The Tytlal.
Such a short listing for the Tytlal.
The size of that listing is one of the best examples of why Contacting Aliens
and the Alliance for Progress are both woefully inadequate when it comes to
the training of Terragen Field Agents.
To quote the AFP, " Tytlal have an irrepressible practical sense of humor.
Most Tytlal dislike authority, so Tytlal social organization is remarkably
egalitarian and ad-hoc."�
Note that this is not a typo. They have an irrepressible practical sense of
humor. They do not have an irrepressible sense for the playing of practical
jokes.
And in Contacting Aliens we have, "They get a kick out of old Three Stooges
recordings, which explains a lot."
No, it does not explain a lot--but it should.
An agent could take this statement at face value. "See how silly the Tytlal
are because they like the Three Stooges." They prefer humor that's
unstructured, violent, and lowbrow. Not worth the effort of trying to figure it out.
And if that was all that they thought, than he or she would never be able to
truly understand the Tytlal.
Both Contacting Aliens and the Alliance for Progress Encyclopedia leave out
The Trickster.
"Glory be to the Trickster, the dispassionate, the observer, the originator,
the one unto all punchlines are known. Potent be Thy tricks.
May Thy seltzer bottle always remain full, and Thy supply of cream pies be
endless*
----Mudfoot's Anglic translation of
The Book of The Trickster
The Tymbrimi enjoy a good prank. The Tytlal live for the prank.
Unstructured. That's the ad-hoc of the Tytlal. The plot to a Three Stooges'
film is barely there. It exists only as the genesis to the means of putting the
ladder, hammer, shovel, or iron into the hands of Curly or Larry. Authority?
There is no real authority as Moe continually browbeats the other two.
A prank is a prank. If it doesn't go off right, then it didn't work, and
that's the end of it.
The Trickster is the dispassionate observer. If a trick doesn't go off right,
it merely produces another divine yawn that's spewed forth into the great
cosmos.
But if a trick doesn't go off right, and it results in any unplanned injury
to the party the trick was played upon, then there is hell to pay. Now The
Trickster becomes passionate. A well planned trick always has the chance that it
won't go off right. Only a poorly planned trick will have the chance that it
will go horribly wrong.
As Mudfoot would put it, The Trickster believes in tossing out cream pies to
those in need of their just deserts. The only death from a cream pie should be
one of embarrassment.
Although the fact is not really understood by nearly all of the rest of the
Civilization of the Four Galaxies, Tytlal humor _is_ ethical--by their own
standards.
Violence can lead to violence. Any race should be able to understand this.
Even one that been labeled half insane.
So why the Three Stooges?
Violence _never_ causes injury.
No matter how many blows to the head, no matter how many fingers to the eyes,
no matter what it is Moe falls into, there is never any injury.
It's Trickster Heaven.
A Tytlal prank has to follow the rules as laid out by The Trickster.
There are no rules in a Three Stooges Film. But there are also never any
consequences.
----------------
And of course I have a feeling that the line about the Three Stooges was put
in Contacting Aliens merely for fun.
Dr. Brin had no other motive. No great moral lesson. No future story idea
already plotted.
I say so because persons attempting to find a motive in his narrative will be
prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished;
persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.
(Or am I off the Mark?)
William Taylor
--------------------
Sent 1:36AM
Now off to sit in a cold car
for three hours to be first at an estate sale.....
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