"...must be nullified before the Race could be fully free to seek the destiny the God had set. We shall, ghost of Aycharaych, we shall. During those selfsame years of our misery, your scheme was coming to fruition. This is the day when victory begins."
-Poul Anderson, The Game Of Empire IN Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, 2012), pp. 189-453 AT Chapter Six, p. 268.
Tachwyr seems to think that Aycharaych the Chereionite had fully shared the Roidhunate aim of complete Merseian hegemony in the galaxy! Aycharaych not only deceived the Roidhunate during his lifetime, or at least during his period of active service, but continues to do so a decade and a half later. Yet Dominic Flandry was able to penetrate the deception as soon as he landed on Chereion.
Maybe the Merseians are not as intelligent as they think - and maybe this explains why they will not succeed even against the decadent Empire?
9 comments:
I think it's more a matter of being fully bound up in -- being 'inside' -- their myths. Flandry, coming from an older civilization and one with more exposure to foreignness and being personally something of a loner all his life (*) -- has a different perspective.
Humans tend to use wits and information to reinforce their beliefs, not question them.
(*) which of course is more possible in his culture than theirs.
Kaor, Paul!
I don't think the Merseians were inherently less intelligent than humans. Rather, we don't KNOW all the means used by Aycharaych to deceive those "tough fighter lords." He could have used a combination of his telepathic abilities and an advanced science using both telepathy and superior computer technology to fool the Merseians.
Btw, if the Terran Empire HAD been as decadent as so many of its enemies kept loudly claiming, it would never have survived as long as wee it doing! A point made by Flandry near the end of "Tiger By The Tail."
Sean
Dear Mr. Stirling,
Darn, you made points I wish I had thought of! Yes, Flandry did came from an older civilization than that of Merseia--with more experience with more sheer ALIENNESS, both human and human, than Merseia had. Esp. since Merseia was dominated by a racist ideology tending to encourage Merseians to not take non Merseians as seriously as they should have.
Ydwyr the Seeker, a Merseian we meet in A CIRCUS OF HELLS, was an exception to that general Merseian mindset. But even he, despite his powerful connections, could only buck it so far!
Ydwyr had even been granted permission to visit Chereion and be "taught" by Aycharaych, who would of course take care to make sure the Seeker did not find out too much.
And we both uploaded our first notes here at almost exactly the same time!
Sean
Sean:
And the point of your second paragraph is one which Brechdan Ironrede recognized. As he told his son in *Ensign Flandry*, "That race still bears the chromosomes of conquerors. There are still brave men in the Empire, devoted men, shrewd men ... with the experience of a history longer than ours to guide them. If they see doom before them, they'll fight like demons."
Kaor, DAVID!
Yes, I should have remembered that bit from ENSIGN FLANDRY! It's a true and apt CORRECTIVE to the constant drumbeat of criticism, some of it justified, that we see cast against the Empire.
Sean
I don't think it's quite accurate to call the Merseian attitude "racism". Humans and Merseians really are different species and fundamentally unrelated, though chance has made them more similar than many of the species in Anderson's universe. Perhaps "species-ism".
Dear Mr. Stirling,
But we do see various characters in the Flandry stories describing the Merseian prejudices vis a vis other species "racism." And I discussed in my article "Was The Domination Influenced By Merseia?" how the Roidhunate did consider non-Merseians to be inferior. I'm sure you are aware of how I discussed your Draka books in that essay of mine!
But "species-ism" might well be a more accurate word for Merseians of the Roidhunate thought than "racism."
Sean
I think the meaning of the word "race" has shifted in the Technic History; it applies to species. As in "human race". In our own language, as recently as a century ago it was used as a more emotional stand-in for "ethnic group"; people referred to the Irish race, the German race, and so forth. It derives from terms that were used for things like breeds of animal.
Dear Mr. Stirling,
I agree, at one time people did talk about the Irish, German, English, etc., "races." And even families could be called "races." Some older histories sometimes talked about the "Capetian race" or the "race of Hugh Capet," when referring to the ancient ruling dynasty of France.
Sean
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