Today I finished chapter 1and would like to share some fun things I noticed...
There's a lot of wordplay
plants: Weintraub is Jewish and was described as the Wandering Jew which is also the name of a plant. plants seem to be a really big theme, from the spaceship Yggdrasil to Hyperion's wildlife itself. tesla trees act like tesla coils and electrically ignite flame trees which use fire to spread their seed. oh speaking of seed, the prologue mentions a "forest of gymnosperms" which basically means "naked seeds" or "naked grains." the bestos trees don't burn, which is convenient and obviously a reference to asbestos used for fireproofing. the relationship and life cycles between the tesla trees, the flame trees and the bestos trees is very clever.
cross: at some point the priest is confused by the translator switching between cross and cruciform. this is an interesting choice of word that i noted. there's other synonyms for cross, including crux and crucifix, so why use cruciform? i believe it is due to the similarity of the word to "life form." the priest commits suicide through stigmata, crucifying himself on arrestor rods. "just like the goddamn Romans" as Hoyt says.
the lamest wordplay: Brawne Lamia is from a planet with 1.3x Earth standard gravity, therefore she has a lot of muscle... and is named Brawn.
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