In Poul Anderson's "Tiger by the Tail," Dominic Flandry subverts the Schotani Empire. Incredibly, the Schotani are humanoid, very white skinned and horned and fight with swords - although, as a spacefaring race, they also have acquired blasters. In other words, they resemble demons or elves. The story is action-adventure fiction and "space opera," originally published in the pulp magazine, Planet Stories. Thus although it is science fiction with spaceships and other planets, it has much in common with the sword and sorcery fantasy that Anderson also wrote.
When Anderson revised and improved the text of the story, he was confident enough to acknowledge this parallel. In both versions, Flandry admires the beauty of Queen Gunli but, in the revision, we are additionally told that she reminds him of the elves that he knows from Terrestrial mythology.
The Schotani are also barbarians. It was they from whom the Alarri, who had invaded the Terran Empire when Flandry was a boy, had fled. This mirrors the movement of barbarian hordes into the Roman Empire.
Flandry skillfully learns Schotanian body language, a circling nod of the head for assent and, for him, a touching of the forehead to register surprise because he lacks horns. As an effective secret agent, he invests a lot of effort in befriending his captors in order to turn them against each other. The young Schotani are trying to play games that the ancient Terrans have long since perfected.
1 comment:
Hi, Paul!
If the Scothanians want to catch up with the Terrans in the arts of intrigue and skulduggery then they had better study a few Terran classics. Works such as Sun Tzu's THE ART OF WAR, Niccolo Machiavelli's THE PRINCE, and Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger's (better known as Cordwainer Smith) PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE. To say nothing of how Anderson's "Tiger by the Tail" is itself a treatise on how to subvert your enemies.
But, Flandry would not have been able to undermine Frithian domination of Scotha if the Scothanians themselves had not already been decadent. They made the mistake of believing their own propaganda, of looking out only for Number One and taking no REAL thought for the welfare of Scotha. Persons like Nornagast forgot to wonder, in their eagerness to accept Flandry's advice, whether he was giving similar advice to their rivals.
Sean
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