History Literature / TheMoteInGodsEye

** The Runner, Farmer and Engineer castes on Mote Prime. Engineers in particular are pretty much treated like portable autopilots. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that the Moties bomb themselves back to the Stone Age every five generations or so, are aware of the fact, and keep the old methods around as preparation for the next time. Their high breeding rates further discourage automation, as a job done by a machine is one not done by a Motie.

* BizarreAlienPsychology: {{Inverted|Trope}}. Several Motie mediators assigned to human emissaries go mad trying to comprehend their behavior. The Mediator assigned to Captain Blaine is unable to comprehend the chain of command, and understand how one being can both give and responded to orders, while the mediator assigned to Chief Engineer Sinclair won't stop talking about engineering. The Motie rulers decide to stop assigning mediators to individual human authority figures because it's too hazardous to their mental health.
* BlatantLies: When Renner replays the recording showing the Motie probe to the Motie ambassadors [[spoiler:it shows members of the Motie warrior caste, which the Moties had previously claimed were fictional demons, being ejected into space and destroyed by the light sail]]. At first Jock claims they must be statues of the Motie castes rather than real beings, but then Renner points out [[spoiler: that one is clearly pregnant]]. Jock then tries to spin a story about the probe crew having been "demon worshipers". None of the humans buy it.
* BoardingPod: After the Imperial battlecruiser ''[=MacArthur=]'' is taken over by Motie miniatures, the battleship ''Lenin's'' cutter is used to get a boarding party onto the ''[=MacArthur=]'' by ramming through its Langston Field and into the ship.

* ColonyDrop: The Moties got this one covered by virtue of there being no fissionables left in their star system. Ancient excessive use of asteroids wiped out the species on the planet, which required recolonization. All the remaining asteroids and comets were moved into circular orbits to prevent further use as bombardment tools, a feat requiring staggering levels of fuel.

* CowTools: The toolroom "IQ" test used on the Motie ambassador ship, to determine the technical abilities of the humans they were visiting. Some of the humans think it's an IQ test, but Motie culture is ''different''. Their initial interpretation of the results is that the engineer, who does pretty well on the tool test, is an idiot savant and not worth communicating with, since in their culture the Mediators (who do all the talking) are completely uninterested in such things. All the humans who "failed" the test get a dedicated fyunch(click) (think personal translator); the engineer doesn't get one until after the Moties learn enough English to find out humans don't specialize to the same extent, and it later develops that the engineer's fyunch(click) has been slowly going insane (by Motie standards) since the engineer keeps talking to her about ''technical'' things.

* DyingRace: According to Whitbread's Motie, the Moties are this, culturally if not biologically. With every Cycle that passes, more of their home system's resources are used up in ways that cannot be easily repaired, and it becomes just that little bit harder for the next group of civilizations to climb their way up from barbarianism. Sooner or later, the damage will become so severe that they won't be able to rebuild civilization at all.

* EnemyMine: At the end of the first book, it is clear that human unity is greatly aided by the danger from the Moties.
* ExplosiveBreeder: [[spoiler:Every species of Motie - except the Mediators and Keepers (Mediators are sterile physically-female mules; Keepers are sterilized males)]]. It's at one point explicitly stated that the only method of contraception available for them is infanticide.

* GeneralRipper: Admiral Lavrenti "The Butcher" Kutuzov. You ''do not'' want to be on a rebellious colony when he is around. [[spoiler: Subverted in that he is right, right, ''right!'' in every possible way,]] at least according to his supporters.

** While the midshipmen are trying not to be captured, Horst Staley proposes flipping a coin when deciding what to do so his Mediator Fyunch(click) can't predict his decisions.

* HordeOfAlienLocusts: If the Moties get off their homeworld, they would inevitably become this.

* MateOrDie: the Moties (technically, theirs is "get pregnant or die")
* MobileSuitHuman: Some Watchmaker Moties try to pull this off with a spacesuit and a severed head. Bury spots them [[InSpaceEveryoneCanSeeYourFace through the faceplate]] and has [[NightmareFuel nightmares for decades]] as a result.
* MundaneLuxury: The Moties are incredibly envious of human women's access to contraceptives (or more accurately, of their ability to delay getting pregnant until a convenient time without dying of hormonal imbalances).
* OnlySmartPeopleMayPass: The "museums" on Mote Prime have complicated locks requiring you to solve scientific puzzles to gain entry, to ensure that barbarians won't get in before they can comprehend the contents.

* RagnarokProofing: Later additions to the structure of the Motie museums are quite durable. [[spoiler: They have to be, as the purposes of the museums is to preserve technology after the all-too-common falls of civilization in the Mote system, in the hopes that getting a head start on rebuilding civilization.]] The subway leading out of one museum is said [[spoiler:by a motie protesting its being damaged]] to be thousands of years old.

* AllWomenArePrudes: Mostly subverted. Sally, the only female member of the scientific expedition, horrifies the men by letting the Moties examine her (naked) body (because humanity's secrets don't include having two sexes, she says), and rolling her eyes at their embarrassment on seeing two alien animals [[spoiler: change sex and]] Do It, which she finds scientifically important. But even she is a product of her culture: the Motie mediators take advantage of this by asking Sally about human reproduction, correctly guessing that she can be easily deflected from asking vitally important questions about Motie reproduction in return.

''The Mote in God's Eye'' might be one of the more realistic depictions of a first-contact story. The discovery of alien life is sudden and unexpected, and most of the book deals with the diplomatic/military/espionage group that is sent by the humans to meet the new species. A great deal of tension arises between the humans and "Moties" who have a very dim understanding of each other at first, and between the xenophilic scientists and the xenophobic military personnel with the human expedition.

Over the course of their interaction, the humans are trying to decide whether the discovery of other life in the universe is a cause for fear or celebration.

''The Mote in God's Eye'', by Creator/LarryNiven and Creator/JerryPournelle, is a science fiction novel that was first published in 1974. The story is set in the distant future of Pournelle's ''Literature/{{CoDominium}}'' universe, and charts the FirstContact between humankind and an alien species. The title of the novel is a wordplay on Luke 6:41-42 and Matthew 7:3-5. ''The Mote in God's Eye'' was nominated for the Hugo, Nebula and Locus Awards in 1975.

* Given the way the fact that the Emire of man is, well, an ‘’empire''; that the Imperial Navy is organized in a way very similar to the 19th Century British Navy (including being males only, starting very young); talking about sex ‘In the civilized portions of the Empire [is] left to books at present’; women (especially women of the aristocracy) are clearly second-class citizens (not even a single female scientist is brought on the exploration voyage); colonies are not independent but under direct Imperial rule; the government is ultimately run by the aristocracy and Emperor; it takes weeks or months by ship to get from planet to planet; it appears the book is Victorian England…RecycledINSPACE
* SexyDiscretionShot: When what had previously been two female miniature Moties begin enthusiastically mating in their holding pen the navy abruptly cuts off the camera feed that had been showing their exploits ship-wide. Sally in frustration leaves her quarters and runs down to the holding room, only to realize with embarrassment [[AllWomenAreLustful what it looks like]] to have a "proper young lady" come running out-of-breath into a room to watch two animals mate.

** Also seen in the Imperial Space Navy, where WordOfGod is that warships have large crews that are primarily there for damage control in combat. When not in a battle, most of what the ratings do on duty is make-work that could be done automatically, but isn't so that they don't get bored. By contrast, a passage in the short story ''Reflex'' (which originally was an early chapter of ''Mote'' that was cut for length reasons) indicates that civilian ships make widespread use of automation and have much smaller crews, something supported by the scenes aboard the "yacht" / auxiliary warship ''Sinbad'' in ''Hand''.

* AllWomenArePrudes: Mostly subverted. Sally, the only female member of the scientific expedition, horrifies the men by letting the Moties examine her (naked) body (because humanity's secrets don't include having two sexes, she says), and rolling her eyes at their embarrassment on seeing two alien animals [[change sex and]] Do It, which she finds scientifically important. But even she is a product of her culture: the Motie mediators take advantage of this by asking Sally about human reproduction, correctly guessing that she can be easily deflected from asking vitally important questions about Motie reproduction in return.

* AllWomenArePrudes: The Motie mediators take advantage of this trope by asking Sally, the only female member of the scientific expedition, about human reproduction. As she is a "proper young lady", they correctly guess that she can be easily deflected from asking vitally important questions about Motie reproduction in return.

''The Mote in God's Eye'' might be one of the more realistic depictions of a first-contact story. The discovery of alien life is sudden and unexpected, and most of the book deals with the diplomatic/military/espionage group that is sent by the humans to meet the new species. A great deal of tension arises between the humans and "Moties" who have a very dim understanding of each other at first, and between the xenophiliac scientists and the xenophobic military personnel with the human expedition.

** "I can't read your mind." Bury's fyunch(click!), continually trying to reassure him... and achieving just the opposite.

* MundaneLuxury: The Moties are incredibly envious of human women's access to contrareceptives (or more accurately, of their ability to delay getting pregnant until a convenient time without dying of hormonal imbalances).

* BizarreAlienPsychology: {{Inverted|Trope}}. Several Motie mediators assigned to human emissaries go mad trying to comprehend their behavior. The Mediator assigned to Captain Blaine is unable to comprehend the chain of command, and understand how one being can both gave and responded to orders, while the mediator assigned to Chief Engineer Sinclair won't stop talking about engineering. The Motie rulers decide to stop assigning mediators to individual human authority figures because it's too hazardous to their mental health.

** "Come, I will conceal nothing from you". Renner (and Renner's fyunch(click!)) make a point of complete candor... even though, perhaps because it puts other humans off-balance.

* BizarreAlienBiology: Moties have an asymmetrical anatomy, and their reproductive system differs greatly from most Terran species. [[spoiler: All Moties of all types are born male. After a while, they change sex and become female (except the Keepers). If they don't get pregnant and give birth, they die. If they do get pregnant and give birth, they become male again. This cycle repeats - no one's quite sure how old a Motie can get if they keep with the cycle.]]
* BizarreAlienPsychology: {{Inverted|Trope}}. Motie mediators assigned to human emissaries go mad trying to comprehend how they act. In one example involving a main character, the Mediator assigned to Captain Blaine goes mad, unable to comprehend the chain of command, and how one being both gave and responded to orders.

* ForScience: The apparent motivation of some of the more... enthusiastic... researchers aboard the ''[=MacArthur=]''. Some of the clues to the true nature of Motie civilization are missed as a result of the astronomers on-board being largely uninterested in anything that isn't a natural phenomena.

* ForScience: The apparent motivation of some of the more... enthusiastic... researchers aboard the ''[=MacArthur=]''.

* SpeciesLoyalty: Humans join the defense against the Moties for this.

* HumansAreSpecial: Zig-zagged. In spite of having engineering skills inferior to those of the Motie engineering caste, humanity has developed DeflectorShields while the Moties have not, though several characters note that the discovery was mostly by chance. Just knowing that the Langstrom field exists is enough to let the Moties develop a similar field, and they immediately improve on it by developing a version that can expand to radiate away more energy and therefore last much longer than human-made shields. [[spoiler: What really makes us special from the Motie perspective is that adult humans don't die of hormonal imbalances within a few weeks if we fail to reproduce.]]

* FasterThanLightTravel: Alderson Drive, which operates more like a [[OurWormholesAreDifferent wormhole]] system, but not quite.

* HumansAreSpecial: Zig-zagged. In spite of having inferior engineering skills, humanity has innovated faster-than-light travel before the Moties, though several characters note that its discovery was mostly by chance.

* {{Homage}}: The fact that the chief engineer is Scottish is a clear homage to ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries''.

* BizarreAlienBiology: Moties have an asymmetrical anatomy, and their reproductive system differs greatly from most Terran species. [[spoiler: All Moties of all types are born male. After a while, they change genders and become female (except the Keepers). If they don't get pregnant and give birth, they die. If they do get pregnant and give birth, they become male again. This cycle repeats - no one's quite sure how old a Motie can get if they keep with the cycle.]]

In essence, the story is one long, long conflict in which the humans are trying to decide whether the discovery of other life in the universe is a cause for fear or a cause for celebration.

* CowTools: The toolroom "IQ" test used on the Motie ambassador ship, to determine the technical abilities of the humans they were visiting.\\
\\
Some of the humans think it's an IQ test, but Motie culture is ''different''. Their initial interpretation of the results is that the engineer, who does pretty well on the tool test, is an idiot savant and not worth communicating with, since in their culture the Mediators (who do all the talking) are completely uninterested in such things. All the humans who "failed" the test get a dedicated fyunch(click) (think personal translator); the engineer doesn't get one until after the Moties learn enough English to find out humans don't specialize to the same extent, and it later develops that the engineer's fyunch(click) has been slowly going insane (by Motie standards) since the engineer keeps talking to her about ''technical'' things.

* GeneralRipper: Admiral Lavrenti "The Butcher" Kutuzov, you ''do not'' want to be on a rebellious colony when he is around. [[spoiler: Subverted in that he is right, right, ''right!'' in every possible way,]] at least according to his supporters.

* HumansAreSpecial: Charlie predicts humanity will take over Motie civilization after the next collapse and the Keeper more or less confirms it.

* IResembleThatRemark: The [[ShoutOut Scottish]] [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries engineer]], when the first officer complains about his accent.

* MarketBasedTitle: "The Gripping Hand" is titled ''The Moat Around Murcheson's Eye'' in the United Kingdom and some other countries.

** Also in the first book, one Mediator shocks the others by [[spoiler:killing her Fyunch(click)]]. It is clear to the reader, however, that she realized that he faced a SadisticChoice, and identified him with so thoroughly that she shared the dilemma and took this as the third option [[spoiler: between suicide and risking the human race by capture]].

** "I can't read your mind." Bury's fyunch(click!), continual trying to reassure him.. And achieving just the opposite.