redux on objections

maa32 · 26 Mar 2002, 17:53 · from urth-v0203.mbox · original

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From: maa32 <maa32 at dana.ucc.nau.edu>
Subject: (urth) redux on objections
Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2002 10:53:24 -0700
Message-ID: <urth-v0203-464 at digest.urth.net>
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Here is one more thing that bugs me: has the Short Sun narrator been gone T=
WO=20
YEARS or THREE YEARS?  you can't get the same number in the text.  Conjunct=
ion=20
has happened. More time dilation? How long has Horn been gone?

Someone (Blattid, right?) posted a huge list of objections.  I mostly agree=20
with Andy's defenses.
I NEVER posited a space warp that the whorl flew into - i thought it flew i=
n a=20
circle. As far as I know, you can control direction in a space ship or you =
are=20
doomed to an eternity of going forward.

Polyploidy is instant speciation - that's the whole point.  It can spring u=
p=20
in one generation, and disappear in one generation.  No time needs to pass =
to=20
create new species.

I NEVER said that Blue was Urth of the past - it is Ushas of a somewhat=20
distant future - enough time for the trees to kill the colonists on Lune, c=
ome=20
to Urth, kill everyone there and die out or "move on" in one (or a few)=20
generation(s) before the whorl comes back to recolonize the planet. So many=20
things are the same (flooded planet, wall underwater, analog species)  And =
I'm=20
sorry, hybridization is SOOO textually prevalent, as is man to flower image=
ry.
I HAVE posited a prototype green man - who isn't green yet. He can't feed i=
n=20
the winter, he doesn't eat, and he has normal limbs.  Who is he? Your humbl=
e=20
narrator Silk. and he has wounds from branches - he runs into a tree as soo=
n=20
as Hyacinth dies.

As I've said before, the moon (green) is in an oscillating, self correcting=20
orbit around blue - it can always be seen in the sky. It was pulled from it=
s=20
decayed orbit by the new sun.  Green orbits Blue in oscillation, sometimes=20
close, sometimes far, but that has nothing to do with its orbital period.

also, there is every indication that the children of polyploid species are =
not=20
the same. Look at the corn - the second generation is weaker and even a=20
different color.  Indeed, a return to the haploid state is necessary for=20
children to be viable - and this is what we have in the life cycle of the=20
inhumu, clearly delineated in the text. If the Neighbors go a generation or=20
two, perhaps they will lose those excess limbs.  (If they can regain fertil=
ity=20
at all, because hybrids are notoriously infertile).
Also, the inhumu do not gain excess limbs because they do not instantly cre=
ate=20
a new species: they are simple sexual producers who feast on blood, save it=
,=20
and then incorporate that DNA into their children.  That is different than =
the=20
trees instant consumption and recombination.  They are different species=20
working on the same terraformed principles.

And Gene wolfe sets up the mystery of the vanished people as something that=20
can be solved: Silk/Horn claims that his son already knows where the vanish=
ed=20
people went and where they came from, but that it would be better if "he=20
figured it out for himself", which  implies that a reader of the text shoul=
d=20
be able to figure it out, too.

Marc

--=20

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