S&S vs. SF in BotNS

Gerry Quinn · 22 Dec 2011, 18:04 · from 2011-December.txt.gz

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From: gerry at bindweed.com (Gerry Quinn)
Date: Thu, 22 Dec 2011 18:04:27 -0000
Subject: (urth) S&S vs. SF in BotNS
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From: Dan'l Danehy-Oakes 


> Well, except in that "science=real" allows for imaginary science like,
> well, hyperdrives and psionics. Perhaps, more nuanced, and I do not
> mean to speak for Gerry, but here's what I _think_ he might say:
> Science involves a realistic _process_, and magic/spirituality do not;
> thus, brushing hyperdrives and psionics with the brush of that process
> imbues them, at least for the duration of a story, with a certain
> plausibility.
Yes, that is a good summary of what I think.  And I treat the powers of Mucor, for example, as theoretically explicable in terms of such an imaginary realistic process.
We are also told something of the process by which Whorl gods possess people ? it involves data transmission of the ?pattern? of the god, presumably the program.  And that pattern gets mixed with the mind and personality, at least, of the recipient.
I don?t think Wolfe talks much about souls as such.  I?m not sure we can flatly state that he is postulating that they are an entirely separate thing from the mind and its connection to the universe.  
- Gerry Quinn 
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