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FOREIGNER: Discussion Post #5
Putting this up a bit late today; sorry to keep anyone waiting!
How have chapters 7 and 8 been treating you? Any new observations, theories, sore points, fabulous quotations?
How have chapters 7 and 8 been treating you? Any new observations, theories, sore points, fabulous quotations?
and questions
Into the town, perhaps on mecheiti, to make communications in guaranteed non-overheard-ness, or send documents? Into the hills, to set up some kind of shelter, or trap, or...?
Or are they lying to Bren about being away, and really just down the hall in their security station doing Things Bren Doesn't Need To Know About? If so, what things?
What's your reading of the Mysterious Absences Of Security, everyone? I need some backup brains, here!
2. Does "dragonettes" bother anyone else, grammatically speaking? :D
3. What is Tabini thinking, with the television interview which he surely knows Bren isn't authorised by his own people to give?! After packing him off into out-of-sight-out-of-mind obscurity, too! Even with this not being my first time reading this book, I'm surprised by this -- is it just a very large gamble on whether he can force Bren to act for him beyond Mospheira's oversights? Is it a test of Bren's claim to hold/understand man'chi (again, a very public one involving the reputations of dozens of his own associates)?
4. Could atevi thought be more compartmentalised than humans manage? Several times now we've had an ateva tell Bren, essentially, 'don't worry, return to whatever you were doing', and some hints that they can do just that when (to a human) nerve-wracking things happen. Maybe atevi brains are faster to "come down" from adrenaline highs, and/or their equivalent fight/flight hormones are faster-dissipating?
It could account for both the blase attitudes toward violence/unexpected events, and their apparently serious advice to Bren that he disregard the power outages and go back to mental shopping for skis. Maybe even contributes to needing less sleep, if they do? Less emotional tension over everyday events = less need to process things subconsciously via dreaming?
Re: and questions
The mysterious absences of security seem arranged, to me, but arranged by whom? Is it Tabini, trying to give his grandmother opportunity to act or not act, the way Banichi deliberately gave Cenedi the chance to kill him? Is it something else? Certainly Jago seems like she's not happy with having to leave her charge so often. On the other hand I think Tano and Algini are probably closer to Bren than anyone's admitting to him, perhaps so that if asked he can pass on the lie convincingly?
I think you're right that atevi thought is more compartmentalized - perhaps it's a factor of just being faster? They're warmer than humans, they like stimulants in their tea and/or pickles, and consequently they might well do emotions faster - maybe for a human it would be unhealthy cycling between emotions, even?
Re: and questions
Tabini, trying to give his grandmother opportunity to act or not act,
I like this train of thought! Suspiciously likely. (Although maybe it's just that Bren's security is having more trouble than anticipated, given the antiquity restrictions of Malguri... Having to fetch parts, for example, or set up things manually that they normally would have subordinates do?)
Alternately, maybe they've been arranged by Ilisidi's security: testing what they're up against, if they decide to make a move against Bren? It would probably be easier for them than for Tabini to arrange such things; "Oh, you'll have to go get a new monitor, we don't have any spares here". What can they say to that, "I don't believe you, let me search your storerooms?" That'd go over well! :P Since Bren's already using some of Malguri's staff, all they'd need is to slip an Assassin into that group and then distract Bren's security to give them time for a thorough search and assessment; when they get back, scans and Bren will attest that no one unauthorised has entered, and they'll know exactly what the Paidhi's papers say and how best to access his room and bypass his security's setups...
I think Tano and Algini are probably closer to Bren than anyone's admitting
Heh. When the staff refuses to tell him where someone is AND doesn't say definitively that they're "out [of Malguri]", my mind jumps to "lurking in the security station, monitoring Bren with one eye while they try to get some other work done"... :D
consequently they might well do emotions faster - maybe for a human it would be unhealthy
Well, humans have evolved to fit their own pace! So it would be unhealthy for us to try to change that, aside from the "over generations" type of "gradually". Our bodies need time to dissipate the hormones we throw at them. :D And since we've evolved to think of things like Bren's post-action shakes as normal, people who didn't do that would be diagnosed as abnormal; and they'd probably make everyone distrust them. (Think about it: what do you call someone who's not scared by a near-death experience, a day later? Or someone who's not upset at being severely injured by someone in their social group? The human words for that are "sociopath" or other clinical terms for mental abnormalities...)
*thinking* I don't really have the impression that atevi are faster; they seem to live about as long as humans, and perceive things at the same speed? And the heat would be because they're larger, which means they retain it better -- which would mean their systems don't have to work as hard to keep them warm, i.e. they could actually metabolise slower than a human when it comes to homeostasis, because they don't have to compensate for as much heat loss as a human does.
They might have more quick-twitch fibres in their muscle composition, enabling faster reactions (like a cat), but they surely aren't all quick-twitch, because they definitely have stamina! :D Poor Bren -- nothing to make you feel less manly than being exhausted while all your security just keeps running like overtall, overarmed Energizer Bunnies!
Maybe, because of their pack-like instincts, it was advantageous to "proto-atevi" to shift emotions quickly? Because if you're still angry hours later about being challenged, you're going to affect all of your followers and possibly kick off something vicious between the challenger (and those who hold man'chi to him) and your other supporters (and those who hold man'chi to them), and that's 1. not productive, and 2. going to ultimately weaken your own power base?
Or, if you're the average-ateva-below-the-aiji,I suspect you'd get pushed down in "rank" amongst your associates, lose standing with your leader, and possibly lose some of your man'chi-givers (if you're weak, you can't protect them/aren't a leader), further reducing your status.
Either way, the faster you can control your emotional reactions, the more stable your position and support is going to stay; makes sense, then, that they'd develop ways of thinking and responding that emphasise the immediate (and affect mostly the immediate, leaving the brain free to consider the long-term) and the minimising of outward reaction...
Re: and questions