I do not think that I had quite realized, until I read this post (warning for profanity), how much of the inspiration for the world my book is set in came from my Irish heritage.
A world where things are known but never spoken. A world where we tell our alien friends everything...except the things we don’t tell ourselves. A world where those who know do not release information about the aliens, not because of how the humans might react, but because things other than human might not like it, and you DO NOT offend the fey. It is really two worlds. The one we talk about. Data streams, faster than light travel, understood biological reactions, aliens, and stars. The one we do not speak of. Trees that must never be cut, rocks that must never be moved, that place we don’t go, the times we must be snug in our beds. Things we must say, and not say, when alone in the forest..
And there in the middle of it all, humans.
We smile at the new friends we have made. “Oh, it is nothing, Just a local superstition. What is a superstition? Ah, it is a ... law that has yet to be codified. Yes. That is it. Now I know you wanted to go to that location. It is a *lovely* island, but so very boring. Let's go visit this other place instead.”
Sometimes the aliens wonder about the odd behavior but they have come to accept that humans are just odd in very many ways. And if humans want to keep off-worlders away from a tiny green island in the North. or the wide stretches of tundra in Alaska, or the canyons in the middle of North America...well humans are just like that and why not go someplace more hospitable after all?
A world where things are known but never spoken. A world where we tell our alien friends everything...except the things we don’t tell ourselves. A world where those who know do not release information about the aliens, not because of how the humans might react, but because things other than human might not like it, and you DO NOT offend the fey. It is really two worlds. The one we talk about. Data streams, faster than light travel, understood biological reactions, aliens, and stars. The one we do not speak of. Trees that must never be cut, rocks that must never be moved, that place we don’t go, the times we must be snug in our beds. Things we must say, and not say, when alone in the forest..
And there in the middle of it all, humans.
We smile at the new friends we have made. “Oh, it is nothing, Just a local superstition. What is a superstition? Ah, it is a ... law that has yet to be codified. Yes. That is it. Now I know you wanted to go to that location. It is a *lovely* island, but so very boring. Let's go visit this other place instead.”
Sometimes the aliens wonder about the odd behavior but they have come to accept that humans are just odd in very many ways. And if humans want to keep off-worlders away from a tiny green island in the North. or the wide stretches of tundra in Alaska, or the canyons in the middle of North America...well humans are just like that and why not go someplace more hospitable after all?
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