Miscommunications

The Day Of Their Return.

Tatiana Thane's kitchenette bay in the University of Nova Roma is vitryl on stone dragons with a view of quadrangles, halls, towers, battlements, the city, the River Flone, riverside green and ocherous native wilderness. The battlements remind us that the University was militarized during the Troubles.

When, after sandwiches and coffee, Desai remarks that Ivar Frederiksen is, paradoxically, a skeptic:

"'...becoming the charismatic lord of a deeply religious people.'" (7, p. 127) -

- Tatiana responds, "'What?'" (ibid.)

Desai has taken her aback several times. I have had conversations like this. A guy said something. I responded, thinking that I was agreeing with or backing up what he had just said. He replied, "No!," having interpreted my remark in a way that he disagreed with. I was left floundering, wondering where the misunderstanding was and eventually giving up on attempts at conversation after about the third "No!" But Desai's purpose is to seek mutual understanding and he must persevere.

Tatiana's initial response is to deny Aenean religiosity although Anderson makes it evident to his readers and Tatiana concedes that:

although the colony began as a scientific base and not in an age of piety, there were always some believers, particularly among the Landfolk (we met the Aenean Christian, Peter Berg, in "The Problem of Pain");

reaction against Imperial decadence, then against oppression by the previous Sector Governor, has made more people attend churches;

Aeneans still seek something else which Tatiana identifies as transcendental rather than supernatural.

Desai mentions their "'...faith in the value of knowledge...'" (pp. 127-128) which we see preserved by some of their remote descendants in "Starfog."