Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2003 10:11:32 +1000
From: Che Monro 
Subject: Re: (urth) Jungle Garden


>Nobody seems quite to have located any movie that could be a
>"source" for them, but that doesn't seem to me a problem -- after
>all, when the Frankenstein story replays itself in the time of the
>New Sun, it does so without the names, and in a way that resembles,
>generically, the movies rather than the book. So it seems that, in
>the mythic period of the New Sun, which Wolfe refers to as
>"posthistory" (possibly implying a relationship to postmodernism
>and the discourse referred to as "the end of history"), the stories
>play themselves out in generic form, welling perhaps from the
>popular un/consciousness and media rather than respecting the
>intellectual "purity" of their sources (again a fairly postmodernist
>approach).

This seems very Wolfean in style. *nodnods*

On a completely tangential matter: Severian's reaction to the aeroplane=20
seems to indicate or at least imply that winged fliers are unknown in his=20
era. If true, then this seems interesting because it implies a couple of=20
things:

1. Maybe "antigravity" is so cheap and easy in this era that wings are=20
utterly obsolete. If it's very easy to make something float then you don't=
=20
need wings, but if you only have a powerful engine of some kind, be it=20
piston, jet, rocket or "impulse drive", then wings are a simple, logical=20
and efficient thing to have in an atmosphere. So it seems likely that=20
whatever the secret of anti-gravity might be in Severian's era it is=20
something simpler than constructing an internal combustion engine. I'm=20
reminded of the shells Dr Taltos provided to the lake people for some=
 reason.

2. Possibly they have powerful engines of some kinds, but the idea of=20
powered flight has been erased by thousands of years of lighter than air=20
(anti gravity) flight. Thus for someone re-inventing flight in this era a=20
baloon would be the natural model, as seen with the flying tent of the=20
Pelarines, which was quoted by someone recently. They might have a piston=20
on jet engine, but they wouldn't see the -connection- between that and=20
flight, since it doesn't float. Random Observation: Wolfe likes=20
baloons/zeppelins, doesn't he? Note the airship in TBOTLS.

Che

Ch=E9 Franz Joseph Monro -- http://www.chemonro.com
che@chemonro.com    --     flirt@technologist.com



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