On 4/9/06, Tom Lumbis <tlumbis at sover.net> wrote: > > > And I would just like to point out that that "the only room" (and the > > related statements about time and space) was almost certainly Teldra > > incorrectly inferring something about the Jenoine mind. > > > > I suspect that the Dragaeran linguistics curriculum includes a little > > too much linguistic determinism. No doubt there's a local equivalent > > of Sapir-Whorf, probably from House Athyra. > > Teldra incorrectly inferring something about the Jenoine mind? > Ouch. Sure, she's only.... 'human', but... she's an Issola. Her entire race > is one of reserved and graceful observers. She makes valid points about > being able to infer certain things about a race by their language - I don't > believe she's fallen victim to linguistic determinism when she makes > carefully thoughtout and educated guesses about the Jenoine. :-D > I acknowledge that I may have been overly harsh in my judgement. I re-read that passage, and I noted that Teldra was *trying* to convey a difficult-to-understand concept. She sort of trails off, though, and it is Sethra, specifically, who says that to the Jenoine, there was "only one room". And Vlad replies "Rubbish" to Sethra's statements, rather than to Teldra's (which fits more with how I perceive his relationship with both Teldra and Sethra). But still I don't think that Teldra or Sethra were correctly describing how the Jenoine think. The essence of my problem with that "only one room" idea is what Vlad points out: No matter what else extra the Jenoine are or can do, they are also three-dimensional entities who can move about in three dimensions. They may be able to perceive and move in additional dimensions/planes of existence/other realities as well, but they should have a perfectly fine grasp of what a "place" is, and what an additional place is.