Help offset server costs by donating. This is totally optional. Any overages will go to library fines or new books.
Question 7: Science vs Traditional Knowledge
I often find myself trying to engage with the balance (and sometimes conflict) between newer technology/science and more traditional knowledge. In Canada this can come into focus when engaging with indigenous communities. Does this book have much to say on this topic? Could it have touched on it even more if not?
Comments
I would have liked more of this. It popped out a couple of times but was never developed in the narrative long enough for my taste.
I think it was a feature of the novel, to a degree, but not fully. The only real luddite in the village was teacher Shen, and he didn't come off well. So it was more about how to adapt to new culture while still staying who the villagers were, than about comparing the new and the old techs in a value sense. Certainly when it came to the flood. both new techs (insurance, and Air itself) played a role, but old ways remained predominant. Even the only roll of Air was to access ancestral memory of the last flood. So in many ways, the new techs enhanced the old, or made them more accessible. But the ancestral knowledge, and the singing from the Muerrin tower, played a bigger role in saving lives. So I don't think the contrast was really the thrust of the book.