[Dragaera] Time on Dragaera

[Howard Brazee]

On 1/14/2010 10:28 AM, David Dyer-Bennet wrote:
> On Thu, January 14, 2010 11:12, Howard Brazee wrote:
>
>> On 1/14/2010 9:56 AM, Alexx Kay wrote:
>>
>>> In_Phoenix_, Verra strongly implies that Kelly got hold of a Terran book
>>> about communism, and was able to read it.  There's plenty of wiggle room
>>> for translators on that side as well, but it's another (weak) data point
>>> in favor of the languages on Dragaera actually being stable.
>>>
>>>
>> If languages are that stable naturally, then so would be politics and
>> technology.
>>
> But "on Dragaera" isn't necessarily "naturally" in the sense we mean it.
>

Which is why I included that word.   Magic and gods and destiny are 
supernatural.

>
>> New ideas require new language.
>>
> Well, new language often develops around new ideas.  I think the strong
> form of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is pretty thoroughly dead; it's
> possible to invent new ideas.
>
> Then again, there ARE new words in use -- "iorich" wasn't a word from
> Earth, that I've noticed, but they now use it to name these beasts.
>
>
>> I don't know what
>> influence the Cycle has on Easterners, and we do know that time doesn't
>> always work the same way as it does on Earth.
>>
> And we know that "souls" are inter-operable between Dragaerans and
> Easterners.
>
> That might mean more if we had some idea what a "soul" was.  From the
> evidence we've seen, this may be a fairly thorough-going dualist world.
>
>

Yep.   While we can look at our literature for some ideas, we see that 
authors do whatever is cool with souls (unless they have something they 
wish souls to be for personal reasons).

On Earth, I am somewhat puzzled by the comfort some people have in 
reincarnation, even though that "other" person is not remembered, and 
may be rewarded or punished by becoming the new person.    I'm not sure 
what Dragaerans keep from one incarnation to the next, other than some 
leftover powers or responsibilities.   Apparently they fear a complete 
death - but so do many humans on Earth (I find the concept of not dying 
to be more risky).