Hard SF

Lee Berman · 28 Nov 2012, 15:51 · from 2012-November.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2012 10:51:47 -0500
Subject: (urth) Hard SF
Message-ID: <SNT123-W51C23DE417511A76E93303CF5D0 at phx.gbl>

>David Stockhoff: We're not talking about hard SF here.

Just for the sake of discussion, I'll disagree. Perhaps Wolfe isn't diamond-hard
but I'd give him ruby- or sapphire- on the MOhs scale. I think he makes a 
sincere attempt in most of his work, as the quote below illustrates.

Where fantasy writers are content to give us shape changers without explanation,
Wolfe provides us with a sponge cellular analogy for Tzadkiel and flexible bones 
and muscles, make-up and hypnotic abilities for Inhumi.

If the Inhumi really fly through space I'd want more than the skimpy evidence we
are provided (and less evidence for their lying nature).

>Nick Gevers: Speaking as an engineer, how might the godling be constructed so as to 
>walk as a giant on land, where the undines [submarine giantesses] cannot? 

>Gene Wolfe: There are a number of ways you could go. First, get rid of the notion that 
>the godling is going to be proportioned like a human being. Changes in size always mean 
>changes in build. (Dr. Crane touches on that.) A man fifty feet tall, proportioned like 
>you or me, would sink into the ground a lot -- had you thought of that? Take a look at 
>the really big dinosaurs. Bone density could be increased, and the legs and pelvis made 
>more massive, and so on

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