Saturday 27 May 2023

Good Eating?

Escapers from Heinlein's generation ship land on a terrestroid moon of a Jovoid planet. One knifes a native animal and says:

"'Good eating!'"

The narrative ends with the affirmation:

"'From now on...always Good Eating.'" (ibid.)

Not necessarily. In fact, probably not. We have read Poul Anderson. Local food might be poisonous or might not be nourishing or might need dietary supplements. That last consideration, at least. Heinlein wrote an implausible conclusion to his generation ship story. Brian Aldiss thought that he "could do it better" (his own words) and wrote Non-Stop. Anderson imagined an Asimovian science of society used to prevent generation ship mutinies from getting out of hand. Clifford Simak imagined revivalist religion used to keep a spaceship crew performing necessary tasks. There have been a lot of other generation ship stories, apparently. See here.

6 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Exactly! The animals and plants of even terrestroid planets will need to be tested to determine if they would be safe for humans to eat. And still might require dietary supplements.

Ad astra! Sean













S.M. Stirling said...

Maybe they just got lucky... 8-). Or it may be a universe with panspermia!

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Heinlein spells out how much luck was involved in them landing on that moon.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Mr. Stirling

Blind dumb luck is not a reliable means of surviving!!!

Ad astra! Sean

S.M. Stirling said...

Sean: but it does work, now and then.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Mr. Stirling!

True, but I would not want to trust too much on luck!

Ad astra! Sean