But the nightmares just make no sense. They live in perpetually dark forests. First of all, how on earth can there be a forest where there is no light? Even if this forest isn't comprised of trees as we're familiar with them, it's pretty obvious that these are still large multicellular organisms. On Earth, chemosynthesis is only observed in single celled organisms. It's so inefficient that it only works with single celled organisms. So these trees aren't getting energy through light or inorganic molecules and they're certainly not getting energy from heat. So unless they filter feed on microorganisms like sponges do, these trees can't exist. Second, why are the nightmares black? They live in constant darkness. On Earth, animals which live in isolated cave habitats are white. They have no need for pigmentation as they have no need to block UV radiation. They save energy by not synthesizing it. So why are the nightmares so heavily pigmented? Valyzia mentions that they probably evolved on the dark side of the planet, and if that's so, there was never an evolutionary need for pigmentation. Why are they even able to sense light? We've all seen blind cave fish and crawdads before. They don't need eyes so they lost them. Why did the nightmares ever evolve eyes in the first place? I could understand if they had sensory organs with were able to detect wavelengths outside of our visual spectrum (similar to how pit vipers sense infrared thermal radiation), but it's made pretty clear by Valyzia's description of Shadow that it's able to see light in our visual spectrum despite the fact that this spectrum isn't present in its habitat.
Edit: Ok so I just reread the story and it's mentioned that the trees exhibit phototropism which implies that they perform photosynthesis, despite living in constant darkness.
Edit: Ok so I just reread the story and it's mentioned that the trees exhibit phototropism which implies that they perform photosynthesis, despite living in constant darkness.
Mkay. Blogger has rejected this comment four times, and it gets less and less elegant with each attempt to rewrite it. BASICALLY, I feel like applying the same rules as you would to earth lifeforms to this planet's lifeforms is a bit dangerous. You have to look at the entire ecosystem, which requires more knowledge of the geography, climatology, and geology of this planet than we're given.
ReplyDeleteThe main thought that I had was that maybe the Shadows live in an area with low light and heat, but still some level of them. This is kind of supported by the main character going deeper into the Night at the end of the story, implying some level of different between it and where they were before.
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ReplyDeleteValyzia mentions near the beginning there are only forests in outer Evening where there is still light to facilitate photosynthesis, albeit not very much: "We were still in Evening, but had encroached onto the Nightmares' outer territories, marked by the forests that extended to the foothills. After the foothills, there was no more forest, because there was no more light."
ReplyDeleteAlso, I believe when Valyzia's describing St, Kataretz's expeditionary team's journey into Night and discovered the Nightmares' art and history of their people, it sounds as if the Nightmares inhabited Evening where there was some light, but were forced to retreat into night by the humans (or whatever species Valyzia and her kind are).
I agree with Evan in that it's dangerous to apply the same rules to a different world, especially if you want to look at evolution. There are many aspects of evolution and mechanisms of evolutionary change that we still don't fully understand.
I'm not a biologist, and I'm not that great at science, so this wasn't a major problem for me.
ReplyDeleteNow, as to the Nightmares, the narrator mentions that they really only seemed to live in a region close to Evening, and so would occaisonally cross over into that area, which could explain why there's pigmentation (along with the thing about the trees). She also mentions that they supposedly encountered the dragons when the dragons where still alive and would hide from them, so maybe the pigmentation was to blend in with the shadowy trees. I don't know if that helps you any, because I just didn't have a problem with that. Sorry.
Like Emily said, the trees in this story are exposed to some light although not very much. The author states the trees end after there is no more light. Also, the Nightmare's skin did not have pigmentation I believe. The story says that the skin of Nightmare's absorbed light, just like black pigments absorb light. Even though the Nightmares live in darkness, it is not total darkness and they still need to see to carry out normal functions.Of course the setting of the story is absurd in assuming a world with constant hemispheres of day and night. However, I am a biology major and this description of Nightmares did not bother me too much.
ReplyDeleteI am most definitely not a biologist, but reading this entire thread was fascinating for me as an actor because it all seems to have to do with suspension of disbelief. SoD is critical in any kind of fictional entertainment, because if someone is thinking "that couldn't happen" then you've lost them as an audience. I think the key is that the story has to be more engaging than its holes in order for people to go along with it. In this story it seems that at least for some (myself included) the story wasn't enough to distract from that part of your brain that says, "wait a minute what's going on?" That's enough for me to say the writer lost some of the audience, which is obviously not what you want.
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