Saturday 2 September 2017

"We"

A Stone In Heaven, see here.

The word "we" gets to be used in different senses. It can mean all human beings, our country, social policy makers etc. "What should we do about immigrants or the unemployed?" clearly excludes immigrants and the unemployed from inclusion in the "we."

Sometimes characters in Poul Anderson's Technic History talk about the small part of the galaxy that "we" have explored and, occasionally, the third person narrator also uses this phrase, e.g., the star, Niku, has:

"...a higher percentage of metals than is common for bodies its age (and this only if we have estimated that age correctly). (VI, p. 69)

"There are so many, many worlds, in this tiny segment of space we have somewhat explored." (p. 70)

This is not an omniscient narrator. S/he:

addresses his/her reading audience as one of them;
shares the vast but finite scientific knowledge of the Terran Empire period of the Technic History;
therefore, apparently, is recounting episodes from Flandry's career to a readership living in Flandry's period.

Some parts of the Technic History are overtly presented as historical texts existing within that History. It seems that the Flandry series also fits into this category.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

You overlooked another use for "we," the majestic plural or royal we. A form of speaking used in the most formal and official documents by many monarchs and popes. Including the Queen of Great Britain.

Sean