BP7 – Gabriel Aguilar

The Blabber Pages 6-16

Within the story “The Blabber” by Vernor Vinge, specifically on pages 6-16 we get a bit of an info dump about the world/worlds and its lore. The scene that gives us this mass of information happens between Hamid and his professor Lazy Larry inside his office. The reason I chose this particular point of the story was because, frankly, it was the part of the story I related to most. As an Emerging Media Technology major I oftentimes throughout my education end up talking about science fiction, and speculative futures as a legitimate form of study within technology engineering. The tonality of this scene, in which Hamid discusses the state of their universe with his professor, reminds me greatly of the times I spend with my professors and mentors after classes, discussing and learning via private study. 

The key points of information that we learn within this scene are that the humans that are living on Earth simply don’t have the resources afforded to others (Vinge 8), the Tourist Caravan seems to have some sort of Phalanx-esque society (Vinge 8), that the professor has just received a device that is able to communicate with the beyond in an expedited fashion (Vinge 15), and that the Babble is at risk of being sold to someone who just purchased a human prostitute (Vinge 10). These are all complicated matters, interlaced with a sub-tension of Hamid’s relationship with his father and the professor’s conversations with him (Vinge 16). 

Within this story, humans, at least the ones located on Earth seem to have gotten the short end of the stick as far as resources and accessibility to the universe and higher society go. This is heavily highlighted by the importance of the transhuman artifact that was loaned to the professor, which will allow him to communicate with the beyond with some “… subtle limitations if you’re moving at relativistic speeds.” (Vinge 14). I can only assume that this means that the rotation and movement of Earth’s solar system are much slower than those in the beyond, in which they would be able to draw more energy from the amount of movement that their galaxy provides. This also tells us a bit about what the Blab is and what makes it so rare. Earth is located in a place called “the Zone” however, the professor speculates that the Blab is from a place called “The Slow Zone”. Perhaps this means that wherever the Blab is from, there is even less movement within its galaxy, which in turn would provide its Zone’s species with fewer resources.

On the eighth page of the text, we learn that a slug-like being from a planet called “Lolthlrimarre”, recently sponsored a female human cheerleader, who offered herself as a courtesan. This creature is also revealed to be the point of contact for those who are seeking to purchase the Blab “Now, the slug claims no harm is intended her, but… do you believe him?”(Vinge 10) I think that this line highlights the same thought I had when reading this passage, in that the slug may be wanting to sponsor the Blab to sell it into a sex trade, or at the very least as some sort of commodity to be gawked at. This particular point is just as horrifying as it was in Digients, with the physical form of the alien making it a lot worse.

All of this goes to help us understand the story by introducing us to where the characters on Earth fit into the new cosmic equation. It also sets up some of the big players from outside of the planet. Additionally it tells us that knowledge of other Science Fiction, at least in terms of the tropes, will allow us to understand the story further “… the science fiction of Old Earth was a solid part of the ATL curriculum.” (Vinge 13). Finally, it allows us to further our understanding of the Blabber’s role on the planet, not necessarily as a thing of great importance to society, but an object of great academic intrigue, being theorized to be a creature from a place known as the Slow Zone, where not much is known about.