Kit Kittredge to Dominic Flandry:
"'Your Navy might decide to fight the war out where 'tis. An' then my whole planet, my people, the little girl next door an' her kitten, trees an' flowers an' birds, why, 'twill just be radioactive ash blowin' over dead gary hills.'" (p. 54)
("...gary..." should be "...gray...," of course, as the relevant volume in The Technic Civilization Saga confirms.)
Flandry to Aycharaych:
"'...the device every conqueror, yes, every altruistic liberator should be required to wear on his shield ... is a little girl and her kitten, at ground zero.'
-A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows, IX, p. 465.
Explanation (i): the image of the little girl and her kitten occurs twice because the same author wrote both dialogues.
Explanation (ii): this image occurs twice because, when Flandry conversed with Aycharaych, he remembered what Kit had said.
Both explanations are valid, of course.
17 comments:
Why not both? ;)
Dave,
Of course both. One explanation applies in our world; the other in Flandry's.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
You could have mentioned how the Terran fleet which arrived at Vixen did not immediately attack the Ardazirho, because Admiral Walton did not want to destroy the planet. They were behaving with as much restraint as possible in a very difficult situation.
Ad astra! Sean
You can't have military operations in a populated area without collateral damage.
Eg., in the run-up to D-day we switched considerable air power to disrupting the French railway network.
(Instead of 'dehousing' German civilians; which is to say, blowing them up and burning them alive.)
In the process, we killed over 30,000 French civilians -- railway workers, bystanders, people in the wrong place when the B-25 came calling.
C'est la guerre.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I know, and I agree that "collateral damage" is often unavoidable. But it was right of Admiral Walton to first seek for better ways at getting at the Ardazirho. And a real world example being how it's right Israel is trying to minimize non-combatant casualties in Gaza in the war with the Hamas vermin.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: true, though they're not agonizing about it either, which I approve of.
If people use hostage-taking and human shields, the proper response is to blast right through and put the blame where it belongs, on them.
"We" Mr. Stirling? Doing some time travelling?
Walter Miller got to say "we" ... Kurt Vonnegut got to say "we" ... Charles M. Schulz got to say "we" ... heck, Bill Mauldin definitely got to say "we" ...
Those who can, do. Those who can't? Write speculative fiction, apparently.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling
I agree absolutely! I'm so sick of the Hamas scum! The reports I see about those two legged cockroaches are horrible. One esp. sickening example being how those Hamas scum roasted a baby alive in an oven!!!!!!
Bah!!!!! Sean
Sean,
Did that roasting a baby really happen?
Paul.
OK. I have googled and found evidence.
Dave,
Please express your views but do not insult or taunt any other blog reader. We want free expression without any antagonism. We have managed ok so far since March 2012 and I hope that we will continue on that basis. If you would like to discuss "do"'s and "don't"'s any further, maybe you and I could do it by email?
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I'm also sickened, outraged, and disgusted by those loathsome pro-Hamas "demonstrators" I read about or see on TV in the UK or US! Whether they admit it or not they have made themselves complicit in the horrors being perpetrated by the Hamas scum.
I also have cold sympathy for the "non-combatants" in Gaza! I've read of how Hamas vermin, using the mobile phones of the Israelis they murdered, called their families to boast of the Jews they killed. How did their fathers, mothers, brothers, etc., react? With savage shrieks of joy and bellowing yells of "Allahu akhbar"
And, even so, Israel is behaving with remarkable restraint, still trying to minimize "non-combatant" casualties. Never mind how the Hamas scum hide in and under hospitals to escape Israel's counter attack.
Bah!!! Sean
Mr. Stirling - All credit to your father, if he fought for the Allies.
Not that it matters, but mine volunteered and was in uniform before the conflict broke out and went on to see action in the Med, Atlantic, and Pacific; he got retreaded for Korea, as well. My active duty was (more or less) in peacetime, but benefitted in multiple ways from that of his generation.
Paul - My only point in ribbing Mr. Stirling was that the imperial "we" notwithstanding, it is more than a little grating when those who never saw the elephant lecture those who have ... much less suggest they have special insight into such questions.
Kaor, Dave!
Just a hint, if anyone had said that of my father: "All credit to your father, if he fought for the Allies," I would find that "if" gravely offensive. It does not feel like good humored ribbing.
Another science fiction write, David Drake, was a veteran of combat in the Vietnam War--and has worked with Stirling on many books. Mr. Drake has expressed himself as being fully satisfied with how Stirling handled war in the books they co-authored.
I do not think only combat veterans can write seriously about war.
Ad astra! Sean
Thanks, Sean. I hope that we can now leave this matter behind.
Kaor, Paul!
And I as well!
Ad astra! Sean
Selah.
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