(urth) Typhon & Whorl
Andy Robertson
andywrobertson at clara.co.uk
Sat Dec 22 07:02:48 PST 2007
Pedro Pereira writes:
>
> I do agree that wolfe is very well read comparing to the majority of writers these days. Still, he is not perfect and far as the geology part of things go, I find many inconsistencies.
Maybe it's time to reiterate something I am sure we all already understand
Writers rarely know exactly what they are going to create when they start
out in a story.
Like most really devoted artists, Wolfe writes whatever his internal muse
dictates and then plasters enough "machinery" around it to create a
plausible suspension of disbelief.
Thus, the state of the Sun in the New Sun books can not be justified
scientifically. It's actually a "Dying Earth" type sun like that in Clark
Ashton Smith or The Night Land. It's not explainable by real physics.
Thus, the Long Sun books started as in a completely different universe from
the New Sun. Typhon popped up and the whole Long Sun connection was
retconned subsequently.
Fundamentally science fiction is **not** based on science, whatever analysts
of the genre try to pretend. It's a sub-class of wonder tale that uses
science, not magic, as bullshit/excuse/enabler: nothing more.
Scientific inconsistencies are inevitable and, really, irrelevant. Unless
they are just stupid and graceless. Which Wolfe is not.
I'm not posting this because I think it will be news to anyone, but because
we need to be regularly reminded.
- hartshorn
http://www.thenightland.co.uk
01273-488272 / 0777-214-9545
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