Hello, Roy;

27 Dec 04 12:21, Roy J. Tellason wrote to Robert Bull:

 KS>>> CBIP: _Paladins_ by Joel Rosenberg.  Almost didn't read this one

 RT> He was in this echo for a while some years back.

Must have been before my time.  Eight to ten years ago, I couldn't even 
keep up with the local UK equivalent of this echo, let alone the vast 
traffic flow here.  But now, it's -too- quiet...  :-(

Must have been lots of other authors here then, e.g. Patricia Wrede?

 RB>> Maybe hierarchies, which ultimately have a head, are the normal
 RB>> way for human society to run?

 RT> I certainly hope not!

 RT> There are other ways of arranging things,  though.  Some years back I
 RT> happened to find an anthropology textbook,  and it was an interesting
 RT> read,  for the contrasts.  I should probably dig it out and add it to
 RT> my to-reread pile (which never seems to get very much smaller :-).

Whatever you do, alpha males still seem to like to lock horns and grunt...

 RT> I'm not familiar with any of those.  But that seems to be happening
 RT> too often these days anyway,  I get the feeling that the field has
 RT> moved on and left me behind,  somewhat.  Or maybe it's just the
 RT> fantasy side of things.

I once heard someone say much the same about pop music.  His taste had got 
stuck around 1967, and never changed thereafter.  He said this in 1972
:-/

You could be right about the field leaving us behind.  I've found stories 
using virtual reality semi-incoherent, in that sometimes authors don't make 
a distinction between the real world and the virtual one, and I don't have 
the background to grasp much of the biotech-based stuff, with Paul McAuley 
an honourable exception.

I seem to be reading more and more fantasy and less SF, and there's no 
doubt that a great deal of very high-quality fantasy is being written now.

 RT> of a binge of Gordon R. Dickson -- somebody sent me a package with

 RT> my collection and re-read a bunch of the Dorsai and Childe Cycle

I'm not sure I'd much enjoy militaristic SF, but I haven't actually read 
and Gordon R. Dickson.

 RT> related stuff again.  Currently in the middle of The Chantry Guild,
 RT> where the central character is trying to figure out how things would
 RT> work without people harming each other to achieve their own ends.

Kate Elliot's fantasy series CROWN OF STARS (starts with KING'S DRAGON, 
though the "dragons" are the king's elite cavalry) contains an important 
chararacter whose study of sorcery centres on coercion.  She wants to make 
people do "what they know they really want to do anyway," i.e.,
do what she 
wants, but can't see the difference.

 RT> online forums who are actively exploring alternative ways of living
 RT> (see "thementalmilitia.org if you're interested in one such forum).

I'm too old to change, but good luck to them.  OTOH, I haven't forgotten 
all the defunct communes of the Sixties.

 RT> And this sort of exploration is one of the things that SF tends to
 RT> explore,  right?  How else things might work...

Right...  but maybe people aren't thinking much ATM, as SF seems to be 
lagging fantasy in popularity.  Then again, fantasy is as good a vehicle as  
any to explore things like alternative political systems and the abuse of 
power.

     Regards,

              Robert.

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