Hi Mike,
The sea people communicate the way dolphins do --
or, at least, the way research on dolphins
indicates that they might be able to, which is to
say by re-creating the sonic signature or picture
of whatever it is they're remembering, reporting
about, discussing. Communicating in pictures; then
you have to imagine the language becoming more
complex to include feelings, &c. Sherzad teaches
Marie-Josephe to understand her language -- to
perceive it. Neither Sherzad nor Marie-Josephe is
very good at _speaking_ the other's language, but
they each can understand the other.
Sound in water carries a lot more information than
sound in air, so it's a bit of a stretch to claim
Sherzad can put out enough information to produce
the images Marie-Josephe perceives. (Or one can
imagine that the images, underwater, would be that
much richer and more detailed.)
Anyway, not telepathy at all. Sherzad sings the
image of Marie-Josephe's wounded brother, of the
tiger, of the whirlpool of sea people, as well as
her stories.
Best,
Vonda
On Thu, 25 Dec 1997 23:22:23 -0600, Michael Marc
Levy <levymm@uwec.edu> wrote:
>
>Vonda,
>
>That anyone should make this mistake, it seems to me, says a lot about
>their preconceptions and faulty assumptions concerning women, women writers,
>and science. You give plenty of clues that it's Marie-Josephe who is the
>superior scientist. Her brother may do the actual dissection, but she's the
>true anatomist, noticing, for example, the similarities between the male sea
>creature's skull and a human skull, examining the exact way in which the
>sea woman's feet are constructed, etc. She comes to any number of
>conclusions based strictly on observation of the sea woman rather than on
>preconceived notions.
>
>
>I'm also confused by the problems people have had in deciding whether or
>not The Moon and the Sun is science fiction or fantasy. It seems obvious
>to me that it's the former.
>
>One thing I'm still confused about, though, and would appreciate some
>explanation of, is how Marie-Joesphe and the sea woman communicate.
>Obviously there's more going on than simply a music-based language,
>particularly when the sea woman causes Marie-Josephe to, in effect,
>hallucinate the tiger, etc. But simply calling it telepathy doesn't seem
>adequate either. Did I miss something in the book?
>
>Mike
http://www.sff.net/people/Vonda
The Moon and the Sun -- One of Publishers Weekly's
"Best Books of 1997"
http://www.bookwire.com/pw/bestbooks97.article$3946
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