S&S vs. SF in BotNS

Gerry Quinn · 21 Dec 2011, 16:48 · from 2011-December.txt.gz

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From: gerry at bindweed.com (Gerry Quinn)
Date: Wed, 21 Dec 2011 16:48:53 -0000
Subject: (urth) S&S vs. SF in BotNS
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From: Jerry Friedman 

> From: Daniel Petersen danielottojackpetersen at gmail.com

> > (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.
 
It?s not magic ? it?s bad science, just like FTL travel.  Wolfe doesn?t care too much if the science is questionable, what he cares about is that the world of the story is underpinned by natural laws.  The distinction between magic and science is that magic has either no rules, or rules that are arbitrarily connected to their physical effects (they may be psychologically non-arbitrary).

 > Certainly uncomfortable and disturbing in some ways, but genre confusions don't bother 
> me.  Wolfe seems to care that what Decuman and Typhon do is hypnotism of some
> very strange sort, not magic, but I don't see why he cares.
I think he cares because it would be a different kind of world if it had magic.  Not necessarily for the characters in it, but for the readers.
- Gerry Quinn
- Gerry Quinn
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