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<div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Dec 3, 2008 at 11:17 AM, Tim Walters <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:walters@doubtfulpalace.com">walters@doubtfulpalace.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
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<div class="Ih2E3d">O'Donnell, Tim (BOSI) wrote:<br><br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">Vance in the Dying Earth series never gave any clues to the passage of time and thus escaped this trap.<br>
</blockquote><br></div>I don't have time to look for a pull quote right now, but I'm pretty sure that somewhere he makes it clear that it's far, far in the future, far enough for the sun to have weakened naturally.<br>
<br>And while the subgenre is named after Vance's book, he wasn't the only (or first) to write in it. Vance's model was Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique stories. Richard Lupoff wrote "One Million Centuries." Arthur C. Clarke got a toe in with "The City And The Stars." Ultimately the trope goes back to Wells' "The Time Machine." I'm pretty sure all of these are explicit about the passage of eons, and it's an important part of their effect.<br>
<br>I believe Wolfe is following this tradition.<br><font color="#888888"><br>-- <br><br>Tim Walters | The Doubtful Palace | <a href="http://doubtfulpalace.com/" target="_blank">http://doubtfulpalace.com</a></font>
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<div>It's also instructive to note that the Dying Earth subgenre is very pulpy, esp. in the Clark Ashton Smith (and his imitators) vein. Vance brought a little more literary panache to the genre, but its roots are pure pulp.</div>
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<div>Pulp is often willing to sacrifice logic and good science for dramatic effect.</div>
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<div>-Lane</div>
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