5HC : Free People

James Wynn · 05 Feb 2005, 09:46 · from 2005-February.txt.gz

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From: thewynns at earthlink.net (James Wynn)
Date: Sat Feb  5 09:46:27 2005
Subject: (urth) 5HC : Free People
References: <20050205032907.71220.qmail at web25704.mail.ukl.yahoo.com>
Message-ID: <001701c50baa$9d193d30$4c1e4b0a at vcorp.ad.vrsn.com>

>I am sure GW also poses the arguments for slavery in
>the Sun series and if you missed them then I am not
>sure what to say.

"Posing arguments for" and advocating to two very different things. In The
Short Sun, Marrow offers *justifications* for slavery, but Wolfe presents
Marrow as part of the problem on Blue, not the wise solution-maker. Remember
that many people were captured and impressed in to slavery as soon as they
got off the ships.

The "slaves" in The Long Sun are the chems, and it is difficult to see any
aspect of their existence as anything but heartbreaking...I direct you to
Silk's discussion with Horn on the airship or Hammerstone's conversation
with Silk.

So, while Wolfe may POSE arguments in the Silk segment, I don't think he
ARGUES for it. Even in Soldier of the Mist, Io PRETENDS to be Latro's slave
but he consistently denies she is. This is not slavery. What she wants is
not be his slave but his lover (which might have some embedded commentary on
romantic love, but not slavery). I don't know what terrible life she was
supposedly escaping by RUNNING AWAY FROM HER MASTERS with Latro, but her
'slavery' to Latro did not protect her from a Fate Worse Than Death, since
she was eventually raped by Helots and sold into slavery to the Spartans.

In the Soldier stories Wolfe is only attempting to present the Greeks they
way they saw themselves. He NEVER justified slavery. He is said that modern
people should not feel morally SUPERIOR for not having slavery considering
the Holocaust, Khmer Rouge, Stalin, Mao, Dresden, etc etc etc.

~ Crush

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