(urth) Babbie, a Destrier? (John Smith)

[Jerry Friedman]

--- On Mon, 1/11/10, David Stockhoff <dstockhoff at verizon.net> wrote:
> I have to disagree with that. There
> is no evidence whatever to suggest that destriers are in any
> way related to horses.

The appendix to _Claw_ says "I am certain the word [horses]
is not strictly correct."  Usually "not strictly correct"
means "but close"--otherwise there's no need for "strictly".
(People may use "not strictly correct" as a euphemism when
contradicting others, but no one is being contradicted
here.)

> I could see that if Wolfe presents
> them as swift horses, but he doesn't. He merely says they
> are used as horses where horses cannot be used.
> 
> Horses have brown eyes. Destriers have red eyes. Why would
> you genetically modify horses to have red eyes?

Maybe it's a mutation.  Maybe you think it looks cooler,
as people have said.  Destriers' having claws is much
stronger evidence, in my opinion.

> Alien origin is a much easier explanation. However, some
> kind of clone hybrid (an in vitro merging of alien and
> equine DNA) in which red eye color is a byproduct or a
> persistent alien feature would be a valid subset of that
> theory.

Or genetic engineering of Urth animals, not necessarily
extant in our world.

Jerry Friedman