<div>The book very much fits within the "Dying Earth" subgenre (cf. Jack Vance) and is more closely related to planetary romance/science fantasy than what we think of as "science fiction."</div>
<div> </div>
<div>So basically, magic is real, the laws of physics and science can be bent or broken by the supernatural, and reality is malleable.<br><br></div>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Dec 1, 2008 at 2:48 PM, Son of Witz <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:sonofwitz@butcherbaker.org">sonofwitz@butcherbaker.org</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">I agree with you Matthew. IT's not meant to be hard-sf. (jeez, I'm a relative noob to the SF genre, do writers bother with that sort of thing)<br>
<br>In the Lexion, Andre-Driussi points out that the Red Sun is not hard sf, but is from the covers of pulp sf books that inspired Wolfe.<br><font color="#888888"><br>~witz<br></font>
<div class="Ih2E3d"><br>>-----Original Message-----<br>>From: Matthew Groves [mailto:<a href="mailto:matthewalangroves@gmail.com">matthewalangroves@gmail.com</a>]<br>>Sent: Monday, December 1, 2008 12:35 PM<br>>To: 'The Urth Mailing List'<br>
>Subject: Re: (urth) House Absolute<br>><br>>Again, this is the mistake of reading Wolfe as hard-sf. Wolfe's future<br>>doesn't have to be consistent with scientific theories of geology or plate<br>>tectonics. When he wants to connect his world to images of the present or<br>
>past, he does so with recognizable architecture; when he wants to show the<br>>great age of Urth, he shows us the effects of erosion and sedimentation and<br>>subduction kneading the ruins our world into unrecognizability or oblivion.<br>
>Nessus is Buenos Aires. Nessus is Byzantium. Incan ruins are still<br>>standing, but the technology of the fare future is found as if fossilized.<br>>That's the logic of Urth. Wolfe's Urth is a rhizome of associations and<br>
>allusions to thousands of years of history and literature. It's consistency<br>>lies in the coherent structure of that rhizome, not in scientific<br>>plausibility.<br>><br></div>
<div class="Ih2E3d">>Therefore, if the elapsed time between our present and Severians is a<br>>pertinent detail, then the clues to it will be found among the nodes of that<br>>rhizome. The Lexicon Urthus 2nd ed. has some interesting things to say<br>
>about this under "History of Urth." (BTW, can someone tell me what the<br>>abbreviations P.S. and S.R. mean in this book?)<br>><br></div>
<div class="Ih2E3d">>On Mon, Dec 1, 2008 at 2:00 PM, Jeff Wilson <<a href="mailto:jwilson@io.com">jwilson@io.com</a>> wrote:<br>><br>>> The Stone Town would not have survived millions of years after the time of<br>
>> the Incas in recognizeable form. Plus, in the afterword of _Shadow_, "G.W."<br>>> the translator of Severian's ms flatly states that he has photographed<br>>> multiple buildings that remain standing in Severian's time, again implying<br>
>> that the separation is on a scale of dozens of millenia at most.<br>><br><br><br></div>
<div>
<div></div>
<div class="Wj3C7c">_______________________________________________<br>Urth Mailing List<br>To post, write <a href="mailto:urth@urth.net">urth@urth.net</a><br>Subscription/information: <a href="http://www.urth.net/" target="_blank">http://www.urth.net</a><br>
</div></div></blockquote></div><br>