A dark display tank contains thousands of "...points of luminance...," (p. 512) representing nearby stars. Admiral Cajal has the rare ability to pick out an individual point, which he does with a "flashbeam." (ibid.) Why is the tank kept dark?
Governor Saracoglu points out the difficulty of spying on Avalon:
"'...Avalonian humans no longer think, talk, even walk quite like any Imperial humans. Imitating them isn't feasible.'" (VII, p. 513)
But imitating them would have to be feasible if The People Of The Wind were to be filmed. Could the actors be coached to maintain an alien intonation and gait throughout their performances?
"'...we birds have gotten pretty good at picking up face and body cues." (VI, p. 510)
Human beings already respond to face and body cues as well as to words and tones of voice. Such cues will differ as between Avalonians and Imperials. Birds must have got better at picking up cues because so much of Planha is nonverbal. How much of this nonverbal communication would it be possible to convey in a film? Such a film would need CGI for the Ythrians but also a lot more.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I think Governor Saracoglu should have added that an Imperial agent could have been infiltrated into Avalon YEARS before under some convincing cover and gradually gained the mannerisms he noted. Those years would also have been spent maneuvering into a position where he could have gained information useful to the Terrans. The problem is, of course, this would need to be a very long term project. And, also at risk of the agent being discovered and arrested (despite the rather sloppy counter intelligence of the Domain).
Sean
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