Fairies and Wolfe

Gerry Quinn · 29 Mar 2012, 17:28 · from 2012-March.txt.gz

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From: gerry at bindweed.com (Gerry Quinn)
Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2012 18:28:50 +0100
Subject: (urth) Fairies and Wolfe
In-Reply-To: <4F748F3A.7030807 at clueland.com>
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	<4F748F3A.7030807 at clueland.com>
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From: Jeff Wilson 

On 3/29/2012 7:57 AM, Gerry Quinn wrote:
> *From:* David Stockhoff <mailto:dstockhoff at verizon.net>
> > Of course it?s entirely possible and to my mind likely that Abaia, the
> > Green Man and the Neighbours have extremely advanced technology, so
> > advanced that it looks like magic. I speculated before that if a kiss
> > from Juturna can make Severian capable of breathing underwater, it may
> > well be that her saliva contains nanomachines that will remodel his
> > organs of respiration.

> Baldanders certainly uses technology to adapt himself to the water, 
> Juturna may be likewise adapted with gills concealed by her green hair.
> 
> Nanomachines weren't a thing at the time of the BotNS' writing, and I 
> don't think it fits the retro theme to invent "new" scientific 
> justifications.

I agree that Claw was written before Drexler popularised the concept of nanomachines, and that Wolfe would probably not have been thinking specifically of them.  But I think it actually is the sort of thing he deliberately leaves open.  I don?t believe he would imagine that Juturna could do this by ?magic?, even if he has not thought much about the specific sort of technology she would use.
[Of course there is also the possibility that she is lying, but I doubt it.]
- Gerry Quinn 
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