Flandry compares the tripartite Didonians to the bipartite Togru-Kon-Tanakh of Vanrijn whom we saw in the very first story if we read the collected Technic History in its original order, starting not with The Technic Civilization Saga, Volume I, The Van Rijn Method, but with Trader To The Stars, the "trader" in question being van Rijn, of course. There was a similar bipartite race on Barsoom in ERB's The Chessmen of Mars.
It is impossible to remember the details of the Didonians between rereadings of The Rebel Worlds.
"...stalls for nogas, perches for krippos, benches for rukas." (p. 459)
Rhinoceros-like nogas, winged krippos and chimpanzee-like rukas link their nervous systems to generate intelligent Didonians.
"Cubs, calves, and chicks, too small for education, bumbled about like the pet animals they were." (ibid.)
Noga calves, ruka cubs and krippo chicks.
But we have to keep reminding ourselves while reading.
Speech is contrapuntal with droning, fluting and coughing sounds. Pidgin is necessary to communicate with human beings.
Didonians cannot conceive of privacy but what else might they conceive of?
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Once these tribodied Didonians learn literacy, it seems likely only the rukas will be able to write, due to having hands. Learning how to use KEYBOARDS might be difficult if all three units need to be linked to have the intelligence needed for that.
Ad astra! Sean
If they're using computers, I would expect easy dictation systems.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I should have thought of that. Of course these dictation programs would need to be designed able to handle the very odd Didonian "voices," combining elements from all three units.
Ad astra! Sean
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