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<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=severiansola@hotmail.com
href="mailto:severiansola@hotmail.com">Lee Berman</A> </DIV>
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style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">> </FONT>If this was a conventional work of
fiction, you would be willing to </DIV></DIV>
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style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">> </FONT>accept that the presence of trees
and parasitic lianas are a purely</DIV></DIV>
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style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">> </FONT>metaphorical theme to highlight
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style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">the
host/parasitic relationship </DIV></DIV>
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style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">> </FONT>between two characters.
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<DIV
style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">I’m
comfortable with the idea of metaphor in genre literature also.</DIV>
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style="FONT: 10pt tahoma; BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5; font-color: black"><BR> <BR><FONT
face=Calibri><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">>
</FONT></FONT>But in SF/Fantasy and most especially in the work of Gene Wolfe,
</DIV></DIV>
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style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">> </FONT>metaphors take on a much greater
dose of reality than they do in </DIV></DIV>
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style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">> </FONT>fiction of the real world.
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style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> </DIV></DIV>
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<DIV
style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">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.</DIV></DIV>
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style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> </DIV></DIV>
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style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> </DIV></DIV>
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style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">> </FONT>Not recognizing that this is
SF/Fantasy </DIV></DIV>
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style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">> </FONT>leads some here to ridiculous
arguments like, "trees can't talk".<BR><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">> </FONT>Such people apparently require a
scene where an inhumu pops </DIV></DIV>
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style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">> </FONT>out of a liana and bites a
Neighbor on the neck to catch the </DIV></DIV>
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style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">> </FONT>obvious connection.</DIV></DIV>
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style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #f5f5f5">I’m not sure to what your referring here
(can’t remember any theory about chattering trees), but if a tree tal</FONT>ks
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.</DIV></DIV>
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style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #f5f5f5"></FONT></DIV>
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size=3 face=Calibri></FONT><BR><FONT face=Calibri><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">> </FONT></FONT>But
multi-limbed Neighbors and parasitic inhumi tracking with </DIV></DIV>
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style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">> </FONT>trees and liana/vines is a
connection any Wolfe reader ought to </DIV></DIV>
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style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">> </FONT>be able to get. </DIV></DIV>
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<DIV
style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">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?</DIV></DIV>
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style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> </DIV></DIV>
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style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> </DIV></DIV>
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style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">> </FONT>Anyone who claims they can't is
pretending (as </DIV></DIV>
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style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">> </FONT>David suggests) or playing kabuki
theater (as James suggests). </DIV></DIV>
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style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">> </FONT>Nobody who has been here
contributing here for a significant </DIV></DIV>
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style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">> </FONT>length of time could really be
that dense.</DIV></DIV>
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style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"> </DIV></DIV>
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<DIV
style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">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.</DIV></DIV>
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<DIV
style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">-
Gerry Quinn</DIV></DIV>
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