Some glorify war; others describe it. I do not have a copy of Heinlein's Starship Troopers to hand but do remember that it ends:
"To the everlasting glory of the infantry-"
In fact, I have just found the full text online and confirmed it. See here.
Contrast Turtledove's and Anderson's accounts as quoted in Experience Of War, then add this response:
"'Spirit damn all wars, there's nothing left of this knee but bloody splinters. It'll have to come off at the thigh. Clamp there, idiot. Hold him.'"
-The Forge, CHAPTER FIFTEEN, p. 264.
It is remarkable that, despite all the time and energy invested in killing and destruction, civilizations have flourished. Or perhaps the victors have flourished at the expense of the vanquished? The most shameful treatment of captured heads of defeated states is meted out by Stirling's self-glorifying Draka. Stirling's villains must be the most evil in fiction?
When a man tries to assassinate the Patriarch of Kzin, the kzinti are handicapped in their response by the need to acquire an intact corpse that can be stuffed - because they know how to honor an enemy! The Merseians, at least those of the Roidhunate, are Poul Anderson's nearest equivalent to Niven's kzinti. The Roidhunate Merseians would claim to honor mankind while in fact either subordinating or exterminating us.
And some critics of sf would suggest that these works of fiction represent a war-making human civilization projecting its own characteristics onto extraterrestrials. But what kind of intelligences, if any, really are out there? I leave you with that question for tonight.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I would expect physicians like the one you quoted, to take a very DOUR view of war! One I basically agree with despite also believing, as did Poul Anderson, that some wars are regrettably necessary.'
Despite the follies and vices of mankind, it is remarkable how civilizations have managed to flourish. And I too remember the degrading and disgusting way the Draka treated the heads of state of conquered nations. Certainly not with the magnanimity and generosity of Cyrus the Great, for example. Or with how Edward III of England treated the captured King John II of France.
Yes, Stirling created uniquely evil and vicious villains! The Draka, William Walker, Norman Arminger, Count Ignatieff, the Shadowspawn, etc. Moreover, he created villains who were interesting and well rounded characters. Not thin cardboard stereotypes. While also making plain these are not persons to be admired!
And I disagree with the critics you mentioned. Humans are what they are, good and bad. Including being quarrelsome and prone to war. We have to expect our literature, if is to be honest, to accurately show that. And that has to include the possibility that SOME non human races will also be bellicose and quarrelsome.
Sean
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