Sandy
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Recent articles have discussed "Extra-Uterine Fetal Incubation" or "Artificial Wombs" and I slid down the rabbit hole of the various possible impacts of those terms and others as compared to "Uterine Replicators". For one, I was struck by how the former might imply superiority over the original in ways the latter does not. What considerations, if any, do you recall making when you chose your term?
Lois McMaster Bujold
As near as I can remember from a thought-stream 42 years ago, I made the term up on the fly for the scene in Shards of Honor in which the tech first appears, and Cordelia is explaining it to Aral (and the reader.) I wanted a term which was not that used in prior SF works -- Huxley's Brave New World most obviously, but there were others, including Zelazny's Lord of Light. (I don't offhand now remember what terms those authors used in their books without looking them up.) I wanted my term for it to have an inherently obvious meaning to the readers, so I didn't have to spend a lot of time teaching new pseudo-vocabulary or neologisms.
I didn't at the time push any particular opinion over which method was "superior" -- a loaded term -- although if one is a human of the female reproductive persuasion, the advantages and disadvantages become more obvious the more one thinks about them, which I did later on. Most immediately in Ethan of Athos, though also touched on in the ensuing Falling Free. And then explored further from time to time throughout the series, all the way up through Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen.
Ta, L.
As near as I can remember from a thought-stream 42 years ago, I made the term up on the fly for the scene in Shards of Honor in which the tech first appears, and Cordelia is explaining it to Aral (and the reader.) I wanted a term which was not that used in prior SF works -- Huxley's Brave New World most obviously, but there were others, including Zelazny's Lord of Light. (I don't offhand now remember what terms those authors used in their books without looking them up.) I wanted my term for it to have an inherently obvious meaning to the readers, so I didn't have to spend a lot of time teaching new pseudo-vocabulary or neologisms.
I didn't at the time push any particular opinion over which method was "superior" -- a loaded term -- although if one is a human of the female reproductive persuasion, the advantages and disadvantages become more obvious the more one thinks about them, which I did later on. Most immediately in Ethan of Athos, though also touched on in the ensuing Falling Free. And then explored further from time to time throughout the series, all the way up through Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen.
Ta, L.
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Catherine Nemeth
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Lois McMaster Bujold:
RE gene cleaning as the best birthday gift. There are steps between removing deleterious genes, choosing the best genes in the sperm sample, looking for rare existing variations (better than 20/20 vision, lactic acid breakdown), and going full haute boutique genome. Given their history with the Cetagandans and their militaristic inclination, would the Barrayarans be tempted into their own eugenic project?
Djkvty
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Lois McMaster Bujold:
Dear Lois, my wife and I were listening to A Civil Campaign again and just wanted to thank you (and Grover) for giving us an additional family to care about for these 2+ decades. In the mid-90's I mailed my collection of Miles books to my not-yet wife to cheer her up and within a year, we were married. She says introducing her to the VorKosigan's sealed the deal. Thanks so very much. Sorry this isn't a ? :)
Shaun Rosel
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Hi Lois, I've just started reading your Vorkosigan books (only 2 so far) but I absolutely love them. I'm the type of person that really enjoys looking up the reading order of long series and tackling them as the author intended, I've read your recommendation here on goodreads and appreciate the clarification from you. I have a 2 part question (EDIT character limit please see following separate messages)?
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