"'The Firstman of Ilion is primus inter pares because Ilion is the most important region and Hesperia its richest area. True?'
"'Originally,' Jowett said. 'Production and population have shifted. However, Aeneans are traditionalists." (3, p. 97)
Right: economic change and institutional inertia.
Chunderban Desai has to hang an outer garment on:
"...a peg in the entry. This layout was incredibly archaic. No doubt the original colonists hadn't had the economic surplus to automate residences, and there'd been sufficient pinch ever afterward to keep alive a scorn for 'effete gadgetry.' The place was chilly, too, though the young woman was rather lightly if plainly clad." (7, pp. 121-122)
The "young woman" is Aenean born whereas Desai is Ramanujan.
From Tatiana's kitchenette bay, there is:
"...an unparalleled view across quads, halls, towers, battlements, down and on to Nova Roma, the River Flone and its belt of green, the ocherous wildernesses beyond." (p. 127)
We are there with Desai.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Almost quasi-monastic, those austere university apartments! But then many universities and schools were founded or staffed by monks and priests in the Middle Ages.
Ad astra! Sean
That institutional inertia is common. For example, the British monarch is still head of the Commonwealth.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And is still the king in many member states of the Commonwealth, in a personal or dynastic union with the British Crown.
Ad astra! Sean
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