We see some "strange bedfellows." Sevigny is kidnapped by:
a representative of the Fatimite Brotherhood which holds that terraforming defiles the Moon;
a leading member of the Indian Conservationist Party which wants its country, not the Moon, to be reclaimed;
the chairman of a company that will fertilize Terrestrial deserts if the Moon is abandoned.
We are reminded of the disparate anti-UN alliance in Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History.
Helped by his dirrel, Sevigny grabs the gun that has been held on him and escapes - an Andersonian action scene.
Hurrying through city streets, Sevigny gapes at shop display windows and thinks:
"Was such luxury possible on an Earth that everyone called impoverished? Wait. Remember your history classes. Inordinate wealth for a few has always gone along with inordinate want for the many. Because the many no longer have the economic strength to resist...." (p. 197)
Surely we, living in Terrestrial history, take that for granted. However, for Sevigny, coming from a frontier society, it is a history lesson.
Even Anderson's action scenes are reflective.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I can easily believe in peculiar alliances of "strange bedfellows"! There are plenty of real world analogs of such alliances of convenience.
Again we get a hint of the STAND ON ZANZIBAR scenario, which is increasingly unconvincing.
Ad astra! Sean
Frontiers usually have more economic opportunities than established societies. One of the things English common people remarked on when moving to the US (or Canada or Australia or New Zealand) was that food was much more abundant and cheaper.
I've read a collection of letters from emigrants to New Zealand in the 1870's to people back home. One thing they emphasize is that the emigrants eat meat every day and own their own homes and land -- unthinkable for rural laborers in England in the 1870's.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
My late online ex-RAF friend, Bruce Binnie, personally experienced that, remarking to me that he was amazed at the size of the steak he first had in Canada.
Ad astra! Sean
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