Wednesday 27 March 2024

The Sensations Of Earth



The Long Way Home
, CHAPTER FIVE.

Saris Hronna, a naked but fur-covered alien, is a hunter but hunted on Earth. We find four references to wind. First, a wet wind is:

"...blowing off the canal with a thousand odors of strangeness." (p. 49)

Secondly:

"...the very wind blew with another voice." (ibid.)

The wind often comments and here has a "voice." It tells Saris that he is not at home.

He sees:

high, clear stars;
a pulsing, glowing city on the horizon;
darkness but enough grey light for his vision;
a straight canal;
wind-rustling grain;
a darkened hut.

He hears:

the wind;
a honking bird;
a booming airship.

He smells:

cool dank air;
green growth;
warm wildlife.

He senses:

what other beings are sensing.

He feels:

the weeds and mud in which he lies;
fear;
sorrow for the loss of his folk and kin;
aloneness and loneliness.

Our senses are saturated.

7 comments:

S.M. Stirling said...

It's difficult to convey the sensory input of someone/thing with keener senses than ours. Humans are concentrated on sight.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Mr. Stirling!

And I remember how Anderson made similar remarks in OPERATION CHAOS on how much more acutely werewolves could smell things than humans.

Ad astra! Sean

S.M. Stirling said...

Sean: a hound has a nose over ten thousand times as sensitive as a human's.

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Bloody hell fire.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Mr. Stirling!

With noses that sensitive dogs hardly need eyes!

Ad astra! Sean

Jim Baerg said...

I recall going on a hike with two other people, one of whom had a dog (named Sonic) she was training for search and rescue. At one point we decide to give Sonic a little test.

We were standing on a point on a trail and agreed I will walk off the trail into the woods after the others with Sonic have gone out of sight down the trail. During the discussion we were looking to one side of the trail. After they went out of sight I went off to the other side of the trail. Once they got back to the point we parted and said 'find Jim', they were trying to get Sonic to go in the direction we had been looking while Sonic wanted to go where I actually was :). Once they let Sonic go, he found me very quickly.

Humans *are* concentrated on sight, but our hearing is pretty good, and I recall in "Avatar" a Beta being impressed with humans tactile sensitivity. It is smell where other animals *vastly* exceed our capabilities.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Jim!

I guess there's fooling a dog's sense of smell! Also, Anderson had the Ardazirho, in HUNTERS OF THE SKY CAVE, having very keen noses.

And I can see humans having very good tactile sensitivity, so they can make the best use of their hands.

Ad astra! Sean