Markham, serving the kzinti, addresses the physical needs of the prisoners, Tregennis and Ryan:
"'Why shouldn't he?' Ryan sneered. 'Keep the animals alive till the master race can think of a need for them. I wonder if he'll share in the feast.'" (16, p. 117)
What is an animal? What will count as an animal when different intelligent species interact? Poul Anderson is contributing to Larry Niven's Known Space universe. Later, in that universe, a kzinti ambassador to Earth does not rate a personal name so is known only by the name of his profession, "Speaker-to-Animals."
In another of Niven's fictional universes:
"'A species that can't develop spaceflight is no better than animals.'"
-Larry Niven, "The Fourth Profession" IN Niven, A Hole In Space (London, 1975), pp. 147-196 AT p. 167.
Monk traders have arrived in the Solar System. If the UN cannot built a giant laser cannon to boost their light-sail-ship onto its next interstellar voyage, then the Monks will explode the Sun to produce the same effect. Killing animals is not murder.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
And I would disagree with such attitudes as what the Monk traders and most of the Kzinti had for other races. Intelligent races should not be treated like animals, no matter how primitive a level of technology they had reached. A species capable of making tools/weapons and using fire should be considered intelligent and treated accordingly.
Ad astra! Sean
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