September 16, 2008

• All Knowledge

  One of my favorite authors in recent years is Jacqueline Carey. The books of hers that are my favorite are called Banewreaker and Godslayer but that’s only because she wrote both of these books in a completely unique style that I loved. They were all like: “Boros, Storm Bringer forged the great sword Light Smiter and hid it deep within the Whispering caverns where Merlos, third-born did find it and brought it forth to smite the followers of darkness.”  OK that’s an absolutely horrible pathetic approximation of her style in these books. But then she’s about a bazillion times better a writer than me so no surprise there. But it should give you an idea anyway. The prose in these books is just plain beautiful.

  Anyways, those are my favorite of her books, but her more popular books are in two trilogies wherein all the titles have the name “Kushiel” in them. Kushiel’s Dart, Kushiel’s Avatar, Kushiel’s Justice, etc. These are more traditional high fantasy… Only different.

  The cool thing about these books is that they describe a fascinating society of a people called the D’Angelines. The D’Angelines are all descended from fallen angels, basically. Not devils exactly, but angels who chose to walk the Earth in human guise following Elua who was the son of Jesus or something like that (technically, born when the blood of the crucified Yeshua ben Yosef, the son of the One God, mixed with the tears of the Magdalene and then was quickened by Mother Earth, for those sticklers out there).

  But what interests me about the D’Angelines is that I’m pretty sure that society is a pretty close approximation of where modern societies are heading thanks to changes in social perceptions, traditions, and the development of modern technology.  You see the D’Angeline society has the following benefits:

  1. D’Angelines are all beautiful (duh, angels)
  2. D’Angelines hardly ever get sick at all, are immune to most diseases (again angels)
  3. D’Angelines can’t get pregnant unless they choose to. (They have to say a special prayer.)
  4. D’Angelines are taught from an early age to believe in the fundamental principal of “Love as thou wilt” (Elua’s precept)

  Obviously when you combine the physical advantages with the cultural traditions of accepting and not placing restrictions on how people express love, you get an exceedingly open and liberal society by modern metrics. Much that has been taboo in America and other parts of the world is not only allowed but allowed *openly* and institutionalized in the culture.

  And yet their society does not descend into a hell of unrestrained debauchery and self destruct. Huh. Go figure.

  Now D’Angelines aren’t perfect. Many of them are arrogant, prideful and unforgiving. It’s sounding more and more like modern day America every minute isn’t it?  But they also support a kind of wage slavery or indentured servitude that is, to me at least, rather disturbing. Especially since it applies to children and orphans. But no one is treated badly. And they are fundamentally in principal opposed to traditional slavery without the possibility of earning your freedom. Elua taught against it or some such.

  Well you can see why I think we’re going to be a lot like this society in the far future right? Technology will ultimately enable us to match 2 and 3. And maybe even do better than 3 since in Carey’s books the women have control over whether they can get pregnant. But we can imagine nano robots being injected into all human beings so that men AND women can turn them off or on as they will to determine whether or not they are able to create life. Or less sophisticated just increasingly effective and full proof methods of birth control on both sides of the spectrum becomes more and more universally available.

  Beauty is hard to judge since it’s subjective, but genetic engineering and cosmetic surgery, plus mass media indoctrination can allow 1 to come true too. Well we have a fast food and obesity issue standing in the way of it to some extent but I don’t doubt those problems can be solved too.

  So that leaves 4. Well people are stupid. So I think 4 will take a long long long time. People don’t want to let people do what they want. Power comes from imposing restrictions. But thankfully since we DO live in something resembling a democracy, ultimately as 1,2, and 3 occur you can pretty much expect 4 to become the defacto standard as popular opinion and basic human logic causes people to adopt it. People really WANT to be able to pursue their own joy and happiness. They surely aren’t going to adopt principles that restrict their ability to do that when there is no good logical reason to anymore. So they’ll eventually just let people “love as thou wilt” so that they themselvs can too.

  And you know, all of this is already happening in fact. Albeit slowly. Actually not that slowly. Compare today to 20 years ago and you can see we’re *much* more D’Angeline as a whole than we were then. Where will we be in another 50 years? Maybe even far beyond D’Angeline in social openness.

  Now I don’t think these books cover everything. And it’s easier for this society because they aren’t built out of more restrictive traditions. Meaning there is no social guilt or generational barriers to tear down for them. So the people don’t go through shock and social angst and guilt like people in modern society often do when they transcend old behavioral barriers that are in the process of being torn down.  And also not enough in the books covers how children are raised in that society. Which is of course one of the trickiest issues facing modern society as we grow in openness and acceptance. How do you instill values at the right times without overwhelming kids with more than they are ready to handle? How can you ensure that children retain a time of innocence and have time to be “kids” while still having a society that is open, non-secretive, and virtually all allowing.

  Interesting thoughts and questions to be sure. But they do not detract from the quality of what is underlying all of this just a great traditional story of high fantasy, magic, and adventure. It’s basically just a good story even if you just think of it as a silly imaginative society that could never exist in the “real” world.

  One of my favorite character in these books has a favorite saying it goes like this:

  “All Knowledge is worth having”

  I think about this all the time and I think I’ve always sort of believed in this. All Knowledge is worth having. And a natural corollary to that is All Experiences are worth having. Or at least all NEW experiences are worth having. Since you can’t help but learn *something* from them.

  But in spite of my belief in knowledge, I don’t think I’ve been much inclined to seek out new experiences. Quite the opposite I’ve had more of a wait and see kind of approach. I let experiences come to me. I don’t rock the boat. That’s had some advantages for me. For example it’s because of that that I have enough money to help people in spite of being somewhat reckless with my expenditures. I don’t do anything risky enough to really cut deeply into my expenses. Still, I wonder sometimes if the lack of knowledge isn’t the greater risk and the deeper loss.

  Well the great thing about knowledge is that you can always find more of it if you look. The question is where to look next? 

  I know where you should look next. If you haven’t read any of Jacqueline Carey’s books, you should. Right now! All experience… all knowledge is worth having. And reading these books is an experience I can bet you won’t regret!

  • 10:49 am
  • 5 Comments