Re: Conlangs in History

On Sun, 20 Aug 2000, Nik Taylor wrote:

> Yoon Ha Lee wrote:
> > <nod>  Purely Pern question, though--I'd wondered about F'lar's name.
> > Where'd you find 'em?  Were they in the later books (_Masterharper of
> > Pern_, etc.)?
>
> Yes.  Masterharper of Pern follows Robinton's life, and he met Faloner
> (F'lon, father was S'loner, mother unnamed, but presumably starting with
> Fa-) when he was a boy, and then later heard about F'lon's sons
> Fallarnan (mother Larna) and Famanoran (mother Manora), who later became
> F'lar and F'nor.
Huh.  I may pick it up to read sometime, then.  I'd heard Pern was going
downhill from a friend, which is why I quit after _All the Weyrs of
Pern_.  :-)

> > I think possibly because you can see the sf basis--a lot of the story's
> > background emphasis *is* on recovering technology, especially in
> > _Dragonquest_.
>
> True.  Of course, until the rediscovery of AIVAS, that recovered
> technology was mostly below our level.
OTOH, the "feudal" culture in older sf seemed to be fairly common, at
least from my perspective.  Some of the older fantasies (well, older from
my perspective, meaning yellowed pages and no-longer-in-print when I got
to them in the library!) also could be classified as borderline sf--you
know, sword and sorcery set in a fallen, irradiated Earth where
technology is only preserved by a few and magic has revived itself, or
"barbarian planets" with feudal cultures, using swords, psionics or
magic-like abilities, etc.

Sorry for getting off-topic.  Err...

YHL