Fictional detectives include Nias Warouw, director of the Guard Corps of the Planetary Biocontrol on Unan Besar, who tracks down the fugitive, Flandry. Captured, Flandry has the option of remaining on Unan Besar for life as Warouw's special assistant. No, thanks. Some detectives, both real and fictional, work for a regime despite knowing how wrong the regime is. Another example is Eric Finch in Alan Moore's V for Vendetta. The anarchist terrorist, codename V, assassinates leading members of the Norsefire fascist dictatorship. Finch simply tracks down V as if the latter were a criminal in a democratic society. At some stage, "I am only doing my job" has to give way to "What kind of society am I supporting?" Finch has the self-confidence to tell the Leader that he does not go along with "England prevails" and is informed that he is left in his position only because he is so good at his job. Warouw has no respect for the directors of Biocontrol but also no need to tell them what he thinks.
7 comments:
"...inwardly lepidopteral."
Lepidoptera is the class of insects commonly called 'butterflies', ie: he had 'butterflies in his stomach'. ;)
Right.
Kaor, Paul and Jim!
Paul: The problem with your comments about the fictional police detective Eric Finch, who served or worked under a dictatorship in Great Britain, is that I don't know bad that regime was. Was it as brutal and fascistic as the USSR, National Socialist Germany, the Castroite regime in Cuba, or no worse than Mussolini's Fascist regime in Italy? If the British dictatorship was as relatively mild as Mussolini's rule of Italy, then I can see people like Finch being able to do their jobs in good conscience.
As for Nias Warouw, I recall how Flandry had only respect for his professional abilities, a born detective forced to reinvent the art under a regime slack, lax, corrupt and oppressive as Biocontrol. Flanddry had scant patience for crusaders, but he drew the line at Biocontrol and was quite willing to help overthrow it. And argued with Warouw at him being willing to serve the regime.
Jim: Or this, the exiled Russian writer Vladimir Nabokov was also a well known lepidopterist.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
The Norsefire regime had killed blacks and homosexuals in concentration camps. V had escaped from a camp.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Then that would indeed be a regime undeserving of resigned acceptance by people like Eric Finch.
Ad astra! Sean
Note that some things have to continue even under very bad governments -- sewage, medicine, and ordinary police work. Just because the government's awful doesn't mean that thieves, murderers and rapists aren't going to be there too.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree. I had that in mind when I wrote my first comment here. And the fact Biocontrol was so lax about even the most routine and ordinary matters, like controlling crime, shows how incompetent it was.
Merry Christmas! Sean
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