Beneath the Laughing Cat
In which preparations are made for docking.
I appreciate the discussion of the distinction between a “Pathfinder” and an “Explorer”.
I haven’t commented yet on the business about the old universe being steady-state, because it didn’t ping me as new information; that was mentioned in Crystal Dragon, and I commented on it briefly back then.
One of the unsuccessful rivals to our current understanding of the expanding universe was called the “steady state theory”, and it’s amusing to think that there might be some other universe where that theory is true instead. Only I’m not sure the authors are using the term “steady state” in that sense. They seem to be implying that the old universe was unchanging, that there was only a finite amount of it to explore, and it’s also been suggested elsewhere that old universe didn’t expand. The universe described in the steady state theory does expand, and maintains a steady density by having new matter constantly appearing at the central point from which the expansion occurred. So there would be, if anything, always new things to learn about (although I suppose it wouldn’t require much exploration to find them if they always appeared in the same place).
Another thing I hadn’t commented on yet, because it hadn’t quite got to the point where I was sure it was a thing, was the way this novel seemed to be treating Bechimo and Joyita as two distinct people. But it was a thing I’d noticed, so I appreciate that discussion too.
I’m interested in Hevelin’s interest in Grakow. Has he sensed something that makes Grakow different from other cats, or is he just interested in cats in general? (For that matter, I don’t think it’s ever been mentioned whether he’s met any cat before.)
I wondered if the Liaden universe holds planet Earth, since Earth’s universe is expanding. I don’t recall any place called Earth in the old Shereika-infested “solid state” universe. It may not exist in this mythos, but then why would the word / worlds Terran exist, which is Latin for Earth?
There are a lot of references to Earth in the post-Migration stories: not just the existence of the planet Terra, but also a bunch of cultural references (Tolkien, Wodehouse, Swan Lake, just to name the three that come to mind first). The stories set in the old universe, on top of being set in a galaxy that’s the wrong shape in a solid state universe, don’t have any of those kind of references.
The implication definitely seems to be that Earth does exist in the new universe, at least in some version, and didn’t in the old.
(That’s always bothered me a bit, ever since it was established that the Migration wasn’t just between planets but between universes. It’s been posited that Terrans and Liadens share a common ancestry, but also that the Liadens came to the new universe only about a thousand years ago, so where does that leave Earth’s thousands of years of human history? Presumably the authors have an answer in mind, and there’s just never been a convenient point in the narrative to have a character explain it. My best guess so far is that, just as there are ships like Spiral Dance and Orbital Aid 370 arriving centuries after the main migration fleet, there were other ships that arrived centuries before.)
Good memory! I hadn’t noticed so many references to earth.
By wrong shape, do you mean the old universe had a rim, with an arm, like the outer ring of a spiral? I can see how this would be unlikely in solid state, but expected in a universe that expands from a center.
Time travel? Yes, that’s a possibility. Time warping forwards and backwards in all those crowded energies during the migration. My assumption has been that all three races (and norbears) came through during the exodus but because the pilots didn’t all have that extra multiplier (pi) scholar Liad gave to Cantra at the last minute while departing, they “landed” in different star systems, far flung across the new galaxy. Thus, they developed different cultures, languages, over a millennium. So, I just assumed everyone came from Shereika territory. Your idea is intriguing. It could even be a combination of both ideas.
Here is another allusion to earth that I caught today while revising Local Custum: Er Thom was trying to remember if Anne’s name ended with an “e” or not, which he described as “the fifth letter in the Terran alphabet.”
And on that topic, Anne’s research in linguistics showed a link between Terran, Liaden, and Yxtrang. So does Daav’s, in cultural genetics. That implies cultural sharing, way back when languages were first developing for each race.
Never is the actual word “earth” used (right?).
I hope we find out how earth relates to all this, some day. Wait! I wonder if the answer might be in the pathfinders’ archives of 7,000 worlds, from Loadtz???
My memory for details in the series has been much improved by re-reading and blogging the entire series. And I was specifically looking out for references to Earth during the re-read, because I wanted to settle in my own mind the question of which universe Earth was in, if either.
It’s the galaxy that’s the wrong shape, rather than the universe (I don’t know if we’ve been told anything about the shape of the universe). I noticed during this re-read that in Crystal Soldier there’s a passing reference to the galaxy they’re in having three spiral arms. Our galaxy, that Earth is in, is generally considered to have four.
If the name “Earth” is used anywhere in the series, it’s not coming to mind at the moment.
Thanks for all this! These are all questions / topics I’ve tried to watch for, especially in more recent readings.