Fairies and Wolfe

David Stockhoff · 28 Mar 2012, 22:10 · from 2012-March.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2012 18:10:36 -0400
Subject: (urth) Fairies and Wolfe
In-Reply-To: <SNT123-W378B9A07BABE63B0A7BEABCF4B0 at phx.gbl>
References: <SNT123-W378B9A07BABE63B0A7BEABCF4B0 at phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <4F738C5C.9020200 at verizon.net>

On 3/28/2012 12:11 PM, Lee Berman wrote:
> 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.

Actually, I think robots and fairies are not too different. I see 
fairies as strict rule-followers, although often malevolent. Robots are 
also strict rule-followers, but usually not malevolent outside of 
Transformers.

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