the Technic and Psychotechnic Histories;
intergalactic and intercosmic journeys as recounted by Anderson, Blish and the Hoyles;
the Old Phoenix sequence and other authors' sequels in Multiverse;
Genesis;
- and have now begun to reread Poul Anderson's sub-series set within the Man-Kzin Wars period of Larry Niven's Known Space future history.
That is a lot of imaginary territory. I keep thinking that this must end but it has not done yet. For now, the kzinti have reinvigorated the blog. They share aspects of Anderson's Merseians and Tigeries.
"The kzinti...were born as one of a thousand catlike aliens in science fiction. As I learned how to make an alien from basic principles, body and mind and soul, the kzinti became more themselves."
-Larry Niven, Introduction IN Niven (Ed.), The Man-Kzin Wars (London, 1989), pp. 1-3 AT pp. 1-2.
They became more themselves but their minds and souls were based on feline bodies. Are anything remotely resembling cats remotely probable?
Inuit might imagine Polar bear-like aliens;
Australian Aborigines might imagine kangaroo-like aliens;
Himalayans might imagine Yeti-like aliens;
Pierson's Puppeteers would imagine Puppeteer-like aliens.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Why not? I can imagine many non human races possibly REMINDING humans of semi-analogous life forms to be found on Earth. But this should not be stressed too far. E.g., I was reminded of how, when Dominic Flandry first saw a picture of an Ardazir in WE CLAIM THESE STARS, his first reaction was "Wolf!" But as Anderson immediately had Flandry correcting himself, the differences between the Ardazirho and our wolves were far deeper and more basic than any fairly slight resemblances the two had. So I would expect that to apply to real non-human races as well.
Ad astra! Sean
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