Sunday 17 December 2017

The Feelings Of A Time Patrol Operative And A Japanese Empress

"'An operative who had no emotions about the human beings encountered on a mission would be...defective. Worthless, or downright dangerous.'"
-Poul Anderson, The Shield Of Time (New York, 1991), Part One, p. 5.

"...ninjo, feelings and compassion...that must have its place too, or you become an empty suit of armor that walks and kills, and then a blight upon the world."
-SM Stirling, Prince Of Outcasts (New York, 2017), Chapter Eighteen, p. 378.

3 comments:

S.M. Stirling said...

Emotion and sensation are the twin mechanisms by which your genes make you, the individual consciousness, want to accomplish their purposes. It's a Rube Goldberg sort of contraption, but then it's the product of a blind process, emergent complexity without direction.

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Mr Stirling,
Directionless indeed. Sexual motivation gets attached to all sorts of mental processes that have no connection with reproduction.
Paul.

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Dear Mr. Stirling,

And the Japanese Empress' comment reminded me of how you had Eric von Shrakenberg's anxious fear in THE STONE DOGS that if the Draka continued along the abominable path they chose, they would have a head, two arms and legs, but no longer HUMAN beings, monsters.

Merry Christmas! Sean