, Wolfe also writes these books in a way that richly and
> readily includes the 'fantastic': the paranormal, the preternatural, the
> supernatural, the 'transcendant', the spiritual, the 'trans-dimensional'
> (though curiously, nothing authentically 'magical' that I can see).
>
> How about the analept of the alzabo and the effect of drinking blook on
> the inhumi?  After a moment's thought, the only way I can understand these
> is as magic, specifically the principle of contagion (if I have it right).
> Even if you believe in Lamarckian inheritance, the effect of memory and
> decisions on DNA or anything else located outside the brain is clearly very
> subtle--for instance, children aren't born knowing their biological
> parents' language--not what seems to happen to the inhumi or even to alzabo
> addicts.  Though actually I'm not clear on what happens to alzabo-heads who
> don't happen to be carrying the Claw.
>
>  ...
> Jerry Friedman
>
>
Thanks Jerry.  Yes, I wasn't clear in the essay.  I meant 'magical' in the
spells and incantations sort of sense.  If you're explaining the Inhumi and
alzabo phenomena in non-naturalistic (supernatural, paranormal, etc.)
terms, then I agree.  Or at least, I'm as open to that possibility as any
other.

-DOJP
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