Dragonflight

“When is a legend legend? Why is a myth a myth? How old and disused must a fact be for it to be relegated to the category “Fairy-tale”? And why do certain facts remain incontrovertible while others lose their validity to assume a shabby, unstable character?” 

Anne McCaffrey opens her novel with one of its major themes: the point in history at which hard facts become silly fairy-tales. She further wonders why we don’t take fairy-tales seriously, given that they potentially carry the wisdom of the past. Besides providing a rationale for the utility of the arts (and therefore the novel itself), these questions reflect the blurring of science and religion that takes place throughout Dragonflight.

“She was used to waiting. Perversity, endurance, and guile were her other weapons, loaded with the inexhaustible patience of vengeful dedication.” 

Part 1 introduces Lessa and some of her core personality traits, though she initially appears in a distinctly negative light. The events of the novel transform these vices—more or less—into virtues. Endurance, for example, remains highly relevant to her life in the Weyr, given the ascetic lifestyle of the dragonriders.

“There was a reason, an explanation, a purpose, F’lar felt, for every one of the Weyr Laws from First Impression to the Fire-Stones, from the grass-free heights to the ridge-running gutters.”

Early on, McCaffrey establishes that F’lar alone believes fully in the myths of old. He sees them not just as valuable relics from the past, but as blueprints for Pern’s future. Nevertheless, he can’t justify this belief rationally; although the laws themselves may (and in fact do) serve logical purposes, F’lar must simply take their necessity as a “felt” truth. This tension speaks to the complex relationship between science and faith—which both seek to explain, but in very different ways—throughout the novel.