<html><head></head><body bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><div>I know what you mean. But Dr. Talos always seemed to borrow from the inscrutability of a fairy figure for me. Random dancing, riddling, otherworldly. I know his nature is "explained", but he still retains that sense for me.<br><br>On Dec 15, 2011, at 4:57 PM, "Gerry Quinn" <<a href="mailto:gerry@bindweed.com">gerry@bindweed.com</a>> wrote:<br><br></div><div></div><blockquote type="cite"><div>
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<div style="font-color: black"><b>From:</b> <a title="danldo@gmail.com" href="mailto:danldo@gmail.com">Dan'l Danehy-Oakes</a> </div></div></div>
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Gerry Quinn wrote:<br><br>> > You said: “a sword, a giant, a sleeping
beauty, magic, palaces”. But none<br>> > of those are really much
like their fairy-tale counterparts. The sword has<br>> > no magic
powers. Baldanders, fair enough, Severian even fights him in his<br>>
> castle, though not for gold. Dorcas isn’t really a sleeping beauty –
we<br>> > don’t know she was dead until she is already leaving the
narrative. Magic<br>> > is tech. Palaces... the House Absolute
is underground.<br>><br>> > What we have learned of these things from
fairy-tales doesn’t really help us<br>> > here. They don’t mirror
their fairy-tale counterparts. BotNS really isn’t<br>> > a
fairy-tale in any strong sense. Or so it seems to me.<br>><br>> >
Conversely, understanding magic as technology does help us see what’s
going<br>> > on.<br><br>> Contraconversely, understanding technology as
magic, a la Clarke's<br>> Third Law, _also_ helps us see what's going on.
Wolfe goes out of his<br>> way to provide a pseudoscientific explanation for
at least some of<br>> Severian's miracles; but does anybody really believe
that they are<br>> _not_ miracles? The clue for this is near the beginning of
CLAW, where<br>> it is observed that the real miracle is that the laws of the
Universe<br>> are such that the Cathedral of the Pelerines will rise<br>>
non-miraculously: Wolfe is reminding us that there will always be a<br>> way
to "explain away" a miracle ... but that miracles happen,<br>> nonetheless.
(This is also my understanding of Dr Crane's<br>> "explanation" of Silk's
enlightenment, btw: plausible bullshit.)</div></div>
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<div><br>> tBotNS is indeed a fairy story, a once-upon-a-time whisking away
of<br>> the reader to a land where miracles happen, giants (who
somehow<br>> resembles Queequeg...) battle heroes, the dead walk, and
monarchs live<br>> in invisible palaces. (Even the invisible palace hides an
invisible<br>> palace!) If it questions the assumptions of the fairy story,
and<br>> especially the happy ending, well so too does it question
the<br>> assumptions of classic science fantasy: and we cannot understand
that<br>> questioning unless we understand "what we have learned of these
things<br>> from fairy-tales."</div>
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<div>You are right about technology as magic, but I don’t think that BotNS maps
well onto fairy stories. Not every story containing magic is a fairy
story, or a sword and sorcery tale, or any particular genre of magical
tale. I would see a typical fairy story as largely about personality
(albeit often clinically insane personalities). A dysfunctional
family is frequently the main driver of the plot. Baldanders is not so bad
a fit as a fairy tale giant, but I don’t really see too many fairy tale tropes
in BotNS. </div>
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<div>Even the fairies themselves don’t seem evident on Urth, and that is unusual
for Wolfe. You might find fairies or fairy-like beings on Blue, or even on
the Whorl - and perhaps they will return to Ushas - but on Urth they have been
crushed under the weight of ages. There are new monsters, but no real
fairies or ghosts. Anything even vaguely close is a consequence of
technology or physics.</div>
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<div>- Gerry Quinn</div>
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