"In spite of what the brotherhood-of-beings sentimentalists kept bleating, Merseians did not really think in human style."
-Chapter Two, p. 18. (For full reference, see here.)
But human beings of different cultures and periods do not think in the same way either. The proposition that all beings are brothers does not entail that Merseians think like human beings. Brothers differ - but remain brothers.
All beings are being conscious of itself but the environments of which they are conscious and the ways in which they are conscious of them can differ completely. Xenologists would need to study each new species in depth, not make Hauksberg's bland assertion that:
"'They're rational bein's too, y'know. S'pose many of 'em're lookin' for some way out of the quicksand. I can offer one.'"
-Chapter One, p. 8.
Do not suppose anything, especially not about what "'...many of 'em...'" think.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I agree with what you said about Lord Hauksberg, a decent but dangerously naive (in some ways) man. For example, and most pertinently, the goals, ends, desires, etc., of the Merseians were not what he would have wished they had. Wishful thinking is not a substitute for hard headed realism, most esp. for statesmen!
Sean
Kaor, Paul!
I should have added to my previous comment that I would EXPECT non human races to think differently at least in some ways from how humans do.
Sean
Human cultural variation operates within constraints because biologically we're very similar -- humans are a strikingly uniform species genetically, much more so than our closest relatives (chimps and gorillas) and very much more so than say, wolves. I'd expect nonhumans to be fundamentally different in ways that made interaction tricky.
Of course, Merseians and humans are similar, as species go in Anderson's imaginarium. They evolved in very similar environments, they're both omnivores-slanting-carnivore, both descended from pack hunters, both have two sexes, etc.
That's what makes them really dangerous rivals. You fight with your neighbors, as the saying goes.
I'm pretty sure I mentioned in a post here a couple-three years ago that Brechdan Ironrede, in the privacy of his thoughts, resorted to a human word — "fun" — to describe the quality in his late wife Nodhia that he missed most. The two species did have that much in common, that a spouse who was "fun" could be enjoyed ... and yet also the difference, that no Eriau word to express that appealing quality existed.
I have to wonder, though, what it was about her that he found fun, would similar qualities seem "fun" to a human ... and could he have mentioned this to his fellows without incurring astonishment or even censure (like coming out of the closet, perhaps)?
Dear Mr. Stirling and DAVID,
Mr. Stirling, I agree. And I would add that another thing humans and Merseians have in common is how, as oxygen breathing races, they would both desire the same kind of planets suitable for their species to colonize.
David, that was an interesting point you raised, something I don't think anyone has thought of before. I mean the way Merseian females live or are treated, relegated very much to the background, is possibly traceable to a cause deeper than merely custom, law, or culture. So, it's possible Brechdan Ironrede's deceased wife Nodhia somehow DIFFERED from other Merseian ladies. Was Nodhia as independent, in her own way, as human women can be?
Anderson gives us speculations about what non human females might be like with the Tigeries, Diomedeans, Cainites, Cynthians, Ythrians, etc., but not with the Merseians. We do see MENTION of Dwyr the Hook's wife but not in person, or any other ladies of their race.
Sean
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