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Chapter 3: Nom de Terre
By: Brett Coster
Also: Charlie Bell, J.D. Giorgis, Gord Sellar, Darryl Shannon, and Julia
Thompson
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Title:
Nom de Terre = "name of the Earth". My guess is this is a play on "nom de
plume"
(pen name/pseudonym) and also that Dennis finds out 1) he is now in the
region of Coylia, and 2) the planet is Tatir.
It's also take-off of "nom de guerre"...in this chapter Dennis discovers
that the planet he is on is not called "Flasteria" by its inhabitants.
-Darryl Shannon
It also rhymes with "pomme de terre", which means "potato". -Julia Thompson
Pomme de Terre = Potato = Tata (tayta) = Tatir -Brett Coster
I think Coylia is potato too. -Charlie Bell
Yeah, the brick suddenly fell. I'd always read Tatir as Tatt-Er not Tayt-a
so it just never clicked. Blame my Gippsland upbringing with the flat "a".
-Brett Coster
I pronounced it to myself as "tayter", as in tater-cakes, which
unfortunately can no longer be bought here in Loch :-( -Ray Ludenia
Many French verbs end in -ir, pronounced like the English "eer." In that
way, it looks vaguely like a French verb of the -ir group in the infinitive
form, and those have an end-accented ending, which makes the "a" weaker.
-Gord Sellar
... as a side note, I checked just to make sure that Brin wasn't engaging in
a Joycean pun. There is no French verb "tatir" in my humongous
Robert-Collins French-English dictionary, though as an interesting aside,
"tâter" (that's "tater" with the accent circonflexe (little hat) on the
"a", in case the ASCII doesn't translate for all of you) IS a verb . . . in
one sense it means to "feel" or "grope" as one might do exploring in the
dark as our hero in TPE is still doing in Ch3 . . . and also what he
thinks the "cavepeople" of Tatir are doing with all the "primitive" tools,
until he figures out the Effect...). Interesting little coincidence, I
suppose, even if the chapter title is in French... :) Mentioned purely for
the joy of geeky wordaholics like myself...) -Gord Sellar
Analysis:
Dennis meets and converses with the first sentient autocthon
he meets - an 8 year old boy, Tomosh - who tells him about the King, the
Baron and the L'Toff, assuming, as any 8 year old would, that these all made
sense. He also mentions the dragons that used to help people.
When my daughters went to Germany/Japan last year, their language
teachers told them to try find a 5-8 year old to practice their language on.
At that age no question is really too dumb, and their language and grammar
is simpler. Another nice touch in TPE for Tomosh to be first contact.
Dennis classes Coylia/Tatir as a feudal society. The guards of chapter 4
remind
me a lot of the Sheriff's men in the 1950/60s British "Adventures of Robin
Hood" TV series. There is the allocation of rights according to support (the
guilds, etc of later chapters) but doesn't seem to be any allocation of land
for service.
Feudal (at least by name) societies pop up a lot in SciFi and especially in
fantasy. I can see that writing one is likely to be a bit easier because we
already have a view of such a society (back to Robin Hood again) but also it
simplifies the heroes and villains and allows anyone else to fade into the
background as "sheep". Here we have the villain mentioned - Baron Kremer -
but the aristocrats other than Kremer and, later Princess Linnora (Ch4) and
her family, have very little constructive to do in the story. Like David's
criticisms of the Star Wars philosophy, TPE is an example of ordinary people
getting together to fight for or retain freedom. It is the everyman
characters who carry the story, in this and all of David's works except
perhaps Uplift War.
The path to meeting Tomosh is nicely described. Dennis takes note of the
countryside and its inhabitants. He acts as an explorer and tends to drop
into scientist mode.
The practice effect is starting to work around him: his el cheapo camping
gear has been getting better - he thinks due to his relearned skills. The
camp guardian - a neat device my daughter's would love the next time they
encounter wombats when
camping (along with the needler).
His encounter with the "doglike things" - wolves? - reminds him and us that
dangers lie about nearby.
First contact exercises his mind. (As I type, I'm listening to War of the
Worlds - also getting into Dennis' mood). What to do is treated lightly in
his idea of meeting "eccentric squire scientist Gzvreep" but it strikes me
as a pretty good ploy - head for someone educated, therefore more likely to
be flexible in dealing with the new. It is, of course, one of the constants
in David's writing -the good guys are flexible.
-I read the opening paragraph wher Dennis contemplates various alien get-ups
in a very Star Trekian fashion, as a nice dig at Trek. Then of course
you have to hint at "first contact" protocals.... More importantly the
discovery of blood on the ground and singel strand of golden hair is
definitely exercising his mind about the beautiful girl he saw last night.
-John D. giorgis
Looking for both civilisation and some scientists is stated more explicitly
in chapter 4.
When he meets Tomosh he keeps hearing the work "practice". He finds that
Tomosh's father, Stiv, is an acknowledged practicer. One reason for his
disappearance is because he is "built just like Baron Kremer." He's also
noticed the steady improvement in his camping gear
The penny hasn't yet dropped for Dennis, but probably has for many readers.
The hints about practice get pretty broad by the time Dennis leaves Tomosh.
Dennis seems pretty dense at that point, I guess to bring on the "ah! Ha!"
in the readers BEFORE Dennis realises, so that afterwards the effect can be
assumed and the reader concentrate on Dennis' exploitation of the effect in
a scientific way. see chapter 4.
Notes:
-Okay, so what's with all the potatoes? Did he use Coylia and Tatir just to
fit in the pun "Nom de Terre"? The previous name is funny, by the way,
"Flasteria" (as is the name of its namesake). I can't help but hear a
farting sound when I read the word, sort of feels like a combination of
flatulent and flaccid and flabby and fluster. On the basis of the name
alone, Marcel Flaster is annoying. :) -Gord Sellar
-Great.... "Thank the Dungeon Master you came here first!" ?????
ROFL!!!!!!!! -John D. Giorgis
-Speaking of names, I believe that Dennis is Arabic. "Nuel" sounds
Arabic. Can anyone confirm this? He lives in Mediterreania, works at the
Sahara Institute of Technology, they get coffee from the Atlas Mountains.
But he speaks English. Or is it actually stated that the Coylians speak
English, or simply that Dennis understands their speech, which is
conveniently translated from Arabic into English? In a later chapter
Dennis reveals that Arabic is the best language for cursing in. Perhaps he
is arabic in origin, but North Africa has been acculturated to American
standards. Or perhaps Mediterreania includes France."Gabrielle" is
definately a French Name. We all know that David is fond of sticking in
unlikely political developments in his books, on the theory that unlikely
political events happen all the time. Just look at all the science fiction
stories that have the US vs. the USSR in space. -Darryl Shannon
-Dennis hints in Chapter 1 that he has spent time in California, suggesting
that he is an American. -John D. Giorgis
-In the first italiicized bit where Dennis is fantasizing and thinks of the
local scientist, the scientist says "Thank the Gixgax you came here first!"
I dunno, by this time I was already reading this novel as heavily
influenced by RPGing (role-playing gaming) for a few reasons, and I read
that as "Gygax" the first time I read that sentence. Gary Gygax was the
guy mainly held responsible for inventing the RPGs (though a few did
predate his first, apparently), and was the original author of the various
Dungeons&Dragons games. -Gord Sellar
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John D. Giorgis - [EMAIL PROTECTED] - ICQ #3527685
"The point of living in a Republic after all, is that we do not live by
majority rule. We live by laws and a variety of isntitutions designed
to check each other." -Andrew Sullivan 01/29/01
