Sf writers imagine alien psychologies as well as physiologies:
"Most Merseians had [a sense of humor], sometimes gusty, sometimes cruel, often incomprehensible to men." (pp. 270-271)
Thus, Poul Anderson's Merseians resemble ERB's green Martians not only in skin colour but also in the nature of their sense of humour. Tars Tarkas laughs when he sees his friend, John Carter, covered in blood after a sword fight.
Merseians and green Martians differ physically in that the former are tailed whereas the latter are twelve foot tall and six-limbed. Also six-limbed are the Ferrans in Anderson's Technic History. How many fictional aliens are humanoid forms with extra limbs or other additions: pointed ears; feline facial features etc? Nothing, when discovered, is ever as it had been imagined.
9 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Non-human sentient beings who are "humanoids" does not have to mean thinking they are clumsily and thinly disguised humans in makeup and costumes. I reread "The Season of Forgiveness" last night and this is how Anderson described an Ivanhoan: "Overbeck, and a shocked Juan, regarded the Ivanhoan closely. He seemed bigger, more lionlike than was right. His powerful, long-limbed body would have loomed a full two meters tall did it not slant forward. A tufted tail whipped the bent legs. Mahogany fur turned into a mane around the flat face. That face lacked a nose--breathing was through slits beneath the jaws--but the eyes glowed green and enormous, ears stood erect, teeth gleamed sharp" (THE EARTH BOOK OF STORMGATE, Berkley/Putnam, 1978, pages 130-31).
Humanoid but not human!
Merry Christmas! Sean
Sean,
No nose but an ear on each side of the head, two eyes, a mouth with teeth, jaws, a recognizable face, two arms, two legs. Not human but clearly based on Terrestrial forms of life.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Because such a bodily design or structure makes sense if we allow the possibility of parallel evolution sometimes occurring. The pre-sentient ancestors of an intelligent species began with four limbs. Freeing up the forelimbs and paws to become arms and hands would stimulate increased intelligence. Having the organs for sight, hearing, smell, breathing/eating orifices on the head, near the brain also makes sense.
You seemed opposed to the idea some races might have humanoid forms, that all intelligent species will look as drastically different from each other and mankind as Rax's species does (see Chapter III of A CIRCUS OF HELLS). I agree there are going to be races like that--but I also believe evolution on some planets will have parallels to what we've seen on Earth.
Merry Christmas! Sean
Convergent evolution does hapen. See
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carcinisation
or more generally
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_examples_of_convergent_evolution
However, bipedal without a long tail to counterbalance the body as in Kangaroos and many dinosaurs, seems to be a very low probability event. I can't think of an example outside of humans & our close relatives.
Maybe the tail on Mersians is the most likely aspect of them.
Kaor, Jim!
Exactly! I believe it makes sense to think some intelligent races on other worlds will have features parallel to what we have.
And some humans are still born with tails!
Merry Christmas! Sean
Note that the human buttocks evolved as an equivalent counterbalance, similar to the function tails have with many other mammals. They have other functions (like most body features) but that's the most basic one.
They're very effective at it too. No other mammal can do long-distance running as efficiently as human beings.
Kaor, Mr Stirling!
That does interest me, finding out the human buttocks has a practical function.
Merry Christmas! Sean
Sean: look at chimps. They have very skinny butts.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I remembered that, once you mentioned it.
Happy New Year! Sean
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