Gwydiona think that Lochlanna must carry weapons to deal with wild animals. However, Elfavy, troubled, remembers that members of the first expedition had "'...said something about men fighting other men.'" (p. 570) When Raven replies that this is his profession, she does not understand "profession." When he says instead that it is his calling, she is horrified. The men that are to be killed cannot be bad men because "bad" means that something has gone wrong and "'How can men go wrong?'" (p. 571) If they get sick, then a physician heals them.
Trying to explain, Raven asks her to imagine a sickness that makes some men want to hurt others. When, horrified again, she asks what germ causes that, he realizes that she cannot "...even visualize homicidal mania..." (ibid.) and therefore cannot possibly understand that sane and honorable men sometimes find reasons to kill each other.
But which of them is sane in this conversation? Is Anderson's text at this point a very understated Swiftian satire on our acceptance of the waging of war as an honorable profession?
7 comments:
This conversation is a clue that the locals are not really human anymore -- their mutation makes their instinctive psychology alien to h. sapiens.
Humans evolved as savagely territorial and competitive apex predators, social omnivore/carnivores. They kill animals to eat or protect themselves, and they kil/intimidatel other human beings for resources or the social status that brings mating opportunities; and they do it cooperatively.
In fact, that's the reason that humans are more social and cooperative than chimps -- hunting and fighting require it, with strong bonds between members of the band and the readiness to take risks for each other and to operate in closely coordinated groups.
The humans on that planet were descended from a -very- small group that experienced rapid genetic drift. This was only possible because there weren't any other humans around -- normal humans would have eaten them alive long ago.
This evolutionary pattern that the explorers discover is only possible in this unique environment.
As an aside, soldiers develop strong emotional attachments to robots designed to do things like bomb disposal or scout tunnels, and sometimes take risks to "save' them. It's an emotional process that's prerational.
Mr Stirling,
There are different ways to interpret a text but, in this case, I am quite sure that your interpretation is closer to the author's intention than is mine!
A fascinating detail about soldiers and robots.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!
Paul: No, Anderson was not indulging in Swiftian satire about war and soldiers in this conversation you quoted from THE NIGHT FACE. Anderson not only believed that war was sometimes a regrettable but necessary evil, he also respected the military profession. I need cite only a few stories like "No Truce With Kings" or "Kings Who Die" to make that plain!
Mr. Stirling: I don't think the Gwydiona would necessarily have been "eaten alive" by normal humans if they had not lost contact with the rest of the human race. Regular contact with mankind might have brought in both enough genetic diversity to prevent the mutation that warped them, but also conscious knowledge of how dangerous the bale flower was. Steps would have been taken to deal with it, perhaps by trying to wipe out that deadly flower.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: to clarify, I mean that the Gwydionan mutation could not have become general in the presence of unmodified human beings in the same environment, -and- that the Gwydiona don't face very good prospects in competition with normal humans, unless they're very lucky.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I don't disagree. I was trying to make the same point you did in the first part of your comment immediately above. And I agree with the second part, about the Gwydiona not having good chances competing with normal human beings.
I think some normal humans from off Gwydion would try to protect the people of that planet. I think we see mention in "The Sharing of Flesh" of the Allied Planets FORBIDDING anyone one from landing on Gwydion, to protect its people.
Ad astra! Sean
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