Blish's "Conscience" vs. Wolfe's "Fifth Head"

jerry_friedman · 05 Jan 2006, 01:30 · from rec.arts.sf.written.2006.mbox

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From: jerry_friedman at yahoo.com
Subject: Re: Blish's "Conscience" vs. Wolfe's "Fifth Head"
Date: 4 Jan 2006 17:30:46 -0800
Message-ID: <1136424646.063637.45590 at g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
References: <1135781723.546189.19520 at g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com> <douf3o$bho$1 at news.datemas.de> <1135795018.842798.188130 at g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com> <1135804521.649021.27000 at o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com> <1135815134.304806.19780 at g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com> <MPG.1e1e0926b714556398a8f6 at news1.eircom.net> <1135977318.382507.90100 at o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com> <MPG.1e20a0c25ed57a9398a911 at news1.eircom.net> <1136140788.099115.191800 at g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com> <MPG.1e23298113628f98a919 at news1.eircom.net>

Gerry Quinn wrote:
> > Gerry Quinn wrote:
>
> > > [And you don't have to be a Catholic to believe in original sin - one
> > > might draw a similar conclusion from the study of Darwin!]
>
> > Similar, but not the same.  For one thing, in sf, the flaws we inherit
> > from our ape ancestors are conceivably curable.
>
> Not really.  Our self-interest and our socialisation will always be at
> war, so the flaw is inescapable.

Well, that comes from being individual members of a species, not from
ape ancestry.  And one could still imagine "curing" it, at least by
arranging for more of us to be satisfied living alone.

-- 
Jerry Friedman

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