May 2014 Wolfe interview in _Technology Review_

Lee · 07 Aug 2014, 20:26 · from 2014-August.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee)
Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2014 16:26:44 -0400
Subject: (urth) FW: May 2014 Wolfe interview in _Technology Review_
Message-ID: <BLU175-W246821FDB6A5277A9AAAA8CFE10 at phx.gbl>

>Gerry Quinn: Where, *precisely*, are we given that story?

Find the passage in which The Old Wise One admits he can't remember which origin

story is true.

At risk of being insulting, I am getting the sense that there is a certain literary

level often found in WOlfe's writing to which you are not sensitive.

You are trying to solve a Wolfe mystery as though it were Sherlock Holmes or a lab

experiment where you are supposed to observe the evidence, scientifically sort, weigh, 

and otherwise quantify it and the correct answer is thusly calculated. 

Preponderance of evidence represents the "right" answer.

In my opinion, Wolfe often writes in a manner in which almost everything which is 

written is a lie in some fashion. He takes "unreliable narrator" to an extreme in

so many of his works, to the point that almost nothing written is trustworthy. I think 

that description is apt for Fifth Head of Cerberus. In this type of story, other 

methods of determining the "truth" must be found other than just quantifying the repetition

of lies and false evidence.

Consider the example of the Inhumi discussed a few years back. In the beginning of

the discussion, the flight of Inhumi between Green and Blue was considered reasonable

and true by most of the discussion participants. And why not? The process is discussed a 

number of times in various direct and indirect ways by Inhumi.

By the end of the discussion, it was generally agreed that such flight would violate

so many laws of physics, chemistry and biology that Wolfe could not have accidentally

forgotten them. The flight of Inhumi through the void between planets must be a lie, 

despite all the textual evidence for it. It becomes clear that every bit of this 

"textual evidence" has come from the mouths of a race of liars.

We know the Inhuman do travel between planets. So how do they do it? The obvious

answer is given to us, hidden in plain sight- From our first introduction to them, we 

know- The Inhumi travel planet to planet by being master imitators and stowaways on the 

spaceships of other species. We are shown them doing this several times. It doesn't require 

violating the laws of the universe and it also explains the lies about flying through the void. Disguisers and stowaways must rely on lies to accomplish their deceit and concealment, and thus

be experts at it.

Back to Shadow Children. I wouldn't expect you to change your mind but if you have an explanation

for why the supposedly human Shadow Children are even worse with tools than Abos, I'd be

interested.

Also, as previously explained, the Shadow Children as proto-Abos does not require more than one

shape changing species. It requires one. One evolving species, which evolves in pseudo-Lamarckian 

fashion by adopting the features of their victims rather than developing their own. Shadow Children

are a first attempt at the local imitative parasites at copying humans. A poor one. Abos represent

a second attempt. Better but imperfect. Marsch and the rest of the population of Ste Anne and St. 

Croix (except #5 who is self-cloned) are a third, even better attempt.

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