From: Michael Straight <straight@email.unc.edu>
Subject: Re: (urth) ...sigh...
Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2001 14:16:38 

On Thu, 28 Jun 2001, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes wrote:

> > > > Maybe this is why some hard SF people can't stand Wolfe.
>  
> > > That, and the fact that his stories aren't generally about 
> > > problems to be solved by technological means.
> 
> > Except maybe "Alien Stones."
> 
> Do we have to argue about _everything_ around here? 

Sorry I wasn't clear.  I mentioned that more as the exception that proves
your rule.  It's a nifty engineer's spin on "solved by technological
means" that I wouldn't have thought to describe that way if you hadn't
used that phrase.

And, of course, the story's about more than a problem to be solved by
technological means.

I didn't get the ending (particularly the bit about one's marital status
in the resurrection) until I reread it after the whole Clinton/Lewinsky
affair, which made me laugh when the aliens said "It depends on how you
define 'is'" -- which made me pay more attention to the comment and
realize what they were talking about.

-Rostrum


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