Re: On-going KV debate

At 10:03 AM 3/12/00 +1000, you wrote:
>>OUR differing views come out a hell of a lot more often, why shouldn't
>>theirs?
>
>Since the KV are still rather unknown to humanity, perhaps we haven't
seen
>yet the diversity of their culture. I mean in Rot Hafen, we saw two (I
>think) Clans. There have to be more. Maybe these two are the Clans that
hold
>power in the areas that are in touch with humanity (similar to the fact
that
>perhaps the OU and NAC hold power in the areas that touch KV). Other
Clans
>are kept away from humanity by the threat of war with the controlling
Clans.

Actually, I finally remembered what all this Kravak/alien culture
discussion reminded me of: a rather good little novel by Walter Jon
Willams
entitled Voice of the Whirlwind. One of the central forces in the book
were
aliens who: a) had different factions, which they successfully hid from
humanity for quite some time b) use a pheremonal mode of
communication/control in addition to vocal (IIRC, pheremones of a leader
could 'control' or at least affect the emotional state of his
subordinates... yet they were intelligent and competitive in a rather
Byzantine way) and, most interestingly, c) certain humans, when exposed
to
alien pheremones, became *addicted* to them. 

Kravak addiction, anyone? At any rate, the book is an excellent read,
both
in term of cyberpunk-type technology and social structure, a smidgin of
the
horrors of corporate warfare, and a pretty nifty alien race which seems
to
parallel a lot of the thought going into the Kravak.