Erannath wishes fair winds for the human beings that he meets on Avalon. Having spent time with three tineran Trains:
the Dark Stars near the Julia River north of Nova Roma;
the Gurdy Men near Fort Lunacy;
Waybreak -
- he thinks that their different customs are:
"'...mere eddies in a single wind.'" (9, p.146)
Hloch grew up familiar with the winds that blow on human souls. However, he finds that to explain the human concept of "nation" is stiffly upwind. The Discovery (first contact with Terrans) gale-seized Ythrians. A sky-dance to portray van Rijn must be book-length. Finally, Hloch closes The Earth Book of Stormgate with "Fair winds forever."
The Ythrians are at home not on their planet's surface but in its sky with its winds in their feathers.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
To be pedantic, Ythrians also had PHYSICAL houses for them and their families to live in when not flying. But, yes, flying and hunting was needed for their continued good health.
Ad astra! Sean
Basically, the nation is a psychological extension of the clan and tribe.
It's the greatest force-concentration mechanism humans have ever invented, because it combines the physical scale of empires with the tight psychological bonding of the tribe.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree, which is why the withering away of the state dreamed of by Utopians is simply not going to happen.
Ad astra! Sean
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