OT means "on topic" in this case. :-)
Lately John reposted some of DB's old polemics against what he considers
archaic and immoral forms of storytelling. It just occurred to me that it
might be interesting to discuss a little bit how DB's style strives to
eschew the cliches he abhors.
In particular, DB dislikes the "superhuman hero who must save the world"
motif because it implies that ordinary people working together are
ultimately powerless to improve their fate. We know that DB's books tend
to show an optimistic view of the human/sentient potential for
positive-sum cooperation & competition over the long haul. In the Uplift
books, contstant POV changes reinforce the idea that no one protagonist
shoulders the burden alone (with the possible exception of Jacob Demwa in
Sundiver). Individual decisions may have a huge impact, but no individual
is permitted to dominate the story overall. Tom Orley, possibly the
closest thing we've seen to the superhuman hero, even gets left behind in
a manner that makes me wonder if DB is making a statement...something
like, "Compared to the species, we're all expendable."
Indeed, a focus on species rather than nations or subcultures seems to
drive DB's storytelling, hence the novelty of Earth in the eyes of
Galactics for whom culture and species are nearly interchangeable terms.
There ought to be some deep consequences from shifting the focus of people
from culture to species, aside from finding ethnicity writ large, but I
have to go do some work now....
Marvin Long
Austin, Texas
