Fairies and Wolfe

Lee Berman · 28 Mar 2012, 16:11 · from 2012-March.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2012 12:11:47 -0400
Subject: (urth) Fairies and Wolfe
Message-ID: <SNT123-W378B9A07BABE63B0A7BEABCF4B0 at phx.gbl>

>Gerry Quinn: Fairy-like races have been a continual thread throughout 
>Wolfe, but the details vary. They are usually small, they are usually 
>attuned to the natural environment; they are always distinctly non-human 
>and mysterious, and difficult for humans to understand. 

An insightful observation. Is this a departure from a previous position in 
which it was asserted there are no fairy references in the Sun Series 
(and 5HoC, i.e. Shadow Children)? 

As part of the aspect of "attuned to the natural environment" I'd add an element 
of being primitive in tool use and social structure (like Shadow Children, abos 
[half-fairy?] and Neighbors and perhaps an animalistic quality like inhumi. 

>It occurred to me that perhaps (in Wolfe) robots think of humans the same way 
>humans think of fairies. 

I don't think this idea is worth discarding. As David observes, it is a theme
which can commonly be found not just in Wolfe but across SF and Fantasy. It
relates to the basic nature of robots, humans and fairies. Robots, through 
electronic programming, are naturally more rule-governed than humans but are
often portrayed as being fearful and/or envious of human freedom and emotions. 
Likewise humans, through tight family and social structure, are more 
rule-governed than fairies and are often fearful and/or envious of their wild 
and free nature. Perhaps fair to claim the reverse: fairies view humans a bit
the way humans view robots.

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