Does a civilization need a frontier?
Having grown up on the frontier planet, Vixen, Kit Kittredge knows the violent Vixenite seasons, can assemble life-supporting machinery, has hunted, sported and seen birth and death, knows the subtle intrigues of her small city and retains the optimism, honor or courage of the frontier. Dominic Flandry says that Kit's people will outlast the Empire whereas his class, the Terran aristocracy, lives only for fun and is doomed. Like Wells's Eloi? Chapter 6 of The Time Machine (London, 1973) is entitled "THE SUNSET OF MANKIND."
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Of course I remember that oft pondered part of Chapter VIII of WE CLAIM THESE STARS. I would have added, what was left implicit, that the aristocrats of Terra had accomplished, fulfilled, or completed their important tasks. All that was left for them to do was to have fun, and Flandry did not think that was enough.
At least the nobles of Terra were not like the Eloi in being substandard in intelligence. They knew Manuel's Empire was doomed, but also that its end would not come till after their lifetimes. Flandry thought they had become too wise.
And, yes, my view is the human race NEEDS a frontier, some where people can go if they get really unhappy. Which is one reason why I support a REAL space program and Elon Musk's hopes of founding a colony on Mars.
Btw, Flandry himself, no matter his voluptuary tastes, was not living like an Eloi! He spent his life doing his very considerable best to defend the Empire and prolong its existence.
Ad astra! Sean
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