"The Seventh Voyage" by Statislav Lern

-
In a fun short story, Stanislav Lern comments on the utility of relying on other people, particularly those in government you might elect to represent your interests. In The Seventh Voyage, other beings claiming to represent himself and his own interests actually end up delaying his salvation far longer than needed be.

Every individual in the story thought that he knew better than his counterparts and would actively try to oppose them to prove it. Seniority never mattered to the younger versions, and the older versions seemed too preoccupied with their claimed superiority to want to cooperate with the demands of the younger versions. At one point, two characters looked at a door, expecting the other to open it. Neither of them did.

You would think that having lived through it, he would see the flaw in what was about to happen in interacting with his past self, as he had already seen it from the other end. And yet, each time he tries, and each time he fails. He resorts to lying and deception, eventually violence, to try to get what he wants. It isn't hard to see the parallels to government here.

People in government get comfortable with lying, with allowing violence, just to get what they think is best and to reach for power they don't deserve with a supposed superiority they think they have over others. In the story, characters even try to form a council, but that only led to more lies, confusion, and refusals to cooperate.

The Seventh Voyage had a parable-like feel to it, as if meant to tell a moral. Science fiction, here, replace the usual fantasy elements of fables, swapping spaceships for talking animals as tools to represent what the author is trying to convey.

The way that I connected to this piece at first was a constant battle with myself. As someone who constantly second-guesses myself or holds myself back with my anxiety, I was able to relate to our protagonist's frustration with being confined by your own flaws or obstacles. However I don't believe this to be the intended interpretation. Or, perhaps this was the surface-level interpretation that those who weren't meant to see the government commentary beneath were meant to notice and be satisfied with.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Characterization of Relationships in "Interview With A Vampire"

-
One of the most fascinating aspects of Interview With A Vampire by Anne Rice is it's cast of characters and their interactions. Vibrant contrast is offered between the three main characters, and between the vampires and the world around them. Interestingly enough, the vampires of both this world and in the film Only Lovers Left Alive consider themselves superior to humans in every apparent way. Even Louis grew tired of the ways of man more quickly than he'd like himself to believe. However, this relationship differs between the two works as the vampires in Only Lovers Left Alive tended to see themselves as higher, more spiritually aware, almost celestial beings, while in Interview they tend to see themselves as hunters with humans as prey. Both works gravitated to a culture of a small group of vampires rather than large communities. The small group in Interview functioned not unlike a family, despite the idea of a family with two fathers being typically viewed as unacceptab
Read more

The Pros and Cons of Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Left Hand of Darkness"

-
The Left Hand of Darkness was the first book I've read this semester that I've had very mixed feelings about. For a number of reasons, I found this book to be successful, but to an equal degree, found it lacking. One thing that I do adore about this book is the bold exploration of gender and sexuality. Written during a time where anyone not straight and cisgender was likely to be ostracized, The Left Hand of Darkness stands in contrast. To allow even closed minded readers to undestand, Le Guin places you into another planet, as a foreigner. You are a human from Earth, dropped in the middle of a new world and struggle to interact with other beings that are entirely new to you. She does this purposefully, to place you into an entirely new frame of mind and rid you of your preconceptions about what a person is and what their gender and sexuality might be. In many ways, this was very successful, but in some ways I found this to falter. While I adore that the creatures are ase
Read more

The Universe of "The Stars, My Destination" by Alfred Bester

-
The degree of worldbuilding exhibited in The Stars, My Destination by Alfred Bester was astounding. From my perspective, it seems like the author decided to implant a few drastic changes to our current reality, and simply let the rest of the universe fall into place around it. In The Stars, those changes were the setting, and the ability of humans to teleport. He considered every possible way that our reality would be affected by these two changes. Everything from planetary systems as a whole to the individual man or women would be affected by these changes. How would we go to work? Without a need for public transportation, people in The Stars have created platforms with black and white symbols for easier memorization to aid their daily "jaunte". But, then, what happens to manual forms of transportation? You would think that cars and bikes would become extinct. However, ever more appropriate is the conclusion that Bester came to: in a world where everything moves in a
Read more