Here There Be Dragons!....

[Christopher]

No, it was never proven, but that's kind of my point -- that the speculation that the beings they were killing might be sentient was so random and unnecessary to the story that it felt like a gratuitous bit of nastiness. And the fact that the characters reacted as though the possibility of their sentience made no difference. They didn't debate the morality of killing possibly sentient beings and convince themselves that it was a grim necessity; they just plain didn't give a damn. I'm not talking about whether it was actually true; I'm talking about the sheer callousness of the characters toward the very possibility, and the sheer poor taste of injecting such a disturbing notion into the story when it served no imaginable purpose one way or the other.

 

[Silvercrest]

You kind of get the impression that McCaffrey went back to school sometime in the 1980s. The science in the original trilogy was shaky at best. It assumed things like Thread being able to leave the surface of the Red Star with no propulsion, and pretty much implied that fire lizards were bred up into dragons. If that was McCaffrey's idea, how many generations would it have taken, and when did the riders become part of the equation? (And if they got along without riders for all that time, why did they become necessary?)

And that telegraph still makes me go , even today. Acidity is sort of electrical property that can be transmitted over a telegraph line (and it can affect litmus paper on the other end!)? And how is it the characters already possess such things as loudspeakers and (apparently) electric ventilation systems?

Contrast that with Dragonsdawn, All the Weyrs, etc., in which we have genetic engineering, Oort clouds, scientific analysis of how Thread is constructed, and orbital mechanics. A considerable improvement.

Any opinions on this, anybody?

 

[zakkrusz]

Check the acknowledgments if there are any. A lot of authors consult scientific sources or other people if science isn't their forte.

^^But I'm talking about my values.

Spoiler: Pern

Sure, you can tell me a story featuring characters who are completely callous about killing entire species, and there may be a perfect anthropological justification for that mentality, but I'm not going to find those characters sympathetic or enjoy reading about them. I deeply dislike seeing death treated in fiction as something casual or incidental.

Frankly, I don't have a problem with it at all, in fiction, because it's not real. Fiction exists to do things which can not be done in reality. In reality I might think about it for 10 seconds or less and chalk it up to self-defense and have a bit of remorse. Maybe that makes me a bad person.

 

[Christopher]

Fiction also exists to inspire, to guide, to help us figure out things that are part of reality. Countless people over the ages have had their values shaped by the myths, legends, and stories of their cultures. Fiction has been a teaching tool since long before textbooks were invented. So the ideas and values conveyed in fiction do matter. Saying "it's not real" is missing the point. The events aren't real, but the reality of the ideas, values, and emotions of fiction is what makes it meaningful and powerful.

And as such, I'm hardly the only person in the world who's unable to respect fictional "heroes" whose behavior or values I find objectionable.

 

[zakkrusz]

I don't know about that either, there are plenty of unheroic heroes who have skewed points of morality who are exceedingly great fun. In fact I tend to prefer the "anti-hero" over the traditional good guy.

 

[UncleRogi]

McCaffrey was always decribing Thread as descending and attacking in a "mindless,voracious way".

Spoiler: plot devices

I fall on the side that Thread was probably a leftover "Doomsday Device," though not neccessarily aimed at Pern.

I also would have no problem eradicating Thread, regardless of sentience. It is a matter of survival, pure and simple. War.
Which is ironic 'cuz those folks went to Pern to escape war and it's attendant carnage, destruction, and death.

On the other hand, you'd think the colonists would have taken just a bit closer look at their new home system.

Dragonriders must fly
When Thread is in the sky.

 

[BrotherBenny]

Christopher, it comes down to a simple question, regardless of how McCaffrey phrased it in her books.

Do you commit possible genocide against a lifeform which may or may not be sentient, or doom to your entire species to death?

Though perhaps that was the point, to get people talking about her books.