"The natives of Donarr have the not uncommon centauroid form..." (p. 372)
If centauroids are not uncommon, then why are so many of the intelligent species that we see in the Technic History bipedal? It is easier to write about bipeds. I usually forget the descriptions of bodily features because they are not permanently in front of us as they would be in a visual medium and the aliens are usually essentially humanoid in any case. There are quadrupeds in Poul Anderson's Fire Time and After Doomsday as well as in his Technic History.
Try to imagine an alien body that is not just an amalgamation of parts of Terrestrial animals. The description of the Donarrian refers to a rhinoceros, a gorilla, an ape, canine tusks and a mouth. See also "Aliens in Anderson and Niven," here.
A Donarrian serves under Flandry and there is a Donarrian settlement on Daedalus.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
One way of rationalizing this is that there were more quadrupedal intelligent races within the sphere of space covered by Technic civilization than we ever see.
Or the author of this "fiction within a fiction" was careless.
And the way Anderson used analogies from gorillas and rhinoceroses, etc., in a story written in 1951 tells us it was one of his earlier stories, and still learning how to write.
Ad astra! Sean
If 1/4 to 1/3 of Xs are Ys it doesn't make Ys uncommon, just less than the majority.
Kaor, Jim!
True, they would be a numerous minority.
Ad astra! Sean
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