Relics are old. Electronics are new. Right? Not in the period of the Terran Empire.
Flandry and Kossara must risk assassination by attending the Dennitzan Shkoptsina/Parliament. When Flandry points out that the politicians could meet by holocom, Kossara replies:
"'Electronics will do for ornamental relics. The Shkoptsina is alive, it debates and decides real things, the members need intimacies, subtleties, surprises.'" (XVII, pp.550-551)
Earlier, she had said:
"'The Shkoptsina's no controlled inner-Empire congress. It's about five hundred proud individuals, speaking for as may different proud sections of land or walks of life. It's often turbulent - fights have happened, yes, a few killings - and tomorrow it'll be wild.'" (XVI, pp. 548-549)
Well, the mention of killings is not reassuring. Still earlier, I was surprised when we were told that the Gospodar addressed the Shkoptsina in militia uniform with "...knife and pistol on hips..." (XIII, p. 514) Weapons carried into a parliament!
We appreciate that the Shkoptsina is a living assembly but that need not involve fights or killings.
Five hundred members of the Shkoptsina, four hundred ychani marching to demand entry and an armed fifty-man would-be Revolutionary Committee waiting nearby. The chamber is about to become a battlefield.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Unfortunately, there has been violence in the US Capitol, and before January 6, 2021! One of the most notorious being how a Democrat representative from South Carolina named Preston Brooks savagely attacked and severely injured. Republican Senator Charles Taylor with a cane in May 1856. Because Sumner had made a provocative speech attacking slavery in the Southern states, including insulting comments about one of Rep. Brooks' relatives.
And I'm we could find incidents of similar violence occurring in either House of Parliament with some researching.
I don't think it's meant as any thing sinister for the Gospodar of Dennitza to preside over meetings of the Schkoptsina in militia uniform with sidearms. That custom was probably a relic (that word again!) from the Time of Troubles.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Which one is Sumner?
Of course the Gospodar presiding armed is not sinister. It simply differs from my expectations.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Senator Charles Sumner was the one savagely beaten by Rep. Brooks (no relation, I HOPE).
Gotcha, re the Gospodar. It was just a custom.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
It was just that you had written "Taylor."
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
You're right. I goofed and got the names mixed up because of haste. I should have written "Senator Charles Sumner," not "Taylor"!
Ad astra! Sean
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