godlings

William Ansley · 20 Apr 2001, 00:27 · from whorl-v0012.mbox · original

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From: William Ansley <wansley at warwick.net>
Subject: Re: (whorl) godlings
Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2001 00:27:05
Message-ID: <whorl-v0012-0662 at digest.urth.net>
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I have been thinking about the godlings for a while, but I can't say=20
I have really gotten anywhere. The large one that Horn|Silk=20
encounters is described as having bestial pointed ears, cavernous=20
nostrils, a huge mouth and relatively small eyes. To me this sounds=20
like a fairy-tale ogre. If I look up ogre on a web dictionary

http://www.yourdictionary.com/

I see the following etymology:

Etymology: French, probably ultimately from Latin Orcus, god of the underwo=
rld

This doesn't seem to get me anywhere except to provide a tiny bit of=20
tenuous support for Robert Borski's "Pig is a vehicle for Tartaros"=20
theory.

Oh, well.

I am not at all sure we can definitely say Pig is a bio and not a=20
chem. Chems are designed to look as much like bios as possible. For=20
example:

At 5:16 PM -0700 4/19/01, maa32 wrote:
>Maytera Marble's rusings indicate that she was once covered in
>flesh (this occurs even before she takes Rose's parts).

I don't think this is quite correct. Chems seem to have a skin of=20
flesh-like plastic when new. This has worn off of Maytera Marble=20
during her long lifetime. The prosthetic hands Marble took from=20
Maytera Rose look like an old lady's hands. But they cannot be=20
covered in flesh since, if I recall correctly, Marble reaches into a=20
sacrificial fire at some point during the Long Sun series (during an=20
Epiphany of Echidna, I think) and her hands (which are Rose's old=20
prosthetic hands at this point) are not harmed.

I assume that new chems must have artificial fingernails and hair if=20
the illusion is to be complete, so Pig would have those if he was a=20
chem. The fact that Silk|Horn's eye is transplanted into Pig really=20
proves nothing; Wolfe treats chem parts and prosthetic parts for bios=20
as interchangeable in the Long and Short Sun series [1]. This should=20
mean that bio parts could serve as prosthetic parts for chems.

One thing I really disagree with is that, if the godlings are chems,=20
they have anything to do with the super-taluses described in Long=20
Sun. (Sorry, alga.)

Taluses were built with cargo technology [2], they were basically=20
tanks with arms. They incorporated an AI chip "brain" that could not=20
be built with cargo technology. There is no evidence that cargo=20
technology could build chems. Even though the fact that godlings were=20
really, really big might make them easier to build in some ways, the=20
fact that they were capable of bipedal locomotion puts them beyond=20
the reach of cargo technology. The taluses didn't have legs at all,=20
they had treads. Even today we can barely build a robot that can=20
"walk like a man." [3]

It seems to make more sense to me that all godlings are bios, even=20
the big ones. This explains the different godling sizes naturally:=20
they grow. If all godlings are chems, then they (probably) cannot=20
grow and are constructed in various sizes for mysterious reasons.

Godlings certainly could be meant as vehicles for the gods of=20
mainframe, but why would they wait to use them until they got to a=20
planet. Even if that was Pas's plan, the rest of his family wasn't=20
following it. Can you see Echina or Scylla passing up the chance to=20
don the body of a gaint and terrorize people, if either of them could?

On the other hand, if the godlings are meant to act as an additional=20
spur to drive people off of the Whorl, they don't seem to be=20
necessary and they certainly don't seem more effective than the=20
droughts and darkness already are.

William Ansley

[1] I still think this is a weak point in the books, although some=20
have defended it. I certainly suppose that might be possible to make=20
robots out of parts that could all serve as replacements for various=20
human organs, but I am sure that the cost of designing and building=20
such robots would be astronomical compared to the cost of building=20
robots that were made of parts that did not all have to be compatible=20
with human biology. I assume Wolfe did this to achieve an effect. It=20
leads to a blurring of boundaries (how human are these chems, do they=20
have souls?) and SF reversals (Jonas replacing his mechanical parts=20
with biological tissue in the New Sun books, Marble taking parts from=20
the dead Rose). Wolfe has a similar confusion in New Sun; among his=20
characters, he has sailors that don't distinguish between sea-going=20
and space-going ships.

[2] The level of technology possessed by the passengers on the Whorl,=20
as opposed to the level of technology possessed by the builders of=20
the Whorl or even it's crew.

[3] You may well say I am arguing as if I still consider the Sun=20
books to be SF, although I said that I had abandoned that belief in=20
an earlier message. That's not exactly what I said but I will admit I=20
took a somewhat disingenuous position to make the rhetorical point=20
that I had problems with RttW that went far beyond its hard-SF=20
quotient.

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