When the alien who has accompanied the Explorer crew to Earth escapes arrest, it becomes evident that he has telekinetic powers. Weapons used against him do not work, a closed gate opens for him and:
"'One man nearby focused a neutral tracker on him as he went into the woods, but it didn't work till he was out of its range.'" (p. 22)
My question is: should "neutral" in this sentence really be "neural"? "Neural tracker" might make some sense, surely more than "neutral tracker"? Sometimes I am able to compare different editions of an Anderson text but, in this case, I possess only one copy of The Long Way Home. Maybe someone out there can help? Sf authors' works are probably not often subjected to such detailed analysis. Anderson's works at least merit such close reading and rereading.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I checked my 1979 Gregg Press edition of THE LONG WAY HOME, and at exactly the same part of the text "neutral" was the word used. I agree, "neural" would seem a more likely word, so I think "neutral" was an error. Anderson probably had some kind of "neural tracking" device in mind.
Ad astra! Sean
Yup, neural. But you will never eliminate -all- errors from a manuscript, no matter how many times you read it over. Trust me on thys...
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Ha! I noticed that "thys"! And fans of THE LORD OF THE RINGS have shown incredible zeal and passion in tracking down errors in LOTR.
It can be fun puzzling over textual oddities, which I've done myself in articles such as "How Many Heads Do Ymirites Have?"
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment