We feel that Rugi deserves to go somewhere but he can't. He exists only in this single short story and dies before it ends. His life is complete, as Aycharaych would say. (This is an esoteric reference to the Dominic Flandry series within Poul Anderson's Technic History. Search this blog for "Aycharaych." More specifically, Reflections On Death.)
Rugi reflects that human beings:
"...felt guilty for what their grandparents had done, as if that could change matters." (p. 24)
It can't. Guilt for what our ancestors did is pointless (bad) or self-indulgent (worse). But something practical could have been done about compensation while even one member of the exterminated species remained alive.
What will the New Terran colonists do now that Rugi has drowned? Will they erect a monument to the last native, especially since his dying act had been to save the life of a human child who had tormented him?
"'...your ancestors...killed the prophets, and you build their tombs.'" (Lk, 11:48)
(A Biblical text can be pertinent even when Anderson does not quote it.)
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I seriously doubt the human conquerors/colonists of New Terra will raise any kind of memorial to Rugi. First, doing so could too easily "disturb" any of these humans who still had living memories of the race they exterminated, troubling whatever lingering pangs of conscience they for what was done. Because most of us don't want to be reminded of our wickedness. Second, as generations and centuries pass Rugi's race will be forgotten, becoming one with Nineveh and Tyre.
Ad astra! Sean
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