why the problem with astral travel?

Michael Straight · 19 Apr 2001, 08:53 · from whorl-v0012.mbox · original

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From: Michael Straight <straight at email.unc.edu>
Subject: Re: (whorl) why the problem with astral travel?
Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2001 08:53:57
Message-ID: <whorl-v0012-0643 at digest.urth.net>
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On Wed, 18 Apr 2001, William Ansley wrote:

> I am one of those who complained about the "impossible" size of the=20
> godlings as not being "science fictional." You know what? You are=20
> right. This was a silly objection on my part, considering all of the=20
> stuff I have swallowed without complaint in other so-called SF. (Time=20
> travel, FTL drives and "Psi powers" are just the beginning.)

I thought the main objection to the godlings is that in Act 1 (New Sun)
the author goes into detail about why anything that big would have to live
in the sea or collapse under its own weight and then in Act 3 he presents
us with such a creature without giving us any hint of how it is possible,
or even a sense that we're supposed to see this as a physics-defying
miracle (and Typhon/Mainframe's wonders seem to be otherwise
technological, unlike the "miraculous" wonders of Severian or Silkhorn's
astral travel).

(Maybe our hint is in Act 2 at the talus construction plant, but then what
do you do with the obvious hints that organic Pig (he eats, his eyes are
flesh) is a godling?)

-Rostrum

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