Helena replies to Donovan but, before she speaks:
"Her head lifted, the dark hair blowing about her dark features in the thin whimpering wind." (VI, p. 426)
The Arzunian wind still whimpers and punctuates dialogue.
Donovan reflects:
"Valduma could never bear my children. Different species can't breed." (ibid.)
See FUTURISTIC SEX.
At the very end of the Technic History, long separated colonists have become a different species and cannot interbreed with the original humanity.
Donovan's reflection continues:
"And she is the outlaw darkness, the last despairing return to primeval chaos..." (ibid.)
This is one of Anderson's two uses of the concept, "chaos." In this sense, it is the antithesis of cosmic order.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Thanks for the reference to my latest article!
Dang, I wish I had thought of rereading "Sargasso" and citing the bit you quoted here. It would have been so appropriate because, even as early as 1951, Anderson realized how it was impossible for humans and non-humans to have children. Something not all SF writers keep in mind!
Ad astra! Sean
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