On Avalon, there is:
the freedom of flight;
the freedom to colonize new islands in a long archipelago and to found new choths;
the freedom to preserve a way of life that would have been ended by incorporation into the Terran Empire;
the elbow room sought by the Founder;
a human democratic institution, the Parliament of Man;
the individualism and participative democracy of Ythrian institutions, choth and Khruath;
the freedom for individuals of either species to choose between two life-styles.
There is much more than this in the Technic History. The People Of The Wind is just one of forty three installments in this future history series. However, this particular novel provides the background material for The Earth Book Of Stormgate which incorporates twelve other installments of the series. The Earth Book is spread across Volumes I-III (of VII) of The Technic Civilization Saga and The People Of The Wind is the conclusion, or culmination, of Vol III. Thus, Avalon, like certain individual characters, is a major part of the series.
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I can't help but wonder if you are putting too much stress on the Ythrian/Avalon subseries within the Technic Civilization stories. After all, Hloch himself found it necessary to warn readers of the EARTHBOOK on Avalon that to the rest of the known galaxy, Nicholas van Rijn was far better known than David Falkayn. Also, even millennia later, in "Star Fog," the Polesotechnic League and the Empire were both still remembered, but nothing is said about Avalon.
Also, I don't think the Ythrian influence on humans, on Avalon, was an unmixed blessing. That influence tended to erode away some uniquely human ideas and beliefs, tending either a hopeless, impossible longing to be like the Ythrians and perhaps a rootless, unmoored individualism which could to a dangerous atomization of humans on Avalon.
I think societies on planets like Dennitza are more likely to be of value for humans.
Sean
Kaor, Sean!
We don’t know how important Avalon is (important by what criterion?), and we don’t know what happens there after THE DAY OF THEIR RETURN, but at any rate, we don’t see its society collapsing, or see it being conquered or reduced to radioactive slag by any enemies. We do know that, for a time, the Avalonians of both species fought bravely to preserve a free if imperfect society, and keep the right to chart their own course. There were a great many planets in various arms of the galaxy, so there would probably be no reason for the characters in “Star Fog” to mention Avalon, even if some of them had heard of it. Educated people today may go from one year to the next without mentioning ancient Rhodes or medieval Kherson.
Best Regards,
Nicholas
Nicholas,
Flandry does comment favorably on Avalon in A STONE IN HEAVEN.
Paul.
Kaor, Nicholas and Paul!
The chief objection Avalonians had to being annexed by the Empire was that, as an Imperial planet, it could then place no restrictions on immigration from other worlds of the Empire. Presumably, most of them would have been humans, leading inevitably to human influences and ideas swamping the Ythrian influence. And hence to Avalon no longer being a true "dual colony" with roughly even human/Ythrian populations.
True, don't know what happened to Avalon in later centuries. MY suspicion is that the Domain Ythri did not long outlast the fall of the Empire because, like a boat too near a sinking giant ship, it was dragged down by the suction. But that does not mean AVALON itself could not have survived.
And I certainly agree with what you said about the characters in "Star Fog" having no reason to mention Avalon, just as most of us seldom need to mention Rhodes or Kherson. But that also makes it easy for me to think Avalon faded away into obscurity. Btw, Rhodes plays a role in Anderson's historical novel ROGUE SWORD!
And I would still argue that the societies of planets like Aeneas, Hermes, Dennitza, etc., are better, by and large, for human beings. And I don't object to experiments like Avalon.
Best regards! Sean
Post a Comment