Posted by Dan Gunter on July 19, 1999 at 22:26:13:
In Reply to: Is the BBS black angels of penatance have descended posted by Testing on July 19, 1999 at 13:53:58:
: Has the board been purged of wrong thinkers, or is it dead?
I think it's me. My last post send everyone into a coma; or perhaps they all inflicted upon themselves the Spell of Forlorn Encystment.
Maybe I could say something outrageous and wake Nick, Martin, Willem, and David Rose from their fretful slumbers. How about this: Gastel Etzwane's political changes to Shant in "The Brave Free Men" represent Vance's political thinking: a bicameral system with a president selected by the literally "patrician" upper house: something like the original Constitution. The first two Durdane books show the potential flaws in a weak federal system (like the U.S. system under the Articles of Confederation). Vance posits the federal government as a defender of individual rights against local systems that inflict various wrongs on women and the poor. The withe-cutting camps are perhaps analogues to the prison camps of the southern United
States (Parchman Farm, the prison camps on the Brazos River, where cane was cut). This system--in which the central government defends individual rights--is potentially a reflection of U.S. conditions toward the end of the Warren/Burger Court era, when "The Anome" was initially published.
Nick, start firing; but remember that Vance's thinking--colored though it may be by his knowledge of European and other world history--must nevertheless reflect his experience in the United States.