Sf writers who imagine extraterrestrial environments sometimes also imagine the sayings or proverbs of inhabitants of those environments. Thus:
"'A tree which grows too high will topple at last.'" (IX, p. 78)
In Ranau (scroll down), a three-kilometer tree that fell a thousand years ago still scars the forest while its slow decay generates heat. Older people have made this tall fallen tree a parable for: do not strive too high. However, young Djuanda, defying his elders, thinks that the Trees of Ranau are not high enough, thus reversing the saying, and therefore emigrates. But Djuanda would have fallen from a cliff in a suicide attempt if Dominic Flandry had not grabbed his ankle. The plot thickens as we learn more of the diversity of the planet, Unan Besar.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
More and more, I look forward to rereading THE PLAGUE OF MASTERS after I finish "A Message in Secret," the story immediately preceding PLAGUE, chronologically speaking.
It's stunning to imagine trees as tall as the two kilometers high Prophet's Tower we see on Altai! Or even taller, vastly larger than the redwoods of the west coast of Terra's North America.
What Djuanda tried to do in Gunung Utara was not bad or foolish, he simply underestimated the difficulty of what he tried to do.
Hmmmm, if Flandry had not saved Djuanda from his suicide attempt, the chain of events leading to the overthrow of Biocontrol might have been aborted!
Ad astra! Sean
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