Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2002 09:37:12 -0700 (PDT)
From: Jerry Friedman 
Subject: Re: (urth) Prehistoric Starcrossers


--- Tony Ellis  wrote:
> Jeff Wilson wrote:
> >I'll bite; how did the prehistoric societies travel the stars without
> >leaving any hint of their ability to do so in either the story or the
> >archaeological record?
> 
> They certainly leave a hint in the story. The Old Wise One talks of a
> "starcrosser", and later he seems to be remembering the actual
> splashdown
> itself: "'Like a spark from the echoless vault of emptiness,' the Old
> Wise
> One continued, 'the shining shape slipped steaming into the sea.'"
> 
> Notice the poetic, alliterative language the Old Wise One uses here, and
> nowhere else. It's as if he's quoting some epic oral poem along the
> lines of
> Homer. Another clue, I think, that there's a link between the ancient
> civilisations of Earth and the Annese.

An interesting point about the style, though I don't think we're
expected to believe that Earth's ancient civilizations have a
monoply on alliteration.

> As for the archaeological record, who says they didn't leave a trace
> there?
> We're talking about what may be the crushed and rusted remains of only a
> single spaceship, trapped between two layers of sedimentary rock
> somewhere
> on a big empty planet. Easy to miss.

I think Jeff is talking about the archeological record on Earth.
Anyway, that's my question.  How could you make a spaceship without
a very large industrial society?  I think archeologists or
geologists would have found some remnants.

Jerry Friedman

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Games - play chess, backgammon, pool and more
http://games.yahoo.com/

--