"No, the nun thought. The pathetic fallacy. Nature is merely indifferent, it is the heart of fallen man that is cruel."
-SM Stirling, Under The Yoke (New York, 1989), p. 268.
I have often remarked on the pathetic fallacy in Poul Anderson's works so it is appropriate to find an explicit comment on it in this work by SM Stirling. But there seem to be two meanings of "pathetic fallacy." The nun means the mistake of attributing human feelings to nature whereas I mean the literary device of evoking human feelings by describing parallel natural phenomena: the sun shines when someone is happy etc.
The nun is all too aware of cruelty among her Draka owners. Stirling continues to surprise us by imagining just how depraved a human society might become:
"When the time comes to geld the Yankees an' hitch them to the plough, we'll cut off their balls with a knife they competed to sell us; an' while we rape their virgin cheerleader daughters, they'll still be whimperin' about contracts."
Minutes of the Supreme State Council
Archon Edwina Palme Presiding
Archona, Executive Building
July 10, 1947
MOST SECRET: LEVEL XIX PERSONNEL ONLY (p.311)
They would have to keep such minutes secret. But could any State Council express itself in such terms? Yes, the Nazis were able to plan technological genocide.
In this second Draka volume, Stirling makes more of an effort to convey Draka speech patterns and accents. A master to a serf:
"'...work bettah, and we'll all be happier.'" (p. 291)
This has the pleasing effect of distancing the self-styled "...brothers and sisters of the Dragon breed..." (p. 304) from the reader to a greater extent. In fact, they want to differentiate themselves from humanity:
"'...we never fo'get yo're human...It'd be mo' accurate to say we don't consider ourselves human in the usual sense; we're higher up the food chain. In terms of culture, if not biology, though the eugenics people are workin' on that...yo' farm the earth an' we farm yo'. Domesticated humans are much mo' profitable an' rewardin' than plants and animals...'" (p. 272)
And here is a suitable comparison with a non-human race:
"'Don' you worry though, little ones. Momma an' poppa are goin' give yo' the whole world fo' a toy.'" (p. 260)
On Merseia:
"The small being who lay on the furs wrapped a fist around the gnarled finger that stroked him. Brechdan Ironrede melted within himself. 'You will have stars for toys,' he crooned. 'Wudda, wudda, wudda.'"
-Poul Anderson, Young Flandry (New York, 2010), p. 28.
3 comments:
Paul:
It occurs to me that PA created another people who could, to some degree, be considered models for the Draka: the Kolreshites from his short story "Among Thieves."
A subtle mutation twisted their minds; "...one might, to a first approximation, call it extreme xenophobia. It is normal for Homo sapiens to be somewhat wary of outsiders until he has established their bona fides; it was normal for Homo Kolreshi to *hate* all outsiders, from first glimpse to final extermination." The Kolreshites didn't, apparently, want to enslave anyone -- but didn't mind EATING them.
"Naturally, such an instinct produced a tendency to inbreeding, which lowered fertility, but systematic execution of the unfit had so far kept the stock vigorous." A variety of ruthless eugenic selection.
They could control their viciousness and be urbane. "Visiting on neutral planets--i.e., planets which it was not yet expedient to attack--they were very courteous and had an account of defending themselves against one unprovoked aggression after another, which some found plausible. Even their enemies stood in awe of their personal heroism."
"Nevertheless, few in the galaxy would have wept if the Kolreshites all died one rainy night."
Hi, David!
Now why didn't ** I ** think of "Among Thieves" and the Kolreshites as well? After all, I had repeatedly read that story!
I would say the Merseians were not NATURALLY Drakalike. They had to be warped into that mindset by a philosophy/ideology preaching racial supremacy. A genetic accident, a mutation, MADE the Koreshites instinctively regard all non Kolreshites with loathing and hatred
Sean
Kaor, Paul!
I think the two definitions of the Pathetic Fallacy discussed here, Poul Anderson's and Sister Marya, are both legitimate and can be properly used.
I dunno, I'm not sure if the Nazis were as brutally blunt about their atrocities as were the Draka. Beginning with the Wannsee Conference, they seemed to have preferred euphemisms such as the "Final Solution."
Sean
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