"'I am not sure anybody will ever grasp why mortals make war,' van Rijn answered soberly. 'Maybe someday we will find a sophont species what is not fallen from grace, and they can tell us.'" (p. 258)
This is mystification. Anthropologists can and do find socio-psychological reasons for wars whereas, by contrast, a species that had never waged war would not understand it!
For previous blog discussions of this issue, see:
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I think Old Nick would at least partly agree with your second paragraph here. Since I do believe there is a supernatural aspect to life and existence, I am not so sure an Un Fallen race, as Catholics would understand that, theologically, would be that unable to understand our predicament. Or, maybe you and C.S. Lewis (in a different way) are right, such a race could not understand organized, institutionalized violence. I mentioned Lewis because he speculated in his essay "Religion and Rocketry" that the vast distances between the stars are used to prevent Un Fallen races from being corrupted by those who have Fallen.
I think the closest Anderson comes to showing us what we might consider an Un Fallen intelligent race is the species seen in "The Martyr," with its shocker ending. A story I would place with other shocker ending pieces as "Welcome," "Eutopia," "Murphy's Hall," WORLD WITHOUT STARS, etc.
Ad astra! Sean
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