"'Damnation to Biocontrol...'" (p. 80)
This reminds us of:
"'Down with Big Brother!'" (Everyone knows this.)
- and:
"'Orion shall rise!'" (Poul Anderson fans know this.)
The teenager who lets slip "Damnation to Biocontrol," then tries to cover it up, is too young to have thought of it himself so Flandry deduces that:
"...somewhere in his home town, at least one older person - probably more - has daydreamed about a revolution -" (p. 80)
Children pick up more than language. A very young girl was heard to express a racist sentiment in the tone of voice of her great-grandmother. Our daughter, when just learning to speak, once responded to a question not with "Yes" or "No" but "'Sink so." She knew that "I think so" was an option because she had heard her parents give that response.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I remember that bit, where the lad rescued by Flandry from killing himself, indiscreetly let slip that bit of adult hostility to Biocontrol. Of course an Intelligence agent as crafty and experienced as Flandry would observe and seize on it!
At first I was puzzled by your daughter's "Sink so." But you explained what she meant!
Ad astra! Sean
Children are sponges. But they alter what they absorb!
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
They do!
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment