Melissa
asked
Mary Robinette Kowal:
I have always pictured glamour as something that gets lost in modern times and only a few can perform... have you ever thought about that universe in a different time period?
Mary Robinette Kowal
Oh, yes. I have spent much time working that out, so I could think about the pace of discovery in glamour.
Glamour is a manipulation of the electromagnetic spectrum and isn't compatible with electricity. A direct lightning strike will wipe glamour from a home. Unshielded electric cables would cause glamour to decay much faster and split the threads on in the more delicate parts of the spectrum. In the Glamourist Histories universe, technology in 2015 would be slightly behind where we are in that components are bulkier to compensate for all of the shielding. Even so, glamour has fallen largely out of favour, not because people can't do it, but because it's easier to use a machine to duplicate a lot of things that people used to do.
It's not so much the effort, as the training. Much like longbows were more efficient weapons than early guns, but required significant training.
Glamour is a manipulation of the electromagnetic spectrum and isn't compatible with electricity. A direct lightning strike will wipe glamour from a home. Unshielded electric cables would cause glamour to decay much faster and split the threads on in the more delicate parts of the spectrum. In the Glamourist Histories universe, technology in 2015 would be slightly behind where we are in that components are bulkier to compensate for all of the shielding. Even so, glamour has fallen largely out of favour, not because people can't do it, but because it's easier to use a machine to duplicate a lot of things that people used to do.
It's not so much the effort, as the training. Much like longbows were more efficient weapons than early guns, but required significant training.
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