Date:         Tue, 14 Oct 1997 14:29:23 -0400
Sender:       "The Works of H. Beam Piper" 
From:         David Johnson [-- redacted --]
Subject:      Re: Other...Race

Jimmy [-- redacted --] writes:

> At 08:55 AM 10/11/97 -0400, you wrote:
>
> >Well, I'm just reading *Fuzzies and Other People* for the first time
> >but it seemed pretty clear from the first two Fuzzy novels that the
> >Fuzzies had evolved on Zarathustra.  Federation scientists were pretty
> >much set on the hypothesis that the reason for the low Fuzzy birthrate
> >was due to a lack of the titanium compound (hokfusine) that counteracted
> >the hormone NFMp found in the Fuzzies.  (Hokfusine was found in
> >land-prawns and "extee three.")  The scientists had also hypothesized
> >that the hormone had originally served to combat an environmental toxin
> >that no longer appeared in the Zarathustra ecosphere.  Thus, what had
> >originally been a useful mutation (NFMp) had become a harmful one (which
> >hindered fetal development) when the environmental toxin disappeared.
>
> As you say, the scientists hypothesized this, but was it a mutation that
> appeared on Zarathustra or was it because of something on their "Home"
> planet.  Also as I pointed out in the first book, he makes a couple of
> references to them not being related to anything on Zarathustra.

I agree it's possible Beam had an extra-Zarathustran origin in mind
for the Fuzzies.  (Indeed, it's what I suspected when I first read
*Fuzzy Sapiens* and learned about the NFMp/hokfusine connection.)  We
might be able to dismiss Holloway's comment about the "uniqueness"
of the Fuzzies as the opinion of an uninformed layperson but as you
pointed out, Van Riebeek, a naturalist, made a similar observation.

> I am not saying either way, and it does seem that Piper decided to ignore
> this in the later books (just as he seems to have done the Martian origins
> in the later Paratime stories)

Again, agreed.  Another factor that supports the "EZ" hypothesis is
the fact that none of the native species on Zarathustra can hear the
Fuzzies when they speak, just as Terrans can't.  (In *Fuzzies and Other
People*, Wise One notes that "Animals could not hear their voices--
that was an always-so thing which they could trust. . . .)

I'm still reading *FaOP* but I assume from some of the other comments
here on the List that it is never established (or even considered?)
that the Fuzzies have an extra-Zarathustran origin.  Is that so?

David Johnson                        Net: [-- redacted --]
Arlington, Virginia, North America   Web: [-- redacted --]
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"Why not everybody make friend, have fun, make help, be good?"
                                     -Diamond Grego (H. Beam Piper)
                                     *Fuzzy Sapiens*
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