(**SPOILERS** for _A Deepness in the Sky_ by Vernor Vinge)
-Apropos of absolutely nothing—and would I lie to you about that?!—I've been thinking a lot lately about Hrunkner Unnerby, one of the characters in the ["B"](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PlotThreads) [story](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TwoLinesNoWaiting) of Vernor Vinge's _A Deepness in the Sky_.
+Apropos of absolutely nothing—and would I lie to you about that?—ever since early 2020, I occasionally think about Hrunkner Unnerby, one of the characters in the ["B"](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PlotThreads) [story](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TwoLinesNoWaiting) of Vernor Vinge's _A Deepness in the Sky_.
The B story focuses on spider-like aliens whose rapidly-industrializing civilization is entering its Information Age, native to a planet whose star "turns off" for 215 years out of every 250, during which time life on the planet goes into hibernation. The aliens' reproductive cycle is synced with the appearance and disappearance of their sun, resulting in discrete birth cohorts: almost all children in a generation are the same age, conceived just before the world goes into hibernation, and born when the sun re-emerges. Rare "oophase" (out of phase) children are regarded as unnatural and discriminated against.
[TODO—
* children's Science hour
- * One of the children, Brent, is intellectually challenged.
* children are kidnapped, Hrunker's remark causes Smith to grim trigger him
- * years later, Smith admits that she feels about living through the dark as he does
+ * years later, Smith admits that she feels about living through the dark as he does; one of the children, Brent, is intellectually challenged
]
Every improvement is a necessarily a change, but _not every change is an improvement_.
projects / Ultimately_Untrue_Thought.git / blobdiff