"'...you'll not be under human law any more, you'll be under choth law and custom.... Hold on. That's fine, if you're an Ythrian. Chris, you haven't got the chromosomes. Those who've pretended they did, never fitted well into either race, ever again.'" (Rise Of The Terran Empire, p. 439)
Christopher/Arinnian retorts:
"'Damnation, I'm not pretending-!'" (ibid.)
Isn't he? When he speaks of faring to his choth because Khruaths are being called, his accent changes:
"He was no longer using the Planha-influenced Anglic of Avalon...it was as if he were trying to translate for a human listener the thought of an Ythrian brain." (p. 437)
Like other "birds," he tends to discard clothes as if he were feathered. He thinks:
"O God, to have real wings!" (p. 441)
He regards goggles as a "...poor substitute for a nictitating membrane." (ibid.)
Arinnian insists that choth membership widens and purifies his humanity. (p. 438) Meanwhile, what does his childhood friend, Eyath, think?
"'I dreamt last night that we were indeed like humans.'
"'What, forever in rut?'
"'Forever in love.'" (p. 470)
An idealized Ythrian view of humanity!
Vodan warns Eyath:
"'...don't try, don't wish to be human.'" (ibid.)
This reminds me of an exchange between two friends in Lancaster:
"I wish I was a big bloke, like you!"
"I wish I was a little bloke, like you!"
Maybe Thuriak of the Weathermaker Choth and Nat Falkayn were wiser generations earlier:
"'I have learned how good it is that strengths be different, so that they may be shared.'
"'Well, yes, sure. Wasn't that the whole idea behind this colony?'" (p. 306)
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Yes, Eyath felt a little bit of the same wish to be of a different race and species as did Arinnian. Fortunately, however, it was only a little.
And Tabitha Falkayn was like her ancestor Nat Falkayn, appreciating both being human and believing that the things peculiar to Ythrians and humans alike strengthens and complements the colonists of both races.
Sean
"you haven't got the chromosomes. Those who've pretended they did, never fitted well into either race, ever again"
This reminds me of the whole transgender thing.
I am in total agreement with those who rebel against rules of eg: what clothing to wear based on what sex you are.
However, I don't see how it can lead to anything good to imagine someone with a penis should be considered a woman, or someone with a vagina should be considered a man. The situations where it is even worth asking "man or woman?" about someone are those where the differences in anatomy & physiology between the sexes matter.
Similarly *some* Ythrian customs can be usefully adopted by humans and vice versa, but others just won't work for the other species.
Kaor, Jim!
I agree, if a MALE wants to dress in women's clothes, that's his choice, however absurd it is. BUT, I will not ever agree, or pretend to agree, that males can be women. That's self evident bull twaddle!
Agree, SOME human/Ythrian customs can be adopted by either race without harm.
Ad astra! Sean
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