Earth is the only planet in the Civilization of the Four Galaxies when there can be dragons.
Never mind the fact that the Soro may look like dragons. Never mind the fact that the Pring can create perfect images of dragons. Never mind the fact that a race of dragons could be discovered tomorrow. They could walk like a dragon, talk like a dragon [Richard Boone, Sean Connery, or Nichol Williamson] , fly like a dragon, and even shoot fire out of its mouth like a dragon. If they really exist, they're not dragons. Huh? Try this. Pick any one of five hundred thousand worlds where child aliens actually have alien mothers. [As many don't] And the child says, "Mommy, there's a monster under my bed." [Or under a rock, or in the next tree, or two dimensions to the left.] "The Library Unit says there's no such thing as monsters. Go back to sleep." And the child says, "Something just went bump in the night." "Everything that goes bump can be found in the Library. Go back to sleep." Monsters do not exist in the Uplift Universe because only that which exists exists in the Uplift Universe. Huh? They have no mythology. Any story told by any race about that race's history is absolutely true. Err, to that race at least. Every human race, country, and clan has its own mythology. Caveman Gronk kills a bear with a rock. He brags about it. Caveman Greck kills a bigger bear with a bigger rock. And he brags about that. Cavemen Gronk then brags about killing an even bigger bear whether he actually killed anything at all. The ability to think includes the desire to out think the other thinker. The processes of thinking and bragging and mythology are all tied together. Until interrupted. Aliens uplift proto sapient races. And the Library Unit defines the rock and the bear and ends all bragging. No mythology. And no heroes. Heroes have to do heroic deeds in order to be heroic. But if the Library Unit says it can't be done, it can't be done. In the Uplift Universe, then, we have a pure anti Campbellian theme: The Hero With A Thousand Erases. [Well, five hundred thousand, to be more precise.] No heroic deeds; no dragons to slay. Earth is the only place in the Civilization of the Four Galaxies when there can be dragons. For now! Bring on the Hoonish Renaissance. And to hell with Mr. Wizard. "Be what you is AND DREAM what you is not. Folks that do this is the happiest lot." William Taylor --------------------- (Hoping for a gold star for the top of the page.) _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
