<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, Sans-Serif;font-size:14pt"><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17.7777786254883px;">I begin to weary of this...</span></div><blockquote style="border: none; padding: 0px;"><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 13.3333339691162px; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">On Wednesday, 3 September 2014, 18:38, Gerry Quinn <gerry@bindweed.com> wrote:</span></div><div class="qtdSeparateBR"><br><br></div><div class="yahoo_quoted" style="display: block;"><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, Sans-Serif; font-size: 14pt;" class="yui_3_16_0_1_1409809427364_12248"><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, Sans-Serif; font-size:
12pt;" class="yui_3_16_0_1_1409809427364_12249"><div class="y_msg_container"><div id="yiv2705362292"><div><br></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="yahoo_quoted" style="display: block;"><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, Sans-Serif; font-size: 14pt;" class="yui_3_16_0_1_1409809427364_12248"><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, Sans-Serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="yui_3_16_0_1_1409809427364_12249"><div class="y_msg_container"><div id="yiv2705362292"><div>For millenia, apparently this didn't occue to them, while they were
imitating Sandwalker's people who you argue were an ancient race of
humans, who for some reason all have green eyes. </div><div><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></blockquote><span style="font-size: 15.5555562973022px;">It didn't <span style="font-style: italic;">occur</span> to them, they just imitated the eyes. Why do they all have green eyes? Why not? Perhaps they were all lactose-tolerant, too. Evolution and genetic drift in a small population make such things extremely likely.<br></span><blockquote style="border: none; padding: 0px;"><div class="yahoo_quoted" style="display: block;"><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, Sans-Serif; font-size: 14pt;" class="yui_3_16_0_1_1409809427364_12248"><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, Sans-Serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="yui_3_16_0_1_1409809427364_12249"><div class="y_msg_container"><div id="yiv2705362292"><div><br
clear="none"></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="yahoo_quoted" style="display: block;"><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, Sans-Serif; font-size: 14pt;" class="yui_3_16_0_1_1409809427364_12248"><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, Sans-Serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="yui_3_16_0_1_1409809427364_12249"><div class="y_msg_container"><div id="yiv2705362292"><div>
Then suddenly, as soon as the French land, the Shadow Children put
away their drugs, and become perfect imitators of, not the new
humans, but of Sandwalker's people. If the landing is the proximate
cause, why do they not imitate the French instead?</div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="yahoo_quoted" style="display: block;"><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, Sans-Serif; font-size: 14pt;" class="yui_3_16_0_1_1409809427364_12248"><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, Sans-Serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="yui_3_16_0_1_1409809427364_12249"><div class="y_msg_container"><div id="yiv2705362292"><div><br clear="none"></div></div></div></div></div></div></blockquote><span style="font-size: 15.5555562973022px;">They were always imitators of Sandwalker's people, as is made very clear in 'A Story'. There just weren't that many French, compared to Annese, so they continued to imitate the Annese. The French on Ste. Anne interbred with the native population (like the Portuguese and Spanish in South America) on Ste. Anne. The fact is that most if not
all of the Ste. Anne population has Annese blood, the same way most 'white' Americans have <span style="font-style: italic;">Indio</span> or African blood, but don't acknowledge it.<br></span><blockquote style="border: none; padding: 0px;"><div class="yahoo_quoted" style="display: block;"><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, Sans-Serif; font-size: 14pt;" class="yui_3_16_0_1_1409809427364_12248"><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, Sans-Serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="yui_3_16_0_1_1409809427364_12249"><div class="y_msg_container"><div id="yiv2705362292"><div>
Sandwalker's people (the vast majority of the pre-Landing
population: we are told "there are so many of you now and so few of
us") just disappear into the human population. </div><div><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></blockquote><span style="font-size: 15.5555562973022px;">Other way round.<br></span><blockquote style="border: none; padding: 0px;"><div class="yahoo_quoted" style="display: block;"><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, Sans-Serif; font-size: 14pt;" class="yui_3_16_0_1_1409809427364_12248"><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, Sans-Serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="yui_3_16_0_1_1409809427364_12249"><div class="y_msg_container"><div><div><br></div><div>The Shadow Children,
now suddenly successful in looking like Sandwalker's people, become
persecuted abos.</div><div><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></blockquote><span style="font-size: 15.5555562973022px;">With that comment – apart from the 'suddenly' – you answer your own question.<br></span><blockquote style="border: none; padding: 0px;"><div class="yahoo_quoted" style="display: block;"><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, Sans-Serif; font-size: 14pt;" class="yui_3_16_0_1_1409809427364_12248"><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, Sans-Serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="yui_3_16_0_1_1409809427364_12249"><div class="y_msg_container"><div id="yiv2705362292"><div>
It still doesn't explain why green eyes are a signifier - if the
ancient humans vastly outnumber the Shadow Children, why is the
signifier anything special? If a race of ancient green-eyed humans
merged with the colonists, you'd expect green eyes everywhere among
the ordinary folk of Sainte Anne.</div><div><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></blockquote><span style="font-size: 15.5555562973022px;">Green eyes are a genetic rarity even on Earth.<br></span><blockquote style="border: none; padding: 0px;"><div class="yahoo_quoted" style="display: block;"><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, Sans-Serif; font-size: 14pt;" class="yui_3_16_0_1_1409809427364_12248"><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, Sans-Serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="yui_3_16_0_1_1409809427364_12249"><div class="y_msg_container"><div id="yiv2705362292"><div><br clear="none"></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="yahoo_quoted" style="display: block;"><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, Sans-Serif; font-size: 14pt;" class="yui_3_16_0_1_1409809427364_12248"><div style="font-family:
HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, Sans-Serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="yui_3_16_0_1_1409809427364_12249"><div class="y_msg_container"><div id="yiv2705362292"><div>
And why on Earth would there be two levels of imitation anyway? Why
does a Shadow Child have to imitate and ancient human before he
imitates Marsch. </div><div><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></blockquote><span style="font-size: 15.5555562973022px;">Really, this is silly. He lived for many years as Trenchard's son, perhaps before that as his father. He may even – it is hinted in the text – have been <span style="font-style: italic;">all those other people Marsch interviewed</span> and wrote about in his journal. Just before he imitated Marsch, he was imitating Victor, supposedly a half-Annese boy. That's all I meant.<br></span><blockquote style="border: none; padding: 0px;"><div class="yahoo_quoted" style="display: block;"><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, Sans-Serif; font-size: 14pt;" class="yui_3_16_0_1_1409809427364_12248"><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, Sans-Serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="yui_3_16_0_1_1409809427364_12249"><div
class="y_msg_container"><div><div>Why is he unable to change his eye colour to that
of a modern-day human (after taking such care to have green eyes
when imitating - for some reason - a poor downtrodden 'abo')?</div><div><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></blockquote><span style="font-size: 15.5555562973022px;">There are plenty of people on both Ste. Anne and Ste. Croix that have green eyes. As there are on Earth. Why need Marsch not have had green eyes himself?<br></span><blockquote style="border: none; padding: 0px;"><div class="yahoo_quoted" style="display: block;"><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;" class="yui_3_16_0_1_1409809427364_12248"><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;" class="yui_3_16_0_1_1409809427364_12249"><div class="y_msg_container" style=""><div style=""><div style="font-size: 12pt;">How
did the Shadow Children kick their drug habit? </div><div style="font-size: 12pt;"><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></blockquote><span style="font-size: 18px;">Did they? How do you know?</span><br><blockquote style="border: none; padding: 0px;"><div class="yahoo_quoted" style="display: block;"><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;" class="yui_3_16_0_1_1409809427364_12248"><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;" class="yui_3_16_0_1_1409809427364_12249"><div class="y_msg_container" style=""><div style=""><div style="font-size: 12pt;"><br></div><div style="font-size: 12pt;">Why does Victor know
he is type 2 alien imitating a human, but has no idea he was
previously type 1 alien imitating type 2?</div><div style="font-size: 12pt;"><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></blockquote><span style="font-size: 15.5555562973022px;">Type 1 alien? Type 2 alien? There is only one alien species in the book, known as the Shadow Children.<br></span><blockquote style="border: none; padding: 0px;"><div class="yahoo_quoted" style="display: block;"><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;" class="yui_3_16_0_1_1409809427364_12248"><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;" class="yui_3_16_0_1_1409809427364_12249"><div class="y_msg_container" style=""><div style=""><div style="font-size: 12pt;"><br></div><div style="font-size: 12pt;">Why does the imitation
take time to master sometimes, and at others is completely
immediate?</div><div style="font-size: 12pt;"><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></blockquote><span style="font-size: 15.5555562973022px;">When and where is it immediate? A person can make herself look older or younger, more or less attractive, in moments, but a complete transformation always takes a long time in the book.<br></span><blockquote style="border: none; padding: 0px;"><div class="yahoo_quoted" style="display: block;"><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, Sans-Serif; font-size: 14pt;" class="yui_3_16_0_1_1409809427364_12248"><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, Sans-Serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="yui_3_16_0_1_1409809427364_12249"><div class="y_msg_container"><div id="yiv2705362292"><div><br clear="none"></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="yahoo_quoted" style="display: block;"><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue,
Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, Sans-Serif; font-size: 14pt;" class="yui_3_16_0_1_1409809427364_12248"><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, Sans-Serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="yui_3_16_0_1_1409809427364_12249"><div class="y_msg_container"><div id="yiv2705362292"><div>
Switching the origin of the Shadow Children and the abos just
creates an expanding wave of inconsistency!</div><div><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></blockquote><span style="font-size: 15.5555562973022px;">Not as I see it. And this, if you will forgive me, is my last word to you on the subject. You may reply or not, as you see fit.</span></div></body></html>