Raven on the Gwydiona:
"'...they cover the truth with meaningless words about an ultimate reality.'" (XII, p. 654)
I would say not meaningless but misapplied words about an ultimate reality. What Elfavy says about languages or, more generally, about different ways of communicating and about the different corresponding aspects of reality, is meaningful. It just does not happen to apply to the insanity that the Gwydiona experience in Baletime.
Raven approaches a comprehensive apprehension as he and Kors jog through the forest en route to the Holy City. He sees stones and dust lit by a torch and hears:
thudding feet
rustlings
creakings
chirps
hoots
croaks
a tinkling brook
a screaming animal
He feels cool, mild air and smells:
earth
growth
water
individual flowers
unfamiliar scents
blooming baleflower
The scents evoke unidentifiable memories.
Another layer of reality is the scientifically understood physics underlying sensory experiences. Particles and forces are inexhaustible but progressively approximated by scientific theories. The Gwydiona need to be helped to understand and cope with their condition.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I don't know if the Gwydiona can be helped. That would seem to necessitate a MASSIVE project with two parts:
1. Persuading the Gwydiona when sane of the reality of the problem they have.
2. Somehow using genetic engineering for correcting the genetic flaw making them go insane at Bale time. Which I think would be trickier and more difficult than part 1.
We see mention in "The Sharing of Flesh" that Gwydion was one of several planets interdicted by the Allied Planets. Which I understood to mean it was forbidden for anyone to land on Gwydion. As a means of minimizing harm to the Gwydiona.
Ad astra! Sean
It's noted in the story that if you suppressed the periodic insanity of the Gwydiona, the results would probably be fairly gruesome.
And if you corrected the mutation which produced it, the existing culture of the planet and the society it embodies would be impossible. Normal humans can't live like that.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Meaning it would be very, very, very difficult to help the Gwydiona. And, at best, would require a very lengthy process. Interdiction was probably the best "solution" possible.
Ad astra! Sean
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