Talk:Whipping Star

The Theme
I take issue with the last sentence in the introduction: The main theme of the novel is the difficulty of simply communicating with a truly alien species. Upon whose authority is this interpretation based? I can think of plenty of other themes that seem equally relevant: humanity's general inability to see consequences beyond the glittery promises of new technologies, the ironies of institutions that are inherently antigovernmental being able to perform government-scale tasks better than it, the blurry distinctions between what is labeled as psychosis and self-interest, etc. Theme is subjective; either quote someone notable (like the author or a relevant critic) or remove the assertion. -- Anonymous —Preceding unsigned comment added by 196.12.233.20 (talk) 20:40, 20 June 2009 (UTC)

Fannie Mae
Fannie Mae - I have just noticed that Fannie Mae redirects to Federal National Mortgage Association. It would be nice if there were a disambiguation (which I do not know how to create) page for the name. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.42.149.24 (talk) 19:44, 10 July 2008 (UTC)


 * Setting up a disambiguation is easy but the odds of someone searching Wikipedia for the Fannie Mae in Whipping Star are next to zero. --Marc Kupper&#124;talk 09:03, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Plot clarification
Mliss' sadism is actually a red herring. She does not "whip" the Caleban for enjoyment (though she does evidently enjoy watching it) but rather as part of a plot to exterminate all other sentients in the galaxy. She and her co-conspiritor Cheo mistakenly believe that the planet to which Fannie Mae has transported them ("Ark") is a safe haven, but it is in fact an illusion sustained by the Caleban and her own imagination, thus it evaporates when she dies at the end of the novel. Despite the book's title, the protagonists do not realize that Calebans are stars until very late in the story, leading to the hydrogen-infusion trick to "heal" Fannie Mae and foil Mliss. Asat (talk) 08:02, 11 May 2016 (UTC)