-SM Stirling, The Desert And The Blade (New York, 2016), Chapter One, p. 25.
But it sounds like what did happen in the Angrezi Raj timeline. See here. One difference is that the Russian Count Ignatieff merely believes that he is in touch with supernatural evil...
Imagine:
two civilizations are at war;
they are also in touch with cannibal savages;
one of the warring civilizations mobilizes and arms the savages while encouraging them to remain cannibals.
That has to be classified as evil. I am still unsure where the supernatural evil in the Emberverse comes from.
9 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I think you mean S.M. Stirling, not Poul Anderson.
Best Regards,
Nicholas D. Rosen
Kaor, Nicholas!
But I think Paul DID mean Stirling. See how he mentioned the Angrezi Raj and Count Ignatieff, both important in THE PESHAWAR LANCERS. We see the Russian Empire of PESHAWAR falling into abominations like the worship of Satan, human sacrifices to him, and the Russian practicing cannibalism.
And we do see Poul Anderson using the theme of cannibalism in "The Sharing Of Flesh."
Sean
Sean,
Nicholas pointed out an error which I have corrected. I attributed the Stirling novel to Anderson. Thank you, Nicholas.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Oops! You simply eliminated an error I could no longer see after I came back online.
And another story by Anderson touching on cannibalism is "Welcome."
Sean
The difference between the Russians of Stirling's PESHAWAR LANCERS and the future Americans of Anderson's WELCOME is that Stirling's Russians are very visibly nasty, Satan-worshiping villains, while Anderson's future Americans seem nice, friendly and civilized people who appreciate Classical Music, and the protagonist realizes what they are only when they hold a banquet in his honor and present a baby cooked whole as the main dish.
Adam,
Yes. Big differences.
Paul.
Dear Mr. Keller,
Nice to see a "new kid on the block." Thanks for commenting.
I see your point, the futuristic people we see in "Welcome" don't think they are being evil. They actually were trying to be kind and decent, as best they knew how. Very unlike the visibly nasty, Satan worshiping, cannibalistic Russians of Stirling's story.
Is it possible for decent people to fall into doing habitually bad things as we see them doing in "welcome"? That is a question which raises uneasy implications and possible answers! Was this something Anderson himself hoped some readers would think of after reading this story?
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Many decent people do things that appall other decent people. Social norms are that diverse.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I agree. And some will, unfortunately, be bad.
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment