S&S vs. SF in BotNS

Gerry Quinn · 22 Dec 2011, 19:20 · from 2011-December.txt.gz

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From: gerry at bindweed.com (Gerry Quinn)
Date: Thu, 22 Dec 2011 19:20:46 -0000
Subject: (urth) S&S vs. SF in BotNS
In-Reply-To: <SNT123-W158D23F725A0FE6FCE6E76CFAA0 at phx.gbl>
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Message-ID: <590226FE768D4FE08104C1B80C02BF0F@Rover>

From: Lee Berman 

> I really feel that Wolfe is trying to send a diffferent message. What the ancients called
> magic, we call science and we tend to denigrate magic to fakery. But 10,000 years hence won't 
> some people snicker at the ridiculous belief in "science" we have; laughing at such folly as
> neurology and sub-atomic physics as we snicker at thunderbolts from Zeus and witches riding
> brooms?

Some people do even now.  However, I don?t think our understanding of such matters is likely to be reversed, though it may be deepened.  

When I say there is no magic in the Sun books, I?m not talking about fakery, just saying that it is the kind of universe that runs on natural rather than magical laws.  By contrast, there is magic in Aelfrice, because that?s how stuff works in that other universe.

- Gerry Quinn
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