Subject: (urth) 5HC: woodhenge without abos

From: Michael Andre-Driussi <mantis at siriusfiction.com>
Date: Tue, 07 May 2002 16:05:09 +0000

If there are no abos, really, and never were, then how to explain the
astronomical observatory--the trees predate the French colonists by around
120 years.

Maybe they grew that way naturally: link to Le Guin's novel EYE OF THE
HERON, which has a botanical detail about alien trees that detonate to
spread their seeds, iirc . . . in any event, they naturally form circles of
trees, or woodhenges, which makes the forest look rather like chainmail
from above.  (This had no bearing on EYE OF THE HERON that I could see at
the time, but it could very well be a cryptic ref to 5HC, just as Le Guin's
"Nine Lives" has the open ref to Zelazny's DREAM MASTER, and Wilhelm's
WHERE LATE THE SWEET BIRDS SANG has the veiled ref to 5HC . . . )

=mantis=

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From: Adam Stephanides <adamsteph at earthlink.net>
Date: Mon, 20 May 2002 01:14:47 +0000

> astronomical observatory--the trees predate the French colonists by around

To pick a nit, 127 (Annese) years is the age of the trees when they were cut
down, not when the French first arrived.

When I first read your post, I assumed that the observatory was proof
positive that the Annese existed.  But upon rereading the passage in 5HC,
the "observatory" became frustratingly indefinite, like all the other traces
of the Annese.  Did Marsch actually see 402 stumps, evenly spaced in a
circle?  If so, that would be proof that the Annese existed.  Mantis's
suggestion of trees "exploding" their seeds might account for trees growing
naturally in a circle, but not for their being evenly spaced, or for their
number equalling the number of days in a year; and there should also be
other "tree circles," but we don't here of any.  (But if things are so
clearcut, it's hard to see how anyone could maintain that the "observatory"
is "possibly of natural growth" (208, Ace pb).)  But an equally plausible
reading is that Marsch only saw, say, a dozen stumps and rotten trees, and
from this extrapolated a ring of 402, prompted by Victor's father's lore.
In that case what Marsch sees could have come about naturally, Marsch's
beliefs notwithstanding (I don't think Marsch is a fool, but he is
predisposed to believe in the existence of the Annese).

I'm becoming more and more convinced that the existence of the Annese is
unknowable, and was meant to be unknowable.

--Adam 

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From: Michael Andre-Driussi <mantis at siriusfiction.com>
Date: Mon, 20 May 2002 15:52:50 +0000

>down, not when the French first arrived.

You are right!  And the trees were not likely cut down by the first
starship crew.  It was done by the settlers (aka colonists), and the first
wave of settlers could not have come any sooner than 42 years (radio time
plus NAFAL transit time) after French discovery.

42-127 = -85, or 85 years before French discovery.  Rather than circa 120
French discovery.

Would the colonists cut down all the trees in their first year on the
ground, or, like the stripping of the outer shells of the pyramids to build
Cairo (historical echo), would it happen much later?

Marsch is reporting in year 180: it is technically possible that the
observatory was planted by the first starship crew in the year 0, and then
was not harvested as lumber until the colony grew large enough to have such
demand, around year 127.  Then the stumps would have 53 years to rot and
decay before Marsch sees them.

IIRC year 127 would be close to the year that Number Four was born (FL
135).  But still after the War (FL 100).

=mantis=

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