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While I have the floor, here's a question that's been bothering me for some time. Why do so few writers of heroic or epic fantasy ever deal with the fundamental quandary of their novels . . . that so many of them take place in cultures that are rigid, hierarchical, stratified, and in essence oppressive? What is so appealing about feudalism, that so many free citizens of an educated commonwealth like ours love reading about and picturing life under hereditary lords? Why should the deposed prince or princess in every clichéd tale be chosen to lead the quest against the Dark Lord? Why not elect a new leader by merit, instead of clinging to the inbred scions of a failed royal line? Why not ask the pompous, patronizing, "good" wizard for something useful, such as flush toilets, movable type, or electricity for every home in the kingdom? Given half a chance, the sons and daughters of peasants would rather not grow up to be servants. It seems bizarre for modern folk to pine for a way of life our ancestors rightfully fought desperately to escape.


David Brin


#feudalism #writing #education



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In the "Uplift" novels humans are economically and technologically the weakest spacefaring race and are an anomaly since they have no apparent "patron" species responsible for their uplift from animal pre-sapience (Whether their patron abandoned them or whether humans gained sentience on their own is never definitively settled). Brin has confirmed that this notion in part underscores the notion of humans as "caretakers" of sentient-species-yet-to-be as he explains in a concluding note at the end of Startide Rising; and it plays a key role in The Uplift War where the Thennanin are converted from enemies to allies of the Terragens (humans and other sapients that originated on Earth) when they realize that making the world a better place and being good caretakers are core values of both civilizations. On Star Wars Brin focused on what he called George Lucas's "agenda" describing how he saw the basis of the Star Wars universe as profoundly anti-democratic.

D. He has received the HugoLocusCampbell and Nebula Awards.

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