HFQ Official Snippet #22

evilauthor wrote:Reread the end of this snippet again. Cody mentions waking up in a sickbay with his head brimming with new knowledge. So much knowledge in fact that his previous life on Safehold had become distant to him, like a dream.

Not hard to imagine that Spanish might be among the knowledge the "Archangels' servitors" had downloaded into his head.

I don't see why the Archangels would teach their Seijins another language, especially when doing so introduces the very concept of "other languages" which they have specifically eradicated. I think the knowledge given to him would more likely have to do with operating the tech he would be provided, and perhaps martial arts, fighting techniques, small unit tactics, etc.

Peter2 wrote:Have you considered the simple explanation that he was taught Spanish by the enemy Seijin? All that was needed was a NEAT-headset and an information download unless the NEAT allows communication with other NEATs in close proximity.

Actually, that is a good explanation, but I still find the fact that he has a Spanish last name too much of a coincidence.

AncientMariner wrote:

evilauthor wrote:Reread the end of this snippet again. Cody mentions waking up in a sickbay with his head brimming with new knowledge. So much knowledge in fact that his previous life on Safehold had become distant to him, like a dream.

Not hard to imagine that Spanish might be among the knowledge the "Archangels' servitors" had downloaded into his head.

I don't see why the Archangels would teach their Seijins another language, especially when doing so introduces the very concept of "other languages" which they have specifically eradicated. I think the knowledge given to him would more likely have to do with operating the tech he would be provided, and perhaps martial arts, fighting techniques, small unit tactics, etc.

Peter2 wrote:Have you considered the simple explanation that he was taught Spanish by the enemy Seijin? All that was needed was a NEAT-headset and an information download unless the NEAT allows communication with other NEATs in close proximity.

Actually, that is a good explanation, but I still find the fact that he has a Spanish last name too much of a coincidence.

Why? Maybe it's the other way around, because Kohdy had a Spanish last name the enemy Seijin gave him information about Spanish so he could learn about his origins.

Joat42 wrote:Why? Maybe it's the other way around, because Kohdy had a Spanish last name the enemy Seijin gave him information about Spanish so he could learn about his origins.

Enemy Seijin/demon could be a relative.

Finally getting a chance to catch up on the snippet. YAY Snippets!

RFC for actually far kinder than I expected. I expected the snippet to end when he opened the book.
Because that's what I would have done.

AncientMariner wrote:... but I still find the fact that he has a Spanish last name too much of a coincidence.

Remember that we are talking about a bunch of people whose memories have been overwritten by a false life and a completely uniform culture.

You recognize "Cortázar" as a Spanish surname. It is (and you can take that to the bank, because I'm a native Spanish speaker). But that's cultural knowledge, something that you recognize as different from the naming conventions of your own culture (if you're from the US, or China, etc). But people whith no cultural references to compare against would find no oddities with wathever names people would have. They could - and for all we know, did have - people named Hiroto (japanese), Smith (anglo-saxon) and Esteban (spanish) and not once thinking that their names were in any way dissonant.

So, it would not be weird that the colonists retained their names from their past lifes. At the very least, it would have meant less paperwork for the mission planners.

Now, as to why Kody has any knowledge of Spanish. This is a WAG, but it's possible that, instead of a full memory wipe, the colonists were instead subject to a more gentle process, perhaps a simple memory block that would stop them from remembering anything from their past existences, and then letting their new life gradually "overwrite" the old. Perhaps the fact that Kody remembered Spanish was just a kink in the process that gave him the abilities to function as a seijin in the war. It's not outside the realm of possibility, if we consider that "the war against the Fallen was not going well", wich could have turned the whole process of creating seijins into a rushed affair.

Thoughts, anyone?

peke wrote:Now, as to why Kody has any knowledge of Spanish. This is a WAG, but it's possible that, instead of a full memory wipe, the colonists were instead subject to a more gentle process, perhaps a simple memory block that would stop them from remembering anything from their past existences, and then letting their new life gradually "overwrite" the old. Perhaps the fact that Kody remembered Spanish was just a kink in the process that gave him the abilities to function as a seijin in the war. It's not outside the realm of possibility, if we consider that "the war against the Fallen was not going well", wich could have turned the whole process of creating seijins into a rushed affair.

Thoughts, anyone?

I was guessing something close to that: that the NEAT re-activation and skill download restored some suppressed knowledge, or included more restoration of knowledge than was strictly intended.

The whole War against the Fallen technical infrastructure was what remained after two catastrophes (Langhorne's Rakurai strike on Alexandria and Pei Kau-yung's nuke of the command staff) inflicted on what was already a small, select cadre of specialists for a planet that had no plans required for routine usage of NEAT's on a continuing basis. So the people adjusting NEAT's to create seijins would have been a lot like, oh, having your post-apocalyptic computer industry recreated by, say, a junior accountant who took a few computer courses in college a few years ago - working in a garage - while occasionally under fire and grieving for half her family and wondering if some of the people who are firing on her now are the rest of her family. Mistakes WILL be made.

I personally wonder why the Adams weren't given new surnames. Or even no surnames. Ie: john son of Jim the weaver, Adrain the blacksmith, Medium Dave, Brian that is called Brian. Etc

Annachie wrote:I personally wonder why the Adams weren't given new surnames. Or even no surnames. Ie: john son of Jim the weaver, Adrain the blacksmith, Medium Dave, Brian that is called Brian. Etc

These were the same people who left Langhorne's Watch on the clock instead of tweaking the length of a second slightly to get a 24-hour day that doesn't have an obvious clue of a non-Safeholdian origin.

Given how many planets they've probably been to with adjustments like that, Langhorne et al probably never even thought about adjusting the second. Especially when the adjustment can be used to drive home the churches authority.

peke wrote:

AncientMariner wrote:... but I still find the fact that he has a Spanish last name too much of a coincidence.

Remember that we are talking about a bunch of people whose memories have been overwritten by a false life and a completely uniform culture.

You recognize "Cortázar" as a Spanish surname. It is (and you can take that to the bank, because I'm a native Spanish speaker). But that's cultural knowledge, something that you recognize as different from the naming conventions of your own culture (if you're from the US, or China, etc). But people whith no cultural references to compare against would find no oddities with wathever names people would have. They could - and for all we know, did have - people named Hiroto (japanese), Smith (anglo-saxon) and Esteban (spanish) and not once thinking that their names were in any way dissonant.

So, it would not be weird that the colonists retained their names from their past lifes. At the very least, it would have meant less paperwork for the mission planners.

Now, as to why Kody has any knowledge of Spanish. This is a WAG, but it's possible that, instead of a full memory wipe, the colonists were instead subject to a more gentle process, perhaps a simple memory block that would stop them from remembering anything from their past existences, and then letting their new life gradually "overwrite" the old. Perhaps the fact that Kody remembered Spanish was just a kink in the process that gave him the abilities to function as a seijin in the war. It's not outside the realm of possibility, if we consider that "the war against the Fallen was not going well", wich could have turned the whole process of creating seijins into a rushed affair.

Thoughts, anyone?

I think you are right about names, after all why bother giving every one new names, but if they still spoke their birth languages those languages would still be living languages on Safehold, and we know everyone speaks a drifted version ox English.