Saturday, 1 February 2014 07:03 pm
Book Review: Earthman's Burden
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deckardcanineOops, I'd said before that I wanted to give priority to a Poul Anderson book because he died recently. He actually died in 2001, and I was thinking of Frederik Pohl, who died last September. Oh well, I still felt a need to get acquainted with Poul, even if I can't tell how much of this work was his rather than that of Gordon R. Dickson (who also died in 2001).
The most relevant feature of EB is its introduction of the Hoka race. These natives of Planet Toka look close to teddy bears, about half the height of a common human, and are somewhat childlike in their naivety and playfulness, so some humans find them cute -- but not the ones who have to spend much time around them. Oh, they nearly worship humans and would probably never try to harm one (or each other, tho they may kill more threatening races). It's just that they keep adapting their cultures to match Earth's pulpiest fiction to the best of their ability; you can't walk among them without getting swept up in a romanticized world, which can make serious matters difficult to address.
The human protagonist, Ensign Alexander Braithwaite Jones, learns as much the hard way. In each chapter (or short story, but they come in decidedly chronological order), he deals with a new artificial Hoka culture. Even after more than a decade on Toka, Hokas keep surprising him, usually unpleasantly. Scenarios that can hardly be called his fault jeopardize his career, love, and/or life until he either figures out how to game the system or gets a lucky break. Why stick with these stressors for so long? Because in his experience, no one else suffices as an imperial ambassador.
The six stories were published in the '50s, so you might imagine the pulp cliches they satirize. Just extrapolating from the concept of "White Man's Burden" is pretty old-fashioned in itself. Politically incorrect? Well, the Hokas' ill-informed portrayals of cultures shouldn't offend you; I was more concerned about how little we see of females, human or otherwise.
Nevertheless, I think EB still works well as farce. Between the dialog and the narration, I must have smiled every couple pages on average. I don't think I'll look into more Hoka stories, but I will check out more of Poul Anderson.
For my next read, I picked up probably the oldest text I've chosen outside of school and religious studies: The Art of War by Sun Tzu, with translation and commentary by Lionel Giles. Let's see how dated THAT is.
The most relevant feature of EB is its introduction of the Hoka race. These natives of Planet Toka look close to teddy bears, about half the height of a common human, and are somewhat childlike in their naivety and playfulness, so some humans find them cute -- but not the ones who have to spend much time around them. Oh, they nearly worship humans and would probably never try to harm one (or each other, tho they may kill more threatening races). It's just that they keep adapting their cultures to match Earth's pulpiest fiction to the best of their ability; you can't walk among them without getting swept up in a romanticized world, which can make serious matters difficult to address.
The human protagonist, Ensign Alexander Braithwaite Jones, learns as much the hard way. In each chapter (or short story, but they come in decidedly chronological order), he deals with a new artificial Hoka culture. Even after more than a decade on Toka, Hokas keep surprising him, usually unpleasantly. Scenarios that can hardly be called his fault jeopardize his career, love, and/or life until he either figures out how to game the system or gets a lucky break. Why stick with these stressors for so long? Because in his experience, no one else suffices as an imperial ambassador.
The six stories were published in the '50s, so you might imagine the pulp cliches they satirize. Just extrapolating from the concept of "White Man's Burden" is pretty old-fashioned in itself. Politically incorrect? Well, the Hokas' ill-informed portrayals of cultures shouldn't offend you; I was more concerned about how little we see of females, human or otherwise.
Nevertheless, I think EB still works well as farce. Between the dialog and the narration, I must have smiled every couple pages on average. I don't think I'll look into more Hoka stories, but I will check out more of Poul Anderson.
For my next read, I picked up probably the oldest text I've chosen outside of school and religious studies: The Art of War by Sun Tzu, with translation and commentary by Lionel Giles. Let's see how dated THAT is.
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