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From: William Hyde <wthyde1953@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: (Big Hair Big Guns) The Man From Earth by Gordon R. Dickson
Date: Tue, 13 Aug 2024 16:22:19 -0400
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
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James Nicoll wrote:
> The Man From Earth by Gordon R. Dickson
> 
> An assortment of short stories from the late Gordon R. Dickson.
> 
> https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/a-whole-nother-world
> 
In at least one novel Dickson tried to create an alien race which had a 
consisted but entirely different ethos.  "Right" and "Wrong" were not 
terms they applied to moral issues, and the human translation of the 
alien concepts - "Righteous" and its opposite was known to be 
unsatisfactory.

IIRC the protagonist spends some time trying to convince an alien that 
at least in the case under consideration, right and righteousness are 
identical.

I'm not sure Dickson succeeded, but it was an interesting thing to try, 
and the only thing I recall of the novel fifty years later.

The only instance of Human Awesomeness I can recall from the book is the 
construction of our shoulders.  The aliens couldn't throw a punch.

William Hyde