Not only does Ruori have to ask what "immodest" means but Tresa fails to explain it to him. He thinks that "'Are all your folk so graceful?'" (p. 17) is a question to be answered, not a compliment to thank her for.
When the bishop suggests that human greed and el Dio's punishment mean much the same, Ruori regards him closely and wants to converse further but this is because the clergyman speaks knowedgeably about the history of his continent - "human greed" - not because of any interest on Ruori's part in theology.
The Maurai help to defend the city against the piratical Sky People but find that they have more in common with the scientific and technological sky pirates than with the decaying Meycan civilization.
2 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
What I thought of was that the Meycans of "The Sky People" reminded me of the situation faced by the Byzantine Empire after the sack of Constantinople. Strictly speaking, as the Emperors of the Nicene period showed, there was nothing to prevent the East Romans from reviving, as had happened before in their past. But after Michael VIII died the Byzantines rapidly declined. A kind of "mental exhaustion" seems to have possessed them.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I am more inclined to look for material causes but not informed enough to know what they would be.
Paul.
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