On the Lunar surface, an airlock in a guarded, armoured dome leads to a tunnel down to a farm cavern with walls too far away to be seen. Overseen peasants tend green food plants in long rows of tanks. Slaves feed cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry near a slaughterhouse.
A winding ramp leads up past:
doorless lower-class compartments;
factories for the manufacture of weapons, tools, clothes etc plus ore-smelting and refining;
(the air factory, controlled by the Chief Engineer, is further up in the Temple);
a park, with grass, trees and roses, frequented by noble-class warriors, administrators and Engineers;
a level of spacious upper-class apartments with slaves and guards but gentlefolk in litters;
the richly furnished prince's home which has a high, muralled wall, spear-wielding sentries, a footman and a window high up in a larger surface dome.
Quite a place.
In which other works does Anderson show this kind of barbarism in a vacuum?
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Except for those slaves I did not think this kind of socio/political setup all that barbaric. I expect future human societies to go back and forth, up and down, and sideways!
Recall, Stirling discussed how some of the panjandrums ruling outlying satrapies of the later USSR were vastly worse, bringing back gladiatorial games where people were forced to fight wild beasts or each other. Plenty of savageries and barbarities in the real world right now!
Merry Christmas! Sean
Sean,
The outlaws living in tents on the surface are more barbaric than the city dwellers but the latter are entirely dependent on machines that they have inherited and cannot replace.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
It would be very bad if a society/civilization did not have a technologically literate class capable of maintaining/replacing worn out machinery.
Merry Christmas! Sean
Sean: it would require very unlikely circumstances to forget science. OTOH, unlikely things happen all the time.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree, and many unlikely are going to be bad. Also, too many US public schools are doing a terrible job teaching the basic elements of science. Or mere literacy!
Merry Christmas! Sean
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