Posted by Michael Reynolds on November 08, 1996 at 13:27:22:
Sorry, I have no E-mail address yet (I am writing this from the library), but if anyone cares to post a reply, I will check this site periodically.
Am I way off base, or does the "Anome" trilogy have a racist subtext? It's a painful question, because I admire the heck out of Vance and his works (Why else would I be on this site, after all?), but think about: the red-skinned Rogushkoi, completely savage, unreachable by reason, who live only to eat, drink, kill, and breed with human women ( and the offspring are not human, or hybrid, but simply more Rogushkoi). Plus, they inhabit the "Wildlands", at the center of Vanc's continent--i.e., read "inner city" over which the civilized travelers pass by the baloonway. Anyway, the paralells are unfortunately numerous to ant-black racist ideology. I do hope that it's subsconscious on JV's part, and not deliberate. Still, one recalls "The Grey Prince" with its thinly-disguised parallel to the Rhodesia situation.....
Well, sorry to be the proverbial skunk at the garden party, but does anyone else out there (in there?) have any thoughts or comments on this? Refute me, please!