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[CrimsonFALKE]

So, there was some discussion and criticism about the comic on another forum earlier, and although I have a vague feeling these points may have come up here before, I believe there's stuff worth discussing here. Thoughts/comments?

Alex is the protagonist of the story (not Humanity as a whole). In the early going, he's a fairly passive protagonist, and the only decisions he can make are how to react to events that are entirely out of his control. This does serve a narrative purpose; when there is a new and alien world that must be explained to the reader, it's a useful tool to have the protagonist learn as the reader learns. While the protagonist is still clueless about his surroundings, he's not going to be a very effective agent for driving the plot, and so often his actions are restricted in the early going... you can see this pattern used in worldbuilding-heavy stories like Gulliver's Travels, Shogun, or even Lord of the Rings. As the protagonist gets his footing in this new world, he has more opportunities to make meaningful decisions that drive the plot.

Alex's role as a representative of Humanity can be compared to Frodo's role as a representative of the Hobbits (if you will pardon the impertinence of such a comparison); Frodo is largely isolated from his own nation for most of the story, and the Shire is something he must work to protect, rather than expect help from. Anyone who was trying to work out how the Hobbit armies were going to play a decisive military role in the War of the Ring was barking up the wrong tree.

No the hobbits didn't play a military role but the hobbits you named did have a key role in the front line after going deep behind enemy lines. Will we see Alex preforming in some similar role?

[CF2]

I just CAN'T WAIT for Beryl to start learning English spelling rules. [...] So, theoretically, if Beryl wouldn't be a recorder she is, she would have a really hard time just trying to accept the fact that letters don't always sound the same (Just like I did).

I've never been this hyped for an English lesson. It could very easily feel as though he's screwing with her, when he starts teaching her all the exceptions for individual words, so it will be a small test of her trust in him.

[Jayngfet]

Then of course you have the fact that while English is most likley the most common operational language thanks to rules probably grandfathered in from modern aerospace, there's still a whole lot more languages whereas literally all three whole Loroi planets speak just the one language and a few dialects.

[SVlad]

Is it grammatically correct in English to ask "Can you not?" instead of "Can't you read?" Or is it again wired Loroi (lack of) grammar?

[GeoModder]

From what I understand of English (I'm not a native speaker), the former is a bit more archaic/polite way to say the latter.

[CF2]

Is it grammatically correct in English to ask "Can you not?" instead of "Can't you read?" Or is it again wired Loroi (lack of) grammar?

It's a functional but inelegant word order, because the sentence is attempting to verify a negative (that Alex is unable to read), but begins with the positive Can.

(It could also be considered sassy or passive aggressive with an emphasis on not because it is then implied to be a command rather than a question, though that doesn't seem to be the case here.)

[Arioch]

Is it grammatically correct in English to ask "Can you not?" instead of "Can't you read?" Or is it again wired Loroi (lack of) grammar?

I don't use contractions for Loroi speech; it's a stylistic thing to help differentiate how they and Alex talk.

"Can't" is a contraction for "can not", so just removing the contraction would leave "Can not you read?", which is pretty awkward.

"Can you not read?" is a style of speaking that is more common in British English than American English, but it's quite correct in terms of grammar.

[SVlad]

Thanks.
Uh, I thought "Can you not read?" usually have different meaning. It assumes you are reading and asks can you stop reading (and do something else). Like this.

[icekatze]

hi hi

English is full of weird and ambiguous grammar like that. Even "Can you read not," would have been perfectly appropriate in certain times and places.

(One of my personal favorites is how "You may," and "You may not," are not opposites. The former is not definitive, while the latter is definitive.)

[boldilocks]

Is it grammatically correct in English to ask "Can you not?" instead of "Can't you read?" Or is it again wired Loroi (lack of) grammar?

I don't use contractions for Loroi speech; it's a stylistic thing to help differentiate how they and Alex talk.

"Can't" is a contraction for "can not", so just removing the contraction would leave "Can not you read?", which is pretty awkward.

"Can you not read?" is a style of speaking that is more common in British English than American English, but it's quite correct in terms of grammar.

I'm torn between imagining these women sounding either french, or in the case of Beryl, like a certain belgian.

[Absalom]

p.s. Pardon my English.
p.p.s. And my punctuation (It's a little bit different in Russian)

I just CAN'T WAIT for Beryl to start learning English spelling rules. I'm Russian (Belarussian actually, but it's practically the same thing) so here is how it was for me:
- Wait, why do they have "C" that may sound like "K" or "S" if they already have both these letters in a divided format?! Why do they even have it then?!
- Wait, the "e" isn't spelled if it's in the end of a word?!
- Wait, why the "y" sounds like "ee"? We already have "i" that sounds like "ee"!
- Wait, the "I" pronounced as "ee" in "sin", but as "ai" in "mile"?!
And many, MANY MORE. But it's 1:07 in the morning and I want to sleep.
It's not even the rules that are scary it's how many exceptions to these rules there is.
Long story short: I never learned them! Instead I had to memorize how each word is written and how it's spelled. SEPARATELY. Like I was learning some sort of Chinese characters and not words that are written with alphabet.
This is why I have problems trying to transliterate words.
Even the native speakers didn't know how to pronounce: Loroi or Laroi?
That's even more painful to me, since Russian alphabet, despite it's sounds are hard to pronounce for you, is very univocal when it comes to spelling. Meaning, if you see a letter "i" in a word, it will always sound like "ee". Just like in Trade. So, theoretically, if Beryl wouldn't be a recorder she is, she would have a really hard time just trying to accept the fact that letters don't always sound the same (Just like I did).

Just to dig the thorn in a bit more, many of our words used to have much more reasonable spellings... before the sounds changed. "Knight", for example, gained it's approximate spelling during a period of time when the k and g were actually pronounced, but then the pronunciation changed without the spelling doing the same, so what was "knight" became "niht" (meanwhile, as I understand it William Shakespeare's will spells his name five or six different ways despite being the only pieces of paper that we actually know he physically touched: all known copies of his plays are either unauthorized from-memory copies, or printed after his death).

[Dirty Yasuki]

Just to dig the thorn in a bit more, many of our words used to have much more reasonable spellings... before the sounds changed. "Knight", for example, gained it's approximate spelling during a period of time when the k and g were actually pronounced, but then the pronunciation changed without the spelling doing the same, so what was "knight" became "niht" (meanwhile, as I understand it William Shakespeare's will spells his name five or six different ways despite being the only pieces of paper that we actually know he physically touched: all known copies of his plays are either unauthorized from-memory copies, or printed after his death).

So, Kinnigits?

[DevilDalek]

After this Beryl. .we shall move on to Welsh....



Come to think of it,I wonder what she would make of the fact that humanity has so many languages..

[raistlin34]

After this Beryl. .we shall move on to Welsh....



Come to think of it,I wonder what she would make of the fact that humanity has so many languages..

That humans are a tribal race who has spend most of his history confined to the same planet and only recently expanded to others?

[Krulle]

And that we may still not have a common government....

[DevilDalek]

That humans are a tribal race who has spend most of his history confined to the same planet and only recently expanded to others?

Well I was thinking more along the lines of it proving humanity was an evolved species instead of a planted one.

[Absalom]

It could also be used to claim that Humanity is a variably-fractious species that goes through cycles of homogenization and heterogenization.

[boldilocks]

And that we may still not have a common government....

Mars will rise!

[raistlin34]

It could also be used to claim that Humanity is a variably-fractious species that goes through cycles of homogenization and heterogenization.

I wonder if there is anything Humanity may unanimously agree about.

[dragoongfa]

It could also be used to claim that Humanity is a variably-fractious species that goes through cycles of homogenization and heterogenization.

I wonder if there is anything Humanity may unanimously agree about.

That water is wet?