[Dragaera] Boing!

[Jon_Lincicum at stream.com]

"Maximilian Wilson" <wilson.max at gmail.com> 
Sent by: dragaera-bounces at dragaera.info
09/07/06 09:27 AM

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Re: [Dragaera] Boing!




>On 9/7/06, Howard Brazee <howard at brazee.net> wrote:
>> Even that's misleading.    "Oh, I'm going to read Yendi, because I like
>> animals, and want to see what kind of animal characteristics the title
>> character has".
>>
>
>That's an interesting point, since the Houses were (as I understand
>it) chosen to represent different aspects of human nature rather than
>for verisimilitude w/rt real animals. Thus, it might be more accurate
>to leave the animals out entirely and say that Dragaerans are tied to
>aspects of human nature, each symbolized by a fantastic animal.

Well, in the reviewer's defense, he is basically paraphrasing Aliera's 
talk in chapter nine of /Jhereg/... Since the members of each House really 
*are* genetically descended from the animals that represent them (except 
for Jhereg), he statement is technically correct. 

However, taken out of context like this, this truth assumes a greater 
importance than it really deserves. Certainly the fact that Dragaerans are 
genetically descended from animals is *not* readily apparent in their 
everyday activities. 

I would file this observation under the category "True, but Misleading".

Majikjon