Fairies and Wolfe

Marc Aramini · 28 Mar 2012, 22:39 · from 2012-March.txt.gz

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From: marcaramini at yahoo.com (Marc Aramini)
Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2012 15:39:45 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: (urth) Fairies and Wolfe
In-Reply-To: <SNT123-W41AB045684A92C190DC3F4CF4B0 at phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <1332974385.47546.YahooMailClassic at web161802.mail.bf1.yahoo.com>

--- On Wed, 3/28/12, Lee Berman <severiansola at hotmail.com> wrote:

>> I wonder sometimes if Wolfe attaches spiritual advancement
> with losing technology. The 
> end of UotNS might suggest it. Unlike the Hiero-types (but
> like Severian), the Green Man 
> does not seem to need machinery to walk the time corridors.
> Plus the Green Man and some of Severian's musings seem to
> suggest that carnivory is also something spiritually
> advanced 
> humans will leave behind. If the Neigbors are ungulate in
> nature it might suggest they
> are not carnivorous (in stark contrast to Inhumi).
>  
> 

I highly doubt that there is a correlation between "losing technology" and true spiritual advancement in Wolfe, or entities like Jonas and the chems would not be portrayed so humanistically.  Wolfe is not by profession your typical anti-tech kind of guy - this is a man educated as an engineer who helped develop the machine that made pringles. 

Perhaps there might be a relationship between decadence and technology where man no longer has to truly work at the things he used to, but I can't see this as a blanket condemnation of high technology.

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