The Lann pursue the escaped prisoners who experience:
"A night and a day, another night and now this day, fleeing, fleeing... only the shortest snatches of sleep, more to save the horses than themselves..." (p. 124)
The two or three times that I have remained awake for a day, a night and another day, I have been completely wrecked and incapacitated. Keeping someone awake like that is a vicious torture and interrogation technique.
After a weekend visit to Amsterdam, including a sleepless night, Sheila and I slept in bunk beds in a completely enclosed and therefore dark cabin on the ferry. I remember my head hitting the pillow and nothing else. I must have gone straight to sleep. If I had been killed during that sleep, then that last moment would never have been remembered. On another occasion, I was rendered unconscious by an anaesthetic and felt an irresistible force snuffing out my consciousness, forcing it down into darkness. I remember that last moment but only because I did not die under the anaesthetic.
My point is that I think that consciousness is like a candle flame that ends either when it is extinguished or when the candle has burned down. Some people claim evidence to the contrary, of course, and such claims should be investigated, not ignored or dismissed.
Sometimes we discuss Poul Anderson's text or what it describes or the issues that it raises. Another aspect of reading, peculiar to each individual reader, is the thoughts and reflections that it evokes in us. For me, the fact that sleep is what someone called a daily death is highly significant.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And I remember how Poul Anderson used the method of forced wakefulness on a prisoner in A MIDSUMMER TEMPEST. Jennifer Alleyne was not allowed to sleep until she was forced to reveal to Malachi Shelgrave, her guardian, how and by what means Prince Rupert could be pursued.
The method I would have preferred would be sensory deprivation. Because, when used with the care shown by Dominic Flandry in WE CLAIM THESE STARS, little if any harm was done to the prisoner being interrogated.
Sean
Sean,
I think that sensory deprivation is immense mental harm. Otherwise, it would not make prisoners talk.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Immense mental strain or effort on the prisoner's part, I agree. But no PHYSICAL harm was done when used with the care shown by Flandry. All it does is PRESS the prisoner to consent to answering questions truthfully.
Sean
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