(urth) "V.R.T." - April 24

[Ori Kowarsky]

On 7/27/06, Daniel D Jones <ddjones at riddlemaster.org> wrote:

> I think, if one considers the entire book and not just V.R.T, that there is a
> great deal of evidence that the abos did exist and were actual shape
> changers.

But only through the accretion of highly suspect circumstantial
evidence.  There is no direct observation of any of this stuff.

If we use Number 5's family as a "control" against which to measure
Marsch and his interviewees, we find that disinterested citizens of
the Sisterworlds are either mystified or completely confused as to who
the abos are/were or what happened to them.

> > Please remember as well that Wolfe tries not to play fast and loose
> > with the basic laws of physics.
>
> Really?  I guess I've been out of school too long.  I had no idea that time
> travel and certain peculiar types of black holes and white fountains and
> resurrections and all sorts of other things were now established as part of
> the basic laws of physics. :-)

I suppose I should have said that, as an engineer, he tries to keep
his sci-fi logically consistent.


> > How long would the supposed abo
> > "worms" have to be to contain the same amount of mass as the grown
> > humans they allegedly become?
>
> Is it necessary that they immediately take on the aspect of humans?

So you're saying they evolved up the species ladder from annelid to
humn in one generation?  In "A Story" the Shadow Child describes a
phantasmagoria of rapid metamophoses that seem to have more to do with
an acid trip (or chewing on an alien plant) than what the abos are
otherwise described as being capable of.

>
> > It, again, seems more reasonable to assume that this is a weird
> > bigoted meme that has developed, either to dehumanize the abos for
> > political, economic and legal reasons, or else to justify some kind of
> > human-vs.-human massacre at the ford at Running Blood.
>
> It seems to me much more reasonable, if that's your criteria, to assume that
> there were in fact abos who simulated human beings.

How so?