Wednesday 18 December 2019

Some Interesting Details

The Day Of Their Return.

On a cold night out of doors, an Ythrian pumps his wings slowly while asleep to prevent freezing. (9, p. 147) I have said before that the Ythrians are more at home in their natural environment than are human beings. See Ythrians And The Elements II and its links.

Imperial currency is credits whereas Aenean is libras. (p. 149)

In Chapter 9:

pp. 142-145 are Chunderban Desai's point of view;
pp. 145-159 are Ivar Frederiksen's pov;
pp. 150-151 are Jaan's pov.

Thus, the High Commissioner, the Firstling and the prophet.

However:

"Erannath stared after [Ivar] till he was gone from sight." (p. 147)

This single sentence is not necessarily Erannath's pov - anyone can see that he is staring - but it is not Ivar's either - unless Ivar can feel Erannath's stare? (Can some people do this?) Erannath rightly suspects Ivar.

5 comments:

S.M. Stirling said...

Human beings evolved in the tropics. We’ve adapted to otheRs, but more culturally than genetically. Hence, we’re often out of place - and add in that we were all Hunter-gatherers living in small bands of close relatives until in evolutionary terms just yesterday.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Mr. Stirling!

IOW, while humans can live in colder climates they have to first adapt to them both culturally and technologically.

Ad astra and Merry Christmas! Sean

S.M. Stirling said...

I was using culture to refer to technology as well -- learned behavior, memetically rather than genetically stored information.

Neanderthals seem to have been genuinely cold-adapted, like Innuit only much more so, which may be another reason (besides us) they didn't survive the end of the last glacial.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Mr. Stirling!

That interests me, Neanderthal being much more adapted to cold weather than "modern" humans. But I don't think, absent competitive pressure from "modern" humans, it would have been impossible for Neanderthals to adapt to warmer weather.

Ad astra and Merry Christmas! Sean

S.M. Stirling said...

Oh, sure. Surprisingly light competitive pressure can "tip" a species into extinction.