The Sword and Laser discussion

At about 15% in (page 79ish) a character looks out a window and says "The city and the stars". Do you think this is a deliberate reference to the Arthur C. Clarke book of that name? I haven't read it but from the brief summary I saw, it certainly seems to have some strong thematic links to Aurora. I'm enjoying Aurora but that one line seemed a little out of place if it wasn't on purpose.

Phil wrote: "At about 15% in (page 79ish) a character looks out a window and says "The city and the stars". Do you think this is a deliberate reference to the Arthur C. Clarke book of that name? I haven't read ..."

I wondered if the name Aurora itself was a reference to The Robots of Dawn.

I've just started reading.
At the beginning there's a quote "She fixes things by thinking about them". That's a reference from Richard Feynman's autobiography.

Pete wrote: "I've just started reading.
At the beginning there's a quote "She fixes things by thinking about them". That's a reference from Richard Feynman's autobiography."

Yes! I was wondering if anybody else caught that. I'm pretty sure it's from Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character. It sounded so familiar that I actually put the book down a moment and sat thinking about where I'd read that before.

I had forgotten until reading this, posted in another thread, http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=33736
that the planet Aurora from Robots of Dawn, was the name of a planet orbiting Tau Ceti.

So with these references, and others I'm sure we've missed so far, the question is did KSR throw them in just for fun (as an homage) or do they serve some purpose to the story, maybe in relation to Ship's exploration of metaphors.

Phil wrote: "So with these references, and others I'm sure we've missed so far, the question is did KSR throw them in just for fun (as an homage) or do they serve some purpose to the story, maybe in relation to..."

I'm thinking both.

City and the Stars has to be a Clarke reference. I was expecting one of the other characters to light a lamp "against the fall of night."

Thematically I see similarities to Panshin's "Rite of Passage" and Heinlein's "Orphans of the Sky."

Some other references I thought were funny.


Part 5:
(view spoiler)["I am just going out for a while and may be some time."
From "Scott of the Antarctic" - which I know from Monty Python (hide spoiler)]

Part 6:
(view spoiler)["We were described as... untrustworthy, unloyal, unhelpful, unfriendly, discourteous, unkind; and so on"
The opposite of the Boy Scouts Oath (hide spoiler)]

It's from Scott's expedition diary, but it was Lawrence Oates who said those words before he went outside to die.

Tassie Dave wrote: "It's from Scott's expedition diary, but it was Lawrence Oates who said those words before he went outside to die."

I thought it was a good aside, since they had been doing so much Arctic research at the time....