Between the devil and the deep blue sea, or how I learned to stop worrying and love Marc Remillard
One of the things that Julian May's Galactic Milieu novels do manage to do fairly well, among the disappointments of the things that they don't*, is convey a sense of the dystopian qualities of the totalitarian paradise that is the GM. The GM is mostly benevolent, mostly extremely benevolent, right up to the point that you don't fit in. Meanwhile if you are one of the favoured few deemed important to the future of its vision of humanity you can get away with murder - hell, you can get away with genocide - as long as you are more important to the Milieu than justice for the victim. The rebels, especially the majority that don't know about Marc's more bonkers de-skulling baby plans, have some sound ideas about what is wrong with the Milieu, even with the downside that following them means that you end up vulnerable to the ethical whims of a man who thinks it is fine to de-skull babies.
Not, of course, that you can avoid that by staying loyal to the Milieu. Because that's the ultimate irony of the series. The choice humanity faces is:
- loyalty to a system that is ultimately subject to what Marc Remillard thinks is right.
OR
- loyalty to a system that is ultimately subject to what Marc Remillard thinks is right. Also, Marc is now god.
No wonder young Marc's ideas on body modification and the need to help evolution along by breeding superior humans mostly fit pretty well within the Mileu's overall ideology - he came up with the latter himself. It's just that later!Marc has had more time to consider the better PR in playing the long game.
*Like make Jack or Diamond the slightest bit interesting as people. I wanted to care, but I couldn't.
This entry was originally posted at http://nineveh-uk.dreamwidth.org/176685.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Not, of course, that you can avoid that by staying loyal to the Milieu. Because that's the ultimate irony of the series. The choice humanity faces is:
- loyalty to a system that is ultimately subject to what Marc Remillard thinks is right.
OR
- loyalty to a system that is ultimately subject to what Marc Remillard thinks is right. Also, Marc is now god.
No wonder young Marc's ideas on body modification and the need to help evolution along by breeding superior humans mostly fit pretty well within the Mileu's overall ideology - he came up with the latter himself. It's just that later!Marc has had more time to consider the better PR in playing the long game.
*Like make Jack or Diamond the slightest bit interesting as people. I wanted to care, but I couldn't.
This entry was originally posted at http://nineveh-uk.dreamwidth.org/176685.html. Please comment there using OpenID.