In emergency conditions, one destitute guy would rather starve than work for City Hall:
"'Sweeping streets, hauling garbage, trucking in food...'" (p. 59)
Corinth tells him to starve. An extreme case? Natural selection at work?
I would jump at the chance to drive a food truck although I would have to haul garbage if that was what was needed. And we would be building a better society in which drudgery would be eliminated and creative forms of employment would flourish. We are going to have to do this in any case, increase in intelligence or no increase in intelligence.
In this novel, Poul Anderson follows Wells not only in writing about the future but also in describing a better future. This is the true Wellsian tradition that CS Lewis propagandized against. Read Wells, Stapledon, Lewis, Heinlein, Blish and Anderson and see what you think.
What kind of future lies ahead of us? No one knows.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Except, at our ages, I don't think we, Stirling, and Jim are strong enough to haul garbage.
Ad astra! Sean
Oh, I'm in better shape than I've been since my 20's -- I work out about an hour a day six days a week.
For most of my life I have made a point of getting some fairly vigorous exercise in almost every day. Either strength training with weights, or something aerobic such as a bike ride or xc-ski if outdoor conditions are right for those. So I could probably do manual labor like that, though not lift quite as much as an athlete in his 20s.
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