Christa Broderick, leader of the Hermetian Liberation Front, speaks publicly. This is a real speech addressing real issues in a real society - except that the society does not exist, of course! Is there anything comparable in any other future history series? Someone makes a speech in a Foundation novel but not with anything like this wealth of detail and complexity.
Poul Anderson shows us not only but mainly aristocratic points of view in a society where Travers, "workers," are campaigning for political equality. We tend to empathize with viewpoint characters but I cannot empathize with Grand Duchess Sandra when she says:
"'I've lost more time out of my own life than I like to reckon up, listening to the self-pity of the Liberation Front.'" (p. 193)
Authentic dialogue from an aristocratic head of state no doubt but not dialogue that I would agree with! Poul Anderson describes a society and readers respond as they do on Earth Real.
Kaor, Paul!
ReplyDeleteWhen I think of how bloodily catastrophic most revolutions have been I'm far more likely to agree with Grand Duchess Sandra than with the so called "Liberation Front."
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Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
ReplyDeleteSurely that is not the point? Most revolutions have been "catastrophic," therefore Travers should not campaign for equal rights? In fact, they achieve equality without catastrophe. (Campaigning for equality is "self-pity"?)
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
ReplyDeleteYes, but the Baburite occupation of Hermes, which was manipulated by the traitor Benoni Strang, disrupted what might have been a longer, more gradual process of concessions being made by the Hermetian aristocracy. With no war or civil war that might have allowed the Grand Duchy to preserve more of its old structure.
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Ad astra! Sean
I do not defend Strang! Surely I've said before that the invasion was all wrong. I'm talking about Sandra's attitude.
ReplyDeleteKaor, Paul!
ReplyDeleteI'm not saying you defend Strang, my thought was merely that he disrupted a more gradual, orderly, almost certainly far less violent process of political change and adaptation.
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Ad astra! Sean
Obviously he did. Sandra's conversation with van Rijn in Chapter XXI shows that the occupation accelerated some changes but it would have been better if the Hermetians had made the changes for themselves without that kind of outside "help" and disruption.
ReplyDeleteBut my point was disagreement with Sandra's attitude.
Kaor, Paul!
ReplyDeleteConsidering the distrust, dislike, and suspicion I have for almost all "radicals" and the revolutions they favor I'm far more likely to sympathize with Grand Duchess Sandra and similar leaders like her. E.g., I'll take Louis XVI of France and Nicholas II of Russia any day over blood soaked monsters like Robespierre and Lenin!
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Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
ReplyDeleteBut it is not self-pity to want equality.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
ReplyDeleteGranted, not as such. But I'm sure many "Liberation Fronters" were self pitying whiners.
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Ad astra! Sean
Seam,
ReplyDeleteI'm sure many of the Kindred were arrogant swine. Meanwhile, the issue remains.
paul.
Sean,
ReplyDeletePaul.
I rather liked a passage in one of Harry Turtledove's novels, where a German diplomat is watching a demonstration of socialists in the 1880's demanding "justice".
ReplyDeleteHe comments that if he was petitioning either his government or God, he'd ask for mercy, not justice.
Or as Shakespeare put it, "If all shall have their just deserts, who shall escape whipping?"