The Lahui Kuikawa, a mixed human-intelligent seal community, asks Fenn's advice about colonizing Deimos, then terraforming Mars. To be able to give such advice, he must visit first the Pacific, then Mars:
"'...when we're reaching for the truth, our feet had better be planted on rocky reality.'" (10, p. 135)
Paradox: to plant his feet on Martian ground, Fenn must travel into the sky. This prompts a philosophical reflection: someone with his head in the clouds and his feet on the ground must be very tall. Metaphorically, Poul Anderson, creating scientifically grounded and imaginatively transcendent speculative fiction, was many light years tall.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I think most of us would have said "...when we're reaching for the truth, our feet had better be planted on terra firma." Or, "...when we're reaching for the truth, our feet had better be planted on firm ground." The first example, if Poul Anderson had used it, would have been another example of him using a bit of Latin. I recall how you took note of the places where Latin was used in his works.
Sean
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