Tuesday 7 May 2019

Mixed-Species Cultures And Narrative Lengths

To continue the line of thought from the previous post, Avalon endures centuries later in The Day Of Their Return and A Stone In Heaven although we are not told how this planet fares during the Long Night or the following millennia. The story peters out as is bound to happen eventually. We are fortunate to be told as much as we are.

Flandry says that sophonts will build new civilizations, adding that mixed-species cultures like Avalon look promising but we see only the start of this process. Many human beings have "gone bird" by joining choths while some Ythrians have become"walkers" by living as atomic individuals in the global human community but what will a fully integrated human-Ythrian civilization of the further future be like? There are many unanswered questions because the Technic History is voluminous but nevertheless finite.

How does this sound as a rule of thumb:

a short story may be only a few pages in length;
a novel is 100+ pages and may be several hundred;
a novella is up to 100 pages;
a novelette is intermediate between a short story and a novella?

Obviously, there is no qualitative difference between a "novella" of 100 pages and a "novel" of 101 pages.

The contents page of David Falkayn: Star Trader uniquely classifies the seven collected narratives:

"Territory" (novella) is 76 pages;
"The Trouble Twisters" (novella) is 132 pages;
"Day of Burning" (novella) is 64 pages;
"The Master Key" (novella) is 55 pages;
Satan's World (novel) is 270 pages;
"A Little Knowledge" (short story) is 32 pages;
"Lodestar" (novella) is 50 pages.

Knowing that page counts differ between editions, I have made the following comparisons:

"Territory" in Trader To The Stars is 53 pages although its foreword, printed as if it were an afterword to the previous story, is just over one page;
"The Trouble Twisters" in The Trouble Twisters is 96 pages;
"Day of Burning" in The Earth Book Of Stormgate is 52 pages;
"The Master Key" in Trader To The Stars is 38 pages;
Satan's World as a single volume is 220 pages;
"A Little Knowledge" in the Earth Book is 25 pages;
"Lodestar" in the Earth Book is 41 pages.

(Notable differences.)

In "The Trouble Twisters," van Rijn cameos for two and half pages in David Falkayn: Star Trader, just over three in The Trouble Twisters. During this cameo appearance, David Falkayn:

mumbles, "'Yes, sir...'";
asks, "'What do you mean, sir?'";
says, "'But - but - that is -'" (pp. 97-98)

He is usually an articulate young man.

5 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Is a FULLY integrated human/Ythrian society on Avalon truly desirable or even possible? The mere fact they are two different SPECIES inevitably means differences will remain. And the same applies, of course, for other multi-species planets, such as Imhotep.

But even the most articulate of men can be overwhelmed by Nicholas van Rijn's exuberantly charismatic personality!

Sean

Anonymous said...

Perhaps "competitive advantage" will apply to multi-species (as well as multi-cultural) societies:
"You take the high road (Ythrian) and I'll take the low road (human), and I'll be in Corona befer ya'!"
More realistically,if we don't "go"all Mad Max" in a few decades and are able to continue to advance, I think it'll be more realistic with us dealing with "uplifted" (Neo-chimps, Neo-dogs, Neo-seals, etc.) and "lazuroformed (Neanderthals, Densovans, Florensis) species than with xenos.

-kh

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Keith!

Truth to say, "uplifting" animals like dogs, seals, chimps, etc., doesn't much interest me, both because of how unlikely I think that to be and from me thinking intelligent beings from other worlds to be far more interesting.

But the idea of using genetics to bring back Neanderthals, Denisovans, and the "Hobbits" of Flores does interest me.

Sean

Anonymous said...

@ Sean: I hear you. At the same time, it may be a VERY long time (if ever) before we meet "others". Wee may need to create our own, and that may not be too far away...
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/613277/chinese-scientists-have-put-human-brain-genes-in-monkeysand-yes-they-may-be-smarter/.


-kh

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Keith!

I remain skeptical anything real will come of these grotesque Chinese experiments. Also, I'm reminded of how Stalin ordered experiments in breeding "super soldiers" by trying to "mate" humans with apes. So, I'm skeptical!

Sean