From: Michael Straight <straight@email.unc.edu>
Subject: Re: (whorl) godlings
Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2001 08:52:33 

On Fri, 20 Apr 2001, William Ansley wrote:

> [1] I still think this is a weak point in the books, although some 
> have defended it. I certainly suppose that might be possible to make 
> robots out of parts that could all serve as replacements for various 
> human organs, 

Do we see any chem to human transfers in Long Sun?   Or were you just
referring to Jonas?  Having a robot canibalize a human's prosthetics for
spare parts is not so hard to swallow, but I agree going the other way
seems a lot harder.

> [3] You may well say I am arguing as if I still consider the Sun 
> books to be SF, although I said that I had abandoned that belief in 
> an earlier message. 

The Sun books are SF, they're SF in a universe where miracles happen.  
But just because some miracles occur (the New Sun, FTL Astral Travel)
doesn't mean that everything should be explained as a miracle.  For
example, just because astral travel is possible, it doesn't follow that
robots can use human organs for spare parts.

I feel certain Wolfe wants his readers to be asking, "How did that
happen?  How does that work?" in an SF sort of way, but at the same time,
he gives us a story where the answer to some of those questions is that
there is no scientific explanation.

-Rostrum


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