Unable to go to sea because of pirate activity, Evirion Baltisi:
"...could find no work unless it be as a common labourer, and he would not stoop to that." (p. 378)
He should. The text continues:
"Nor could he, without fatal damage to his authority over his crew, should Brennilis ever put to sea again." (ibid.)
Then he needs to educate his crew, to show them that he is versatile enough to work either as a labourer or as a sea captain, even if their social system and prejudices remain hidebound and stratified. Gratillonius, the King, engages in physical work.
"Summer was then well along, a bleak one this year, chill rains and fleeting pale sunshine. However, for a time it grew hot. Through several days the weather smouldered with never a cloud..." (3, p. 378)
More about seasons and weather.
At last a resolution to a long drawn out tale of spite and animosity - Nagon Demari tries to have Nemeta arrested for witchcraft and Evirion kills him:
"'Oh, Lydris,' bubbled from [Nagon's] mouth - the name of his wife." (4, p. 384)
As with Benoni Strang in Poul Anderson's Mirkheim, we sympathise with a villain as he dies.
11 comments:
"Educating" people that way is easier said than done -- effectively you're trying to tell them that:
"Everything you always thought and have been told about the way human beings interact is wrong, and I'm right."
Why on earth should they listen to you at all?
Particularly if you're not in a position to coerce them.
The men in question are free, not slaves. They'd probably just mentally tell him to bugger off and then they'd melt away.
NB: engaging in physical work wasn't disgraceful in this setting; engaging in physical work -for wages given by someone else- was.
The distinction is independent/dependent.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Exactly! Again, you stated more clearly and pithily why I get so frustrated with claims that all you need to do in situations of the kind faced by Evirion is to "educate" them. No, it's never going to be that easy, as you explained.
Ad astra! Sean
Not easy. Massive resistance. But society progresses. Sometimes.
Paul: society -changes-, but this particular mind-set was going to endure for a long, long, long time.
Eg., note Thomas Jefferson's idealization of small yeoman farmers and distaste for manufactures. It was precisely because the yeomen were -independent-, and workers in manufacturing -weren't-.
(Though they weren't as dependent as factory workers were, later.)
And hell, Evirion probably -shares- the way his deckhands looks at the matter.
"No man can harvest a field before it's ripe."
Regular work for wages had to become much, much more common before it was destigmatized.
And that wasn't going to happen for a long time.
nb: until well into the early modern period, sailors on merchant vessels were more likely to work on 'shares' than for a fixed wage.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
That mealy mouthed hypocrite, Thomas Jefferson, is not one of my favorites among the founders of the US!
Ad astra! Sean
Yes, but that's not relevant to the thread.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Well, you did mention Jefferson and his fantasies about sturdy, independent yeomen!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: yes, but that was an old trope and widespread long before Tom J. took it up. Poul uses it, come to that.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
True, except PA used that trope much more plausibly and realistically than Jefferson did.
Ad astra! Sean
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