in summer, microphytons, the base of the food chain, make the lake water glow a deep red;
a bulligator bellows from among the white-plumed cockatoo reeds;
birds rise, fish swarm and wildkine are everywhere.
No one owns the lake. Outbackers gather at it and violently resist the Cities' attempt to build a town. On Avalon, two intelligent species divide a planet between them. On Freehold, it is necessary for two human cultures to do the same.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
The violence used by the Outbackers to prevent a new town from being founded at Moon Garnet Lake might have been avoided if these two cultures had not been so "isolated" from each other, growing and developing with little contact between them. And I put most of the blame for that on the Outbackers, because of them refusing to have much real contact with the Nine Cities.
Sean
Kaor,Sean!
They do have some contact with the Nine Cities, but the City people see them as bums and squatters, whose titles to their territory are not respected. You remember the mayor talking about how the Cities were willing to offer the Outbackers help, education, and psychotherapy to fit into civilization. So I must beg to differ; I don't think there's much the Outbackers could do, in the absence of violence, to persuade the City people that they have a right to Moon Garnet Lake and the rest of their territory, which is not empty land available for City use.
Best Regards,
Nicholas D. Rosen
Kaor, Nicholas!
The complicated thing is I agree with much of what you wrote here. But why did the Nine Cities regard the Outbackers as mere bums and squatters? I would still argue that was largely because the Cities did not KNOW much about the new culture which had been developing in the "Outback." I would still argue that the contacts between the Cities and the Outbackers before the events recorded in "Outpost Of Empire" were fairly minimal because of the Outbackers disdain for them. So, it's no surprise the Mayor of Domkirk could speak so condescendingly about the Outbackers, because of how LITTLE he knew about them.
Regards! Sean
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