[QUOTE=Bridget Burke]
That story was “The Moon Moth” by Jack Vance. It appeared in Galaxy in 1961…
[/QUOTE]
That’s it! I recognized the title right away. Thanks. I’ll have to look that up again.
Have you read a lot of Vance? Is all of his stuff that good?
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir]
I read a great science fiction story once, long ago, about an alien humanoid society in which everyone wore masks, communicated by singing and using small instruments, and followed a rigorous caste system. A human diplomat has to work very hard in a very short time, when a criminal fugitive arrives from Earth, to learn the aliens’ means of communication and get help in catching the bad guy.
[/QUOTE]
I think I read that – by Jack Vance, IIRC.
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir]
That’s it! I recognized the title right away. Thanks. I’ll have to look that up again.
Have you read a lot of Vance? Is all of his stuff that good?
[/QUOTE]
I haven’t read nearly enough by Jack Vance. The omnibus of his Dying Earth stories is in my “to read” pile.
But it may take a while to get to it, since I’ve belatedly discovered Gene Wolfe. (Thanks to SDMB.) Apparently the Dying Earth influenced Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun.
[QUOTE=Bridget Burke]
I haven’t read nearly enough by Jack Vance. The omnibus of his Dying Earth stories is in my “to read” pile.
But it may take a while to get to it, since I’ve belatedly discovered Gene Wolfe. (Thanks to SDMB.) Apparently the Dying Earth influenced Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun.
[/QUOTE]
I’d bump it up a bit. IIRC, the Dying Earth anthology was very, very funny in parts.
[QUOTE=chrisk]
On the subject of time differences between worlds, and since Narnia has been mentioned, I thought I’d bring up one thing that WASN’T mentioned in ‘the lion the witch and the wardrobe’ (which I’m on my second audible listen-through of at the present time.)
There’s much made in the narnia books about the time disparity as seen from ‘our world’, and the time gaps between the books being erratically much longer than the elapsed time in England. However - there are three different trips into the wardrobe in LWW, and no clear indication of whether the elapsed time in narnia between them was just a few days each (as it was in the professor’s house I believe,) or longer, on the order of months or even a few years.
Lucy goes through alone, meets Tumnus, visits with him - he confesses that he’s under orders to surrender her to the witch, but can’t go through with it, and sends her back through ‘war drobe to Spare Oom’
Edmund follows Lucy in, meets the witch. finds Lucy on her way out, and she says that she’s had another lovely visit with Tumnus.
All four kids go in, Tumnus’ cave has been raided by the witch’s wolves, the robin leads them to Mister Beaver. etc…
Has anyone else ever wondered about how much narnian time takes place between these events? Just curious.
[/QUOTE]
Yes. My take on Narnian time is that it’s entirely disjoint from Earthly. It’s not that 1 Terran second = 1 Narnian month, or anything so linear; the calendars of the two worlds are simply independent of one another. It’s only through the grace of Aslan that the adventures of the Pevensies & their friends occur later and later in Narnian time as the english calendar advances. Consider the ancestors of the Telmarines; they were 19th century pirates, but they arrive in Narnia long after the Pevensies adventures began.
As to your question, I think the 3 visits in LWW all have to begin within a fairly brief period, as Narnia is inthe 100th year of its unending winter in all 3 cases. But I doubt anyone but the Great Lion could be more precise.
Re: The 13th Warrior
[QUOTE=RMutt]
Very neat, but isn’t it really almost as improbable as the babel fish? I’ll accept that he’s smart, but to learn an entirely alien language just by listening to it for a few hours? Come on!
[/QUOTE]
Yep - the book is quite a bit clearer about the time scale (weeks), and the movie editing isn’t quite as clear.
But I liked the approach. As time goes by, the character hears more words correctly, until he can respond to a (sexually based) insult (directed at the apparently uncomprehending stranger) with a “your mother” - provoking a reaction as detailed above.
Classic scene, good book. Mediocre movie, but ok.
Si