For once, the cover image is directly relevant because this post is about Diana Crowfeather talking with the disguised Targovi in his cage on the Waterblossom. She asks several penetrating questions:
"'But what is our cause? If you're on the side of Gerhart - why? To head off a civil war? But you can't; it's already begun. Mightn't Olaf Magnusson be the better man anyway? And what can we possibly do, stuck here on Daedalus, that'd make the slightest difference?'" (p. 304)
That last question applies to all of us here and now. What can I in Lancaster do to affect events in London or the Middle East? But, if a lot of us gather in one place, then we might do something. Dominic Flandry and Kossara Vymezal are escorted into the tricameral Dennitzan Parliament by a demonstration of zmayi. Campaigners hope to mobilize a million people for an event in Britain later this year. I will be there and will report back here. Major events are, like science fiction, about our future. This is one of those posts that has taken us a bit further than I had expected it to.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Altho a bit idealized, the cover illustration you chose was one of the all too few times one of Anderson's books received an APPROPRIATE illustration.
You already know my skeptical view of demonstrations! Politicians and bureaucrats are more likely to think like this: "Whats's the quickest and easiest way of getting these bloody nuisances off my back?"
Ad astra! Sean
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