Dave wrote:Hence, it looks as if the Library's download from her "de-personalized" the Ethetians' memories, but didn't erase the factual knowledge Atsli had gained.
That's basically my take on it. Similar to the difference between having your collection of movies stored on a shelf where you can access them whenever you want to, and you being tied to a chair with your eyelids taped open and every one of your movies being played simultaneously on monitors in front of you while the audio to each is blared into your ears. I figure that the Library somehow “catalogued” the memories and “filed” them away into Atsali's mind, as opposed to them just randomly flying around in her brain and colliding with things.
Jwhouk wrote:Yanno, at some point Atsali is going to have to say, "Would you please STOP THAT?"
Or at least, “Wait until we're someplace more private and safe!”
AnotherFairportfan wrote:No -to ascribing Machiavellian cunning to Nadette.
Remember that along with all else, Atsali and her friends are a gaggle of hormone-addled kids in their mid-teens. With all that that entails (whether the tails are fluffy, feathered, or other).
Akeche wrote:But no, we've seen Bud's bottom... Hell, both Bud AND Shelly's
And Katherine's, and Kevin's, and Tepoz's, and Monica's, and Euryale's. . .there's been a fair number of people running around sans pants in this story, really. Even just including the characters who typically
do wear pants.
Yamara wrote:Nadette's claim that the Etheitians were a "civilization that never wrote anything down" is interesting, though. Aren't Glyphs written into the bodies of golems? Phix said reading Glyph was not the same as being a Glyph Reader. Can the Library not copy Glyph remotely?
The Etheitians apparently used a written language
different from the glyphs. Acording to Katherine's estimate, it might also be an older language than glyph. I get the feeling that glyphs are more akin to a programming language, which would be developed long after everyday language. So reading glyphs might relate to reading Etheitian in the same way that reading the programming on your computer relates to the language you typically write in. Assuming that you're not a complete geek who writes
everything in C++ or whatever.
AnotherFairportfan wrote:Um. I've lost track - are the Etheitians and the Lanthians the same? Because i think the glyphs are Lanthian.
The whole thing isn't entirely clear yet, but it seems that Lanthis was the parent civilisation. When it went kablooie, the Lakhenatens (including the people who were given extended lifespans by the calendar machine) were left to continue the civilisation somewhere under the ocean. Some of the Lakhenatens decided to try to regain control of things on land again and went to the Americas and to India and China. Presumably it is the ones who went to the Americas who became the Etheitians, and their civilisation ended abruptly due to Brandy and the Nu Gui. The ones who went to Asia tried to lord it over the locals, but had to eventually give in to local demands and presumably merged with the local societies. The Lakhenatens may still be going strong under the ocean, though.