"'...less gift for the whole ch'an - understanding - than the many-minded people of the Morning Star.'"
-Poul Anderson, The Day Of Their Return IN Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 74-238 AT 13, p. 174.
Despite his evident religious certainties, the chaplain has no scientific knowledge of the Didonians. The human scientists based on Dido would not make any such grandiose generalizations about Didonian consciousness but would instead acknowledge their own ignorance. They have yet to get beyond communicating with the Didonians in pidgin languages. Tatiana Thane is hopefully beginning to construct a semantic model of one of the native Didonian languages.
Meanwhile, the Caruith persona coerces Jaan to accept that murder is necessary to further their cause. If we needed any evidence that Caruith is not a good spiritual influence, then here it is.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I agree, the River folk chaplain is attributing too much to Didonian entities.
Your comments about Caruith/Jaan and how he was slipping into dark ways reminded me of a similar process with Mohammed. After the alleged prophet fled to Medina he abandoned peaceful means of spreading his message, turning to war and force, including massacring the Jews of Medina because they would not accept his "message."
Sean
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