Prehistoric Starcrossers

Jerry Friedman · 26 Apr 2002, 16:37 · from urth-v0204.mbox · original

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From: Jerry Friedman <jerry_friedman at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: (urth) Prehistoric Starcrossers
Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2002 09:37:12 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <urth-v0204-807 at digest.urth.net>
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--- Tony Ellis <LittleSense at necronomicon.co.uk> 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?
>=20
> 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.'"
>=20
> 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

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--=20

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