Let's see what is happening with this horn. Four Kithmen are together on an island of the oceanic planet. Of the four, only Jong Errifans thinks that he hears a distant horn. He is younger than the others and the sound is barely audible to him.
"'Some trick of the wind, off in the cliffs yonder,' Mons Rainart suggested. He shivered. 'the damned wind is always hunting here.'" (p. 11)
Yet again the wind is mentioned as if it were a protagonist. So is it remotely possible that Jong does hear a horn? But there is no one else on the island. Thousands of the sea-dwelling inhabitants are swimming toward the island for their mating season but, at this stage, none of them are there yet - and, even if any of them were there ahead of schedule, they do not blow horns. Or might some of them?
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Mons comment made me think we should regard that wind and the "horn" possibly heard by Jong as vaguely menacing and antagonistic. Yet another of how Anderson used winds in many of his pathetic fallacies.
Even if they had evolved the capability of being able to swim underwater for many minutes,the formerly human colonists of this lost planet were still air breathing mammals. So they could blow horns if they wanted to.
Ad astra! Sean
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