There is another circumstance in which people tell each other what they already know: when rehearsing arguments. When two guys argued about the Spanish Civil War (see here), the first guy summarized a sequence of events even though the second guy kept saying, "I know! I know!" because the first guy thought that those events led to the conclusion that he wanted to reach.
The Argument In The Opening Pages Of "The Season Of Forgiveness"
Apprentice Juan Hernandez proposes a Christmas party.
Master Trader Thomas Overbeck:
There is too much work for frivolity.
Hernandez:
It is important on Earth.
Overbeck:
Christmas is a date on a chronopiece adjusted for Earth;
the Ivanhoan year is two thirds longer than Terrestrial;
the Ivanhoan day is sixty hours;
although it is cold here, this is the local summer;
they are both stating the obvious;
decorating the dome and singing "Jingle Bells" would make the tradition ridiculous.
Hernandez:
in the Terrestrial southern hemisphere, Christmas is in summer;
nobody knows when the Nativity happened;
the ship, due soon, will bring small children who will feel better if welcomed by a familiar party.
This argument carries a lot of information that is old news to the characters but new to the readers.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
A classic example of what SF fans call an "infodump." Which some critics find regrettable because it can slow down the action and plot of the story. But necessary for many science fiction stories. The task for writers like Anderson would be to integrate such infodumps as smoothly and unobtrusively as possible into their stories.
Ad astra! Sean
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