(urth) Babbiehorn?: Was: a sincere question mostly for roy

[Gerry Quinn]

From: Lee Berman 


> If this was a conventional work of fiction, you would be willing to 
> accept that the presence of trees and parasitic lianas are a purely
> metaphorical theme to highlight the host/parasitic relationship 
> between two characters. 
I’m comfortable with the idea of metaphor in genre literature also.

 
> But in SF/Fantasy and most especially in the work of Gene Wolfe, 
> metaphors take on a much greater dose of reality than they do in 
> fiction of the real world. 
Very often they do.  But that doesn’t mean that every and any metaphor is intended to be reified in every work of SF.  Gene Wolfe’s books contain plenty of ‘ordinary’ metaphors.
> Not recognizing that this is SF/Fantasy 
> leads some here to ridiculous arguments like, "trees can't talk".
> Such people apparently require a scene where an inhumu pops 
> out of a liana and bites a Neighbor on the neck to catch the 
> obvious connection.
I’m not sure to what your referring here (can’t remember any theory about chattering trees), but if a tree talks in Short Sun no doubt I’ll find it on the re-read that I’ve started.  And if it doesn’t, I will still assume that trees don’t talk.

> But multi-limbed Neighbors and parasitic inhumi tracking with 
> trees and liana/vines is a connection any Wolfe reader ought to 
> be able to get. 
Perhaps you meant to add “if it’s there”.  I don’t really know what you mean by “tracking”, a word you use with great frequency – could you be more specific in what you’re proposing here?  You seem to be saying there is a more than metaphorical connection, so exactly *what* connection are you proposing?  I know Marc thinks they are alternate forms of a single biological organism.  I don’t agree with that; I think one is a plant and one is an amphibian.  Have you a third concept in mind, or do you agree with Marc?
> Anyone who claims they can't is pretending (as 
> David suggests) or playing kabuki theater (as James suggests). 
> Nobody who has been here contributing here for a significant 
> length of time could really be that dense.
What you seem to be saying here is that anyone who disagrees that lianas and inhumi are biologically connected is lying or stupid or both.  That says more about you than about me.
- Gerry Quinn
 
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