(The image shows Galveston.)
The higher we are the further we can fall. CS Lewis' tutor rejected "demonic" as a description of war time enemy atrocities on the ground that demons are mythical, then rejected "bestial" on the ground that no beasts act thus. The only adjective left was "human."
However, in Stirling's story, North American savages are on the verge of losing even their humanity. Hunting each other for food, they have no social group larger than the extended family and barely retain fire or language. Inbreeding and savagery are making them physically distinct: no chins; sloping foreheads; horribly scarred faces; huge broad noses; narrow eyes; heavy brows and shoulders; long thick arms; broad feet. A visiting Imperial, Eric King, has to ask what they are. From a distance they looked like men...
If even one generation fails to transmit language to its children, then surely the degeneration to animality will be complete? How is this averted? Russian Imperialists, themselves practicing ritualized cannibalism, organize, train, equip and arm the savages to wage war against their civilized neighbors while remaining cannibals! Stirling imagines thoroughly evil villains for his Angrezi Raj timeline.
King has to acknowledge that technically the change among the savages is for the better because they are now living a little more like human beings and less like mad beasts (pp. 129-130). I would add that, although they have become more dangerous, they also now have the potential for greater good. Stirling continues Wells', Stapledon's and Anderson's discussions of evolution and devolution.
Someone commented that the language in "Shikari..." was difficult but I have not found it so. Mr Stirling, please write more about the Angrezi Raj!
6 comments:
Hi, Paul!
Dang! I really have to break down and get WORLDS THAT WEREN'T! And I do hope S.M. Stirling will be inspired to find more to write about in the Angrezi Raj timeline. My vague recollection was him saying that THE PESHAWAR LANCERS (along with "Shikari in Galveston") showed him saying everything he wanted to say about that timeline.
And I can see how Russian attempts to make more trouble for the Angrezi Raj by arming cannibal savages and teaching them how to use metals, etc., woud lay the foundations of the cannibals improving their lot (altho the Russians did not care beans about that!). Your comments about "increased danger" made me wonder if these Russian interventions will lead to the rise in North America of ANOTHER realm practicing ritualized cannibalism of the kind seen in the Russian Empire? A dire prospect!
One of the things I noticed about S.M. Stirling is how he was willing to speculate about what might happen if really, really BAD people won more often than not. Which is what we see in his Draka books. Stirling had to protest that he did NOT approve of the Draka, that those books were DYSTOPIAN science fiction.
I'll be bold, and recommend you try reading another stand alone Stirling book, CONQUISTADOR. And his two volume "Lords of Creation" series. At least partly because those books show definite signs of Andersonian influence. Poul Anderson even makes a cameo appearance at the beginning of IN THE COURTS OF THE CRIMSON KINGS.
Sean
Sean,
OK. Thank you. Those titles are next on my reading list. And a book with PA in it has to be discussed on a PA Appreciation blog!
Paul.
Hi, Paul!
Rather flattering, and gratifying, that you are willing to take my suggestions. Many thanks!
I would recommend reading the "Lords of Creation" books thus: first THE SKY PEOPLE and then IN THE COURTS OF THE CRIMSON KINGS. Because events in the latter book is somewhat later than in in the former.
I have more to say about cannibalism but I have to go to work!
Sean
Hi, Paul!
The one time we see Poul Anderson using the idea of cannibalism in a major way was in his short story "The Sharing of Flesh." The story is set about a thousand years after the fall of the Terran Empire when a renascent new civilization led by the Allied Planets came across the planet called "World."
The expedition sent by the Allied Planets to investigate World discovered to its horror that cannibalism was universally practiced there. The "merely" barbaric Lokon highlands had managed to limit and rationalize cannibalism as part of a religion where only the males ate man, once in their lives, at puberty. The lowlands, however, had descended to utter savagery, tribes, clans, and groups of hunters perpetually at war with each other to obtain human meat. Iow, the same kind of fear and mistrust stressed by Stirling as typical of cannibals.
What made the situation seen in "The Sharing of Flesh" different from the cannibalism seen in Stirling's Angrezi Raj stories was that the people of World actually NEEDED to practice cannibalism. A genetic accident made boys unable to sexually mature at puberty unless certain bodily parts from other men were eaten. Sheer necessity forced the people of World to eat men, despite the huge disadvantages of cannibalism.
The situation of World obviously, was not the case with either the Russian Empire or the North American savages of Stirling's Angezi Raj timeline. The "rightness" of eating man was a major part of the Satanic Church which had arisen in Russia, as a religious rite pleasing to the Peacock Angel. The North American savages ate man for no such religious reason, simply because they LIKED human flesh.
Sean
Sean,
A good comparison between an Anderson story and a Stirling timeline.
Paul.
Hi, Paul!
Thanks! S.M. Stirling was a fan and admirer of Poul Anderson, so it makes sense to watch out for any signs of Andersonian influences in his own works.
Sean
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