-Poul Anderson, "The Problem of Pain" IN Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, 2009), pp. 103-134 AT p.124.
I thought that maybe the Merseians could sleep upright, squatting on their tails? - but, somewhere in Ensign Flandry, Brechdan Ironrede definitely talks about toppling into bed which sounds quite unMerseian to me.
Avoid assumptions about aliens. That an organism must lie down to sleep is definitely an assumption.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I remember that bit about a tired Brechdan Ironrede sometimes bunking out at his office in ENSIGN FLANDRY, and I didn't think it was that odd. Merseians have only TWO legs, after all, tail or not. So it made sense to think of them as lying down to sleep.
Sean
See the sleep customs of the intelligent aliens in "Project Hail Mary".
Kaor, Jim!
I've not gotten that far in PROJECT HAIL MARY, only up to Chapter 5 or 6!
Not bad at all, the book. Andy Weir is not as good a writer as Anderson or Stirling, but well worth reading.
Ad astra! Sean
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