When a receiver is activated:
"...the image formed, three-dimensional in the air..." (p. 665)
That is some communication technology they have there.
On Lokon, some members of the Allied Planets expeditionary force are with the highland barbarians whereas others have gone down among the jungle savages. The highlander leader pronounces:
"'The savages are our enemies too. They are vermin. Our ancestors caught some and made them slaves, but they are good for nothing else.'" (p. 676)
A fine objective assessment! The "vermin" are fellow human beings living in even more impoverished conditions.
I grew up in a provincial town in the 1950s where it was put into my head that manual workers living on public housing estates were almost the enemies of professional people - us - living in big, privately owned houses up the hill. Fortunately, I also received an education that broadened my perspective.
9 comments:
And the highlanders "raise" slaves as cattle, very literally.
Interesting that all of Anderson's "post-collapse" stories turn on environmental factors, and three of the four involve human populations that have - essentially - gone down one or more "alleys" because of heredity, biology, environment, or all of the above.
Piper's set had different post-collapse issues, none of which really involved (interestingly enough) any "alleys" because of biology - and Piper and (early) Anderson, although of different generations and educations, were writing for similar audiences.
The Piper tales that depend the most on environmental factors, of course, are the "Fuzzy" stories, which are about the most "non" thud and blunder of any of his works.
Interesting, that. ;)
Kaor, Paul and Dave!
Paul: We should not expect peoples hostile to each other to have complimentary views of the other tribe. And, on Lokon, the highlanders had clawed their way to a higher level of culture than the bone-thru-the-nose savagery of the lowlanders. But readers would soon discover the special problem causing life to be so precarious on Lokon.\
Dave: To my regret I no longer have the first two of Piper's LITTLE FUZZY books. I discarded them because of thinking them too sappy sentimental. My error!
Ad astra! Sean
All genres of fiction are equally valid, and may be done well or badly; and 'mainstream' fiction is just another genre.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
True, but I find most "mainstream" literature boring. To exaggerate it seems to be mostly about middle class angst or sexual kinks/hangups. Boring!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Could you tell us the titles of some of these angst/hang-ups novels? I might check them out.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
One I immediately thought of and actually read was V.C. Andrews' FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC. Her works were or are popular with many readers.
Ad astra! Sean
Thank you.
Sean - Piper is (generally) entertaining and (at times) thoughtful, and was actually a lot better at writing believable women AND acknowledging the realities of the human population that would be populating his imagined universe than a lot of his peers and more than a few of his successors; not bad for any writer. ;)
Kaor, Dave!
Going by the too few of Piper's short stories I did read, I agree.
Ad astra! Sean
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