"'Hello, Christopher Holm.'" (Rise Of The Terran Empire, p. 465)
He replies in Planha:
"'I come as Arinnian...Luck fare beside you, Hrill.'" (ibid.)
Her response is to smile and to ask him to excuse her for not elaborating the occasion. Her amusement and his consequent awkwardness are the seed from which a serious argument can grow. He wonders whether she is a virgin but thinks that this is unlikely because:
"What human, perpetually in a low-grade lovetime, could match the purity of an Eyath?" (p. 467)
Purity? Not having sex when you have no inclination to have sex? Don't judge one species by the completely different behavior patterns of another.
When a member of his own species addresses him in their language, he insists on replying as if he were an Ythrian. Is this an elaborate psychodrama as in the first story, "The Saturn Game"?
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
What we see here is Christopher/Arinnian IDEALIZING the Ythrians, esp. Eyath, wishing on them an impossibly high standard. And setting the stage for his inevitable disillusionment when that ideal is shattered. By comparison, Tabitha Falkayn is far more sensible and balanced.
Sean
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