(urth) note Re: Short Sun blog

[Jeff Wilson]

On 9/28/2010 4:10 PM, Roy C. Lackey wrote:
> Jeff Wilson wrote:
>> Hello?! The Conciliator?!? Wields the Increate-given power to
>> selectively turn back the clock? Jader's sister's illness doesn't
>> subside and heal, it's just suddenly gone and she looks as healthy as if
>> she had never been ill. Other healing and resurrections are less
>> complete, but in their limited extent they remain nigh-instantaneous.
>
> Dorcas is the one who came up with the theory that Sev's powers involved
> turning back time to a point before the injury or illness occurred. That
> theory is disproved by Sev's refashioning of Herena's withered arm into a
> normal arm. Her withered arm was a birth defect; there had never been a time
> when the arm had been normal. That power, and the power to bring the dead
> back to life, was a supernatural power.

Of course it's supernatural - but it can also be a time-bending effect, 
just like Sampson's strength was supernatural but also was physical 
manipulation. If there are other Severians, there can be other Herenas 
with good arms.

There's similar effect in "What Rough Beast", by Wolfe's cultivator, 
Damon Knight: the "great rabbi" heals a shut-in girl's disfiguring burn 
by replacing the cells from not-burned timelines. However, the healed 
skin is browner than the rest of her because in those timelines she was 
comfortable with her body image and went sunbathing at the beach.

-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
Computational Intelligence Laboratory - Texas A&M Texarkana
< http://www.tamut.edu/CIL >