Survival by Meghashri Dalvi

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Robert_Moriyama
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Re: Survival by Meghashri Dalvi

Post by Robert_Moriyama »

Actually, I thought the whole point was that the protagonist eventually came to realize that the 'savage' way of life was in many ways superior to the one she had known all her life.

And it should not have been surprising that she felt superior to the natives -- if she was a genius / polymath with at least some expertise in a number of fields, she probably felt superior to most people in her own time. But like Spock discovering that V'ger, despite having vast knowledge and a perfectly logical mind, was unfulfilled, she learns that simplicity and honesty may be a virtue, that there IS such a thing as 'enough'. We are left to speculate as to whether her decision to aid the tribe that had adopted her without concern for the impact on the future is purely selfish -- since she will never be able to return, it is irrelevant to her whether the future is changed or not -- or altruistic -- feeling genuine affection and admiration for the 'primitive' but perfectly adapted tribe, she no longer cares whether her original timeline is affected by her actions.

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Re: Survival by Meghashri Dalvi

Post by Megawatts »

Not a bad story. I was suspecting to find the ‘Doctor’ fall in love with one of the tribesmen! But she didn’t. And her caution about disturbing the future reminded me of an episode from Star Trek in the 60’s.

Prehistoric civilizations were not simple. No, far from it. And I doubt very much if one could so easily fool a Chief. Yet, there was nothing to fool the Chief about! She cured him and others and knew things, and he knew that she wasn’t evil by his experience as Chief, and by the fact that she had now spent a period of time in the tribe.

I’m sure the Chief told his advisors to ‘keep an eye on her’ through-out her stay.

When he Chief said, “Instead of people running away from her, let all the tribes come to her. She can help with her doctor knowledge." at the end if the story, demonstrated that he understood the political atmosphere among the other tribes, and knew how to handle them!

I liked the story in general, well written and easy to read! What more do you want?
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