Long quote to make a simple point, but relevant. (Context: this is from a Star Wars novel, so it’s fiction.)
A death hollow is a low point where the heavier-than-air toxic gases that roll downslope from the volcanoes can pool.
The corpse of a hundred-kilo tusker lay just within its rim, its snout only a meter below the clear air that could have saved it. Other corpses littered the ground around it: rot crows and jacunas and other small scavengers I didn’t recognize, lured to their deaths by the jungle’s false promise of an easy meal.
I said something along these lines to Nick. He laughed and called me a Balawai fool.
“There’s no false promise,” he’d said. “There’s no promise at all. The jungle doesn’t promise. It exists. That’s all. What killed those little ruskakks wasn’t a trap. It was just the way things are.”
Nick says that to talk of the jungle as a person-to give it the metaphoric aspect of a creature, any creature-that’s a Balawai thing. That’s part of what gets them killed out here.
It’s a metaphor that shades the way you think: talk of the jungle as a creature, and you start treating it like a creature. You start thinking you can outsmart the jungle, or trust it, overpower it or befriend it, deceive it or bargain with it.
And then you die.
“Not because the jungle kills you. You get it? Just because it is what it is.” These are Nick’s words. “The jungle doesn’t do anything. It’s just a place. It’s a place where many, many things live… and all of them die. Fantasizing about it—pretending it’s something it’s not—is fatal. That’s your free life lesson for the day,” he told me. “Keep it in mind.”
I have a rule—I only read Star Wars fiction when it’s by Matthew Stover. (He made the Revenge of the Sith novelization way better than it had any reason to be)
Another of this books, “Traitor”, has an interesting example of a “true” prisoner’s dilemma.
I’ve read two non-Stover Star Wars novels and judging from those, your rule might be a good idea.
What’s this about an example of a prisoner’s dilemma in Traitor, though? I read that one too, but I don’t remember what part you’re referring to. (Well, there was a prisoner who had a dilemma, but...)
Long quote to make a simple point, but relevant. (Context: this is from a Star Wars novel, so it’s fiction.)
Mace Windu, in Shatterpoint by Matthew Stover
I have a rule—I only read Star Wars fiction when it’s by Matthew Stover. (He made the Revenge of the Sith novelization way better than it had any reason to be)
Another of this books, “Traitor”, has an interesting example of a “true” prisoner’s dilemma.
I’ve read two non-Stover Star Wars novels and judging from those, your rule might be a good idea.
What’s this about an example of a prisoner’s dilemma in Traitor, though? I read that one too, but I don’t remember what part you’re referring to. (Well, there was a prisoner who had a dilemma, but...)
Traitor is a really good book and you should not read the following unless you’ve already read it:
Va gur svefg unys (ol sne gur zbfg vagrerfgvat unys), lbh unir Wnpra yrneavat gb pbzzhavpngr jvgu na vasnag jbeyq-zvaq ivn cnva. Gurl unir n ybg bs vagrerfgvat artbgvngvbaf (n ybg bs arng rknzvangvba bs Wnpra’f—naq znal cebonoyl ernqref—anvir zbenyvgl). Wnpra vf n fynir, ohg unf rabhtu cbjre gb erfvfg gung gur zvaqfrrq unf gb jnfgr n ybg bs gvzr oernxvat uvz.
Wnpra pnerf nobhg gur yvirf bs gur bgure cevfbaref, gur zvaqfrrq bayl pnerf nobhg gur urnygu gur jbeyq. Bire gur pbhefr bs frireny jrrxf/zbaguf (hapyrne), ng svefg jvgu zhghny qrsrpgvba, gurl obgu yrnea gb pbbcrengr jvgu rnpu bgure, naq gur erfhyg vf gung Wnpra vzcebirf dhnyvgl bs yvsr sbe gur cevfbaref, naq gur zvaqfrrq orpbzrf gur zbfg cebfcrebhf bs gur bgure eviny zvaqfrrqf.
Hagvy gur svany vgrengvba bs gur qvyrzzn pbzrf. Gurl pbzr gb n qrny jvgu rnpu bgure—Wnpra jvyy xvyy nyy gur eviny zvaqfrrqf gb rafher “uvf” zvaqfrrq orpbzrf qbzvanag, naq va erghea uvf zvaqfrrq jvyy frg gur cevfbaref serr. (Jub bgurejvfr jbhyq unir orra xvyyrq, fvapr gurl jrer ab ybatre arprffnel)
Ubjrire, arvgure bs gurz jvyy arrq rnpu bgure nsgrejneqf. Wnpra vf fgvyy orggre bss vs ur pna pbzcyrgryl fnobgntr uvf pncgbe’f cynaf (xvyyvat “uvf” zvaqfrrq nf jryy nf gur bguref), naq gur zvaqfrrq vf ng yrnfg fbzrjung orggre bss vs vg yrgf nyy gur cevfbaref trg xvyyrq.
Nf vg gheaf bhg, Wnpra qrpvqrf gb qrsrpg (ohg vf ceriragrq sebz qbvat fb ol n guveq cnegl), ohg gur zvaqfrrq sbyybjf guebhtu ba vgf cebzvfr gb frg gur bguref serr.
Oh, right. I see.