-Poul Anderson, A Stone In Heaven IN Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, 2012), pp. 1-188 AT II, pp. 16-17.
If no Ramnuan germ can infect a human being, then why does Banner/Miriam need a checkup and, if she does need one, then why do people of rank or title not? The answer is that Poul Anderson knew how bureaucracies work.
This happens when she arrives on the planet, Hermes. Its sun, Maia is:
"...(not to be confused with giant 20 Tauri)..." (III, p. 32)
- so why was it given the same name? Hermes' Maia is in Sector Antares.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
A needless medical checkup of the kind which annoyed Miriam Abrams doesn't sound all that different from similar bureaucratic rituals most of us have to resignedly endure. An example of a hide bound, literal minded civil service stubbornly insisting on dotting all the i's and crossing all the t's. As for the rank and title bit, that simply people with clout and influence can often dodge such annoyances. Just another fact of life!
And I can think of plenty of places in the US alone which has the same name! Such as my hometown of Lawrence, MA and the similarly named city of Lawrence in Kansas. I would expect that to happen on an interstellar scale as well.
Ad astra! Sean
There are reasons for that sort of formalism: basically, the downside risk of being wrong in an individual case is very high, even if it's unlikely to occur in any one of the single cases. And of course, there's too much information to make an individual assessment: better to err on the side of caution.
Wuhan... 8-).
European ports used to impose a 2-week quarantine on anyone coming from an area where there had been any cases of bubonic plague. Mostly it was a meaningless ritual that just cost time and money... but the consequences of plague getting loose were just too massive to risk it.
That regulation probably played a major part in the decline of plague in Europe.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
The increasing alarm and anxiety about the coronavirus outbreak in China is making me think more kindly about the bureaucratic formalism Miriam Abrams endured. To say nothing of the real world example you cited re the bubonic plague. I can see a rigid insistence on quarantines, inspections, and medical checkups as doing its bit to prevent or lessen outbreaks of deadly diseases.
Ad astra! Sean
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