The purpose of the attached image is to contrast ERB's Moon Men with Poul Anderson's Lunarians and their Selenarchs. (Make the Moon Man green and four-armed and this cover, with a few more changes of detail, becomes a picture of John Carter, Dejah Thoris and a Thark or Warhoon.) Also think of Wells' "Selenites" and their "Grand Lunar" (terms coined by Cavor, not used by the moon-dwellers).
Do you like how the Selenarchs do business?
"'The contract delegates authority in Port Bowen to Fireball Enterprises but does not affect the sovereignty of the Selenarchy, which the Lord Rinndalir hereby applies.'" (pp. 243-244)
The Selenarchs do not have any capital city:
"They neither sent nor received diplomats; ad hoc envoys from Earth went to sites they designated and spoke with such of them as chose to listen." (p. 246)
The cavalier attitude to Terrestrial conventions is good. I do not want to live in a society of lords and their ancillaries but then I am of a different species. Anderson imagines feudalism as if everyone reveled in it.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I would expect different races to be more or less naturally inclined to favor different socio/political institutions. So, given their character as a species, the feudalism of the Lunarians did not bother me. And you probably remember how writers like Stirling (and Anderson) believe feudalism would naturally arise among ordinary humans if circumstances warranted it.
But I disagree with the Lunarians stand offish attitude towards DIPLOMACY. Which is merely how independent polities conduct politics with each other, after all. I think it would have served the Lunarians own long term good if they had maintained some degree of diplomatic contacts with the World Federation and major member states of it. These contacts could have been used to mitigate or resolve disputes and fend off acts and policies the Lunarians disliked. But, if they had done so, they would not have been the Lunarians we knew!
Sean
Sean,
I have expanded the reference to Wells in this post.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I noticed. You are more of a Wells fan than I am!
Sean
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