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I was thinking about this recently while reading the fourth book in the series and you put my thoughts into words tidily. Tangentially, I also think the time g
by ddoolin 3y ago
I was thinking about this recently while reading the fourth book in the series and you put my thoughts into words tidily.
Tangentially, I also think the time gap between the third and fourth books (some 3,500 years) necessitated some more creativity with changes to the culture but I got the impression that the author still reused a lot of the same references despite the gap which felt kind of lazy, like humanity was just TOO stagnant for that long. That's when I started thinking that it must be a difficult endeavor to just invent a lot of new culture, especially when you've got to do service to the previous books in the series. The fifth book appears to follow the same trend despite another 1,500 years of time.
- mercutio2 3y agoNormally I would agree on those timescales, but… the whole point of God Emperor is stultifying stasis, specifically to build up so much tension that humanity explodes outward. So in this case “language stood still” doesn’t seem particularly out of place.
- ddoolin 3y agoEither I hadn't gotten to the point where that was explicitly stated, missed it, or I didn't connect it myself (highly likely, ha). Still working my way through #5. I did get that the golden path was basically a kind of progession stasis but not that the point of the thing was the scattering and whatever happens after. That's very interesting, thanks for pointing it out. I love these books anyway!
- int_19h 3y agoThat humanity was forcibly stagnant during that period is kinda explicitly the point, though.