XPost: rec.arts.sf.written
From: gene@shaw.ca
On Thu, 12 Dec 2019 18:08:55 -0500, Joel Polowin
wrote:
>On 2019-12-12 4:52 PM, Dorothy J Heydt wrote:
>>>Hypothesis: Creatures of Faerie live via a nuclear fission/fusion field.
>>>
>>>Logic: They are poisoned uniquely by the presence of matter that
>>>contains no (or few) atoms that can be fused/split without loss of
>>>energy.
>>
>> Examples? And are you sure the term is "poisoned" rather than
>> "starved"?
>
>It's a fairly common folkloric trope that the Fae are sickened and
>pained merely by being in the presence of iron. It's a recurring
>element in Seanan McGuire's October Daye series: a small wound from
>an iron weapon can be fatal. At one point, IIRC, a character is put
>into an iron cage, and can't think about anything but the horrible
>presence of the iron. I gather that somewhere along in the series,
>a Fae character is gravely injured by being whacked by an iron skillet.
>I know that there are other examples in other literature, but I'm
>blanking on them at the moment.
>
>Perhaps I should explain the joke: a unique characteristic of iron
>is that it's at the peak of the nuclear binding energy curve. You
>can get energy by fusing lighter nuclei to get iron, or by splitting
>heavier nuclei to get iron and something else. You can't get energy
>*from* iron by either splitting it or fusing it.
I have thought of this myself.
>At least with the physical properties of our universe. Another set
>of experiments to try would be to see if Faerie creatures are poisoned
>by the presence of other elements, in universes which have physical
>constants different from ours.
Maybe, the iron reaction is a deficiency. Where does their magic
come from?
Sincerely,
Gene Wirchenko
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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