FOREIGNER: Discussion Post #6, Spoiler Edition

[krait]

If you have discussion points for Chapters 9-13 you wish to bring up but which include spoilers, please post them here. Then link your comment in the general post, so those who want to avoid being spoiled can do so!

Comments

[cheyinka]

There is something very wrong with Bren that, when he thinks he's going to die, he imagines being alone, away from work, his family, and his girlfriend, just alone. Maybe that's why he ends up so dependent on his aishid and his servants - they don't pull on his human emotions, so they make him feel safe?

And then he realizes he skis because it's dangerous, not because he's alone - but I still think he feels the need not to be around people, not to have their needs pulling at him, now that he's been around atevi, who just don't have the same emotional effect as humans do. That is really not good for a human who needs to interact with humans, which explains why he pretty much stops doing the mediate-between-sides thing after a while!


Also, it looks like Mospheirans believe that FTL involves time-dilation, but that doesn't appear to be the case in later books, or if it is, it's not very dramatic - Cajeiri returns about as much older as he would have been if he'd stayed, etc.

[krait]

which explains why he pretty much stops doing the mediate-between-sides thing after a while!

It's already starting, subtly! (I read ahead, so this thread may be spoilery for the next couple chapters.) He finds out what the fuss is, finally... and he gets a phone link, finally... and he calls up Mospheira and tells them "I'll be negotiating FOR THE ATEVI in this situation, and you can join us and present a united front, or you can ignore us and be kicked off the planet by the aiji". Not "Hey, how can I help?" or "Okay, what's the official human position on this?" He is planning that they should benefit, somewhat (strong front versus the Guild, and the right to stay on the planet) but the terms he presents it in are all about the atevi, their right to be involved, and the ways it will affect them.

Interesting!