At 12:43 PM 4/8/01 -0000 Alberto Monteiro wrote:
>>We actually get hit with a lot of information in a short time here. We
>>find out that clones are born in the winter, and do not have a father
>>(which I guess is obvious.) Vars are born in the summer, and are rarer
>>than clones.
>>
>It's not clear that clones are _born_ in Winter and vars are _born_ in
>Summer - it might be just the conception date, as we have - yet - no
>way to estimate the duration of each season wrt the pregnancy time
>of the creatures of the book.
I disagree..... the narration seems to be briefly use the first person in
the relevant section, and the term used is "summer kids" and "winter kids."
Maia doesn't seem like the type of person who would consider conception
in these circumstances, even if anyone would use "kids' to refer to
conception.
>>-Maia is "twenty-six months before her second birthday." This suggests
>>that a year on this planet is at least 26+ Earth months.
>>
>Amateur :-P
>
>It suggests that this planet's year is at least 52 _this planet's_ months.
I actually considered that, but rejected it. This is because, in America
at least, it is fairly common to refer to the age of young children in
months, rather than years. For example, we often refer to a child as
being "18 months", rather than one a half years.
Additionally, let's consider if the planet's year is 28 months long. The
opening line just wouldn't be as effective if Brin wrote "Two months after
her first birthday, Maia learned...." Thus, given the strong likelyhood
of artistic considerations, I think we can only say with any certainty that
the Stratian year is divided into a minimum of 26 months.
You are right, however, that there we probably should not assume that the
Straian month equals an Earth month. Nevertheless, given the clear intent
of the opening sentence to clue us in to the "alienness" of this World, I
would consider it mroe likely than not that the two months are equivlanet.
>It also means that children from 1.5 to 2.0 this planet's years old are
>able to talk and reason logically, and to be cruel to those that are
>different. So, this planet's year is longer, but not _much_ longer,
>than Earth's year, otherwise Maia would have been mocked
>before.
I disagree. The children need to be old enough not just to tease each
other, but also to understand the differences in conception. When I read
this passage, I envisioned the children as being roughly 6 years old.
Maybe I'm wrong, but that's how I saw it.
JDG
>>-The name of the sun is "Wengel." Anyone know if this correlates to a
>>known star?
>>
>Nope, Wengel is just one star.
>
>Alberto Monteiro
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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
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