(urth) S&S vs. SF in BotNS

[Jerry Friedman]

> From: Lee Berman <severiansola at hotmail.com>
>> Jerry Friedman: How about the analept of the alzabo and the effect of 
> drinking 
>> blook on the inhumi?  After a moment's thought, the only way I can 
> understand 
>> these is as magic, specifically the principle of contagion (if I have it 
> right).
> 
> I think the alzabo stuff is explainable by time period. There was a very real
> and serious camp in the 1970's which thought memory might be carried by RNA. 
> Wolfe
> wouldn't be the only SF writer of that era to base fiction on it.

Yes, but RNA in cooked flesh?  Surely it would have to be in the brain, but nothing in that scene (CotC, Ch. XI) seems to suggest that they ate Thecla's brain.  On the other hand, nothing seems to rule it out, either.
...
             

Daniel Petersen:
>I meant 'magical' in the spells and incantations sort of sense. If you're explaining the Inhumi and alzabo phenomena in non-naturalistic (supernatural, paranormal, etc.) terms, then I agree. Or at least, I'm as open to that possibility as any other.

Okay, there aren't any spells or incantations.  (The closest thing to that is the one from Isangoma, which may or may not work.)  I think of contagion as specifically magical, not just supernatural or paranormal in general.  The blood or flesh carries the memories because it's connected to the brain.  I might not be right about that, though.  "Contagion" more often means the reason people who believe in it bury their hair and fingernail clippings to keep someone from using them in a curse.

Jerry Friedman