When Storm asks whether a man from Lockridge's past could:
"'...really feel what the basic difference is that divides East and West in your time?'" (p. 34)
- Lockridge replies:
"'I reckon not... In fact quite a few of our own don't seem to see it.'" (ibid.)
What that means is that Lockridge has his opinion and other people have theirs but Lockridge's way of expressing this is to claim that he understands the East-West division whereas the others do not! It would probably be difficult to get him to accept that there are more than two perspectives on the issue.
In 1916, Irish Republicans proclaimed, "We serve neither King nor Kaiser but Ireland!" I cite that as a (perhaps) less controversial way to make a point. When many people have been persuaded that there are two and only two sides, it is possible to claim allegiance to a third. Again, "England's disadvantage is Ireland's advantage..."
Lockridge is taken far away from the Cold War, first into the Wardens-Rangers conflict of the future, then into the Bronze Age.
9 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Of course there can be many sides in disputes, controversies, conflicts, etc. I also believe some sides are better than others and should have won the wars or conflicts where they were defeated.
Ad astra! Sean
Of course some sides are better than others but it also possible to have a simplistic good guys-bad guys attitude to everything.
Kaor, Paul!
I can agree with that much. However, fiercely fought conflicts, political or otherwise comes with that kind of simplification by rival sides, as a means of summarizing what the conflicts might be about.
Ad astra! Sean
I doubt Ireland would have been comfortable in a universe in which the Germans won WWI. Harry Turtledove did a rather credible story about that in his young-adult series, the one titled CURIOUS NOTIONS.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Absolutely! And that would be vastly even more true if National Socialist German had won WW II. Sometimes the devil you know is better than the devil you don't know.
Ad astra! Sean
For that matter, what's the actual difference between living in Bristol and living in Wexford? Well, Wexford has bilingual signs in a language that virtually nobody speaks anymore. Apart from that, very little.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
No matter how much some of the Irish huff and puff, Gaelic is a dying language.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: true. The thing is that. people learn languages because they're -useful-. In the 'old days' a local dialect was useful. Now, not so much.
The only successful resurrection of a dead language is Hebrew in Israel -- and that was because the Jews migrating there had many different languages and needed one to communicate with each other.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Utility is what makes a language useful. Mere sentimentality is not enough.
I agree, the refugee Jews who founded modern day Israel needed a common language, and Hebrew was the obvious choice. It also helped that the preservation of Hebrew for scholarly and liturgical purposes encouraged its expansion for everyday use.
Ad astra! Sean
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