I need to see two things......Abner Doon coming into power, and The fall of the Somec Empire........
[ August 26, 2005, 12:17 PM: Message edited by: Orson Scott Card ]
Posted by LucyPevensie (Member # 8537) on :
yes yes. How exactly did Abner Doon get rid of Somec? did he ever tell people how painful it actually is? I dunno... I need to read Hot Sleep. anyone know where I can get a copy??
Posted by Orson Scott Card (Member # 209) on :
Hot Sleep doesn't answer that question, either.
I didn't show those things because at the time I was writing the Worthing stories, I knew I wasn't capable of showing the flow of world events in a science fiction story or novel. Geopolitics was so badly handled in fiction I was reading (cf. how embarrassing it is in Tom Clancy, and he's one of the best) that the only sure way I knew of to avoid those pitfalls was to leave it offstage.
It wasn't till the Shadow series that I felt well-read enough to deal with it in a way that would make for compelling reading while still making it realistic enough to pass muster. Readers, of course, are the judges of whether I succeeded in that. But I certainly would NOT have succeeded at the time I was writing the Worthing stories.
Posted by El JT de Spang (Member # 7742) on :
I just figured that when Doon pulled back the curtain and showed everyone how corrupted the sleephouse was, there'd be mass rioting/paranoia and no one would trust them anymore. It'd be like if on Monday the New York Times broke a story about Wall Street being totally corrupted, run by the rich, and with all the SEC regulations ignored....wait a minute!
Joking.
Of course Doon would do it just like Italy, let it all come out at once, or domino one quickly behind the other. Bring out all the corruption until the people had no choice but to destroy all somec-related infrastructure.
And the effect would actually probably be more like finding out the pope was a fraud, and the catholic church was secretly a for-profit organization that funded hate crimes and oil cartels.
Posted by CRash (Member # 7754) on :
quote: It wasn't till the Shadow series that I felt well-read enough to deal with it in a way that would make for compelling reading while still making it realistic enough to pass muster. Readers, of course, are the judges of whether I succeeded in that. But I certainly would NOT have succeeded at the time I was writing the Worthing stories.
So, hypothetically... you would be able to write about it now... expand the story... Hypothetically, of course.
(Can't you tell I'm a Worthing fan?) Posted by Superprime (Member # 8555) on :
I've read this forum for quite some time, as I have always ben a huge fan of the Ender series. Recently, however, I decided to try something new, so I just finished up The Worthing Saga and it was excellent. So I would have to agree with CRash's 'hypothetical' situation of expanding the story...I need more Abner Doon. Teehee.
Posted by Omega M. (Member # 7924) on :
I remember really liking The Worthing Saga when I read it, but I forget now---why did Abner Doon want to destroy the empire? He was more villian than hero, wasn't he?
Posted by LucyPevensie (Member # 8537) on :
well that's sort of the whole question... was he evil because he destroyed "somec", the thing that was allowing people to sleep in suspended animation and essentially live forever, or was he good because he destroyed the thing that was in essence killing humanity and was unknowingly incredibly painful for the people using it?
Posted by Orson Scott Card (Member # 209) on :
"there'd be mass rioting/paranoia and no one would trust them anymore"
You never know which cultures are going to riot, and over what. Much of the time, riots are planned. for instance, the Jakarta riots a few years back - trucks came and delivered piles of stones and bricks for the use of the rioters ... the next day.
Watergate didn't cause ANY riots. Salman Rushdie's novel caused riots, but how spontaneous were they?
I'm always skeptical about mass rioting in sci-fi novels. I always think: OK, who gains from the riots, and so who is inciting them?
Posted by Ramdac99 (Member # 7264) on :
also remember that not everyone had Somec privileges. those who had never been to the Sleephouses would gladly welcome a total loss of somec. the outcome, I would think, would be similar to when the elite of Path were placed on the same level as the commoners when Path was "healed". The upper class would no doubt have a big problem with it but the huddled riot-prone public wouldn't.
Posted by calaban (Member # 2516) on :
I don't think that merely the pain of somec would serve as a deterrent, because pain is only pain if it’s remembered. I think one of the major points made in the novel is that Capital was already decaying.
Unlike Nublers empire, the perfect model in Breaking the Game which Doon destroyed for practice, capital would have collapsed under the sheer weight of its own corrupt and self consuming beurocracy. I don't think Doon caused the destruction of the civilization so much as chose when it would happen. Ensuring that even if there were pockets of somec use the culture could not survive on a galactic level.
How could mere rioting lead to the destruction of the planet? There would have to be a complete breakdown of all infrastructures within the government, perhaps resulting in a strictly enforced martial law. Then there would be enough discord to incite more than mere riots but rebellion on a galactic level.
I envision the scope of the civil war that destroyed capital to be as immense as the concept of Capitol itself. I think a great number of stories could be told about the people who chose to fight on either side of the losing battle, not knowing that mutual annihilation was immanent.
![[Smile]](smile.gif)