Sarkozy and Me

[Daniel Harper]

M&D has quite a bit on slavery, and I think P's perspective is pretty much
always on the side of the oppressed, regardless of situation. In general, P
seems to consider race/religion/gender discrimination to be important, but
perhaps only facets of the larger forms of oppression of oligarchal social
structures that put aristocrats on top of ordinary people.

One of my favorite bits of the book comes early on, with Austra, a
slave-woman who is forced to bear children of Cornelius Vroom. From page 65
of the hardcover:

[Mason]"Why, in England, no one has the right to bid another to bear a
> _child_."
> [Austra]"Poh. White Wives are much alike, and all their Secrets are common
> knowledge at the Market. Many have there been, oblig'd to go on bearing
> children, -- for no other reason but the man's pride."
> "Our Women are free."
> "'Our'? Oh, hark yourself, -- how is English Marriage any different from
> the Service I'm already in?"
> "You must marry an Englishman, and see."
> "Not today, Sailor..." (she continues on from there, but it's not relevant
> to this point)


I don't remember the mistreatment of blacks in Vineland, but I have a hard
time believing the man who wrote the above would not be completely
sympathetic to the rights and humanity of people of all colors.

--Daniel

(This is from Mike's old message, but I messed up the attributions when
quoting.)

>
> and got to admit, very little in his further works following
> on or adding to the insights: the blacks in Vineland are, um
> (though 'tis my fave book), not the most sympathetically portrayed;
> the treatment of race in GR is appropriate for the nature of
> the main character and the narrative, and the meditations of
> Enzian; perhaps the Secret Integration holds the key to some sort
> of resolution that he reached, to stop preaching on that topic?
>
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