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No, we're the People's Front of Komarr
Jul. 1st, 2011 01:25 pmBrothers in Arms is not my favourite of the Vorkosigan books. I don’t think the Earth setting particularly works – there seems very little reason actually to set it here, and little feeling of how earth has changed in the intervening period.
But mostly I am irritated by the general portrayal of the Komarran resistance/terrorists/freedom fighters. It just doesn't seem realistic - and I'm not talking about the clone technology.
It is approximately 30 years since Komarr was invaded and occupied by Barrayar, and ten years since the Komarr Revolt. But apparently the Komarran underground terrorist groups* are getting desperate because the younger generation is growing up without having known anything other than the Barrayaran jackboot (or are off living in exile on other planets), and there is a lack of interested recruits at home or abroad in changing the situation. Meanwhile old guys are getting tired of the struggle.
The local population is largely happy with the situation. The terrorists are giving up. After thirty years. After ten years.
It does rather make me wonder whether Lois McMaster Bujold has ever looked at a map of Europe. Or indeed a map of the world.**
To take an example from closer to home, I give you stories from today on the BBC news website:
Roslea Orange hall destroyed in blaze
Viable pipe bomb found near Strabane playpark
Incidentally, the BBC website history of the Troubles starts in 1167. Ten years seems a bit short, somehow.
So, a challenge: the fic of your choice to anyone who can come up with landmass A being invaded by the government of landmass B, and after 30 years from the start of the conflict the general population of B accepts the situation as de facto permanent and the resistance/independence groups (including groups engaged only in legal activities, legal being defined by the occupiers) are becoming moribund. You have all of Earth history to play with.
*I think that we have to assume that any groups wanting a Free Komarr are by definition underground and by Barrayaran definition terrorist.
**Of course, I could be wrong and we're meant to read Aral Vorkosigan as incredibly politically naive. One could also make interesting comments about the contrast of the portrayal of the Komarrans with the Vor who do in fact throw off the Cetagandans after twenty years without apparently getting bored in the meantime. Maybe they were just ordained to rule?
But mostly I am irritated by the general portrayal of the Komarran resistance/terrorists/freedom fighters. It just doesn't seem realistic - and I'm not talking about the clone technology.
It is approximately 30 years since Komarr was invaded and occupied by Barrayar, and ten years since the Komarr Revolt. But apparently the Komarran underground terrorist groups* are getting desperate because the younger generation is growing up without having known anything other than the Barrayaran jackboot (or are off living in exile on other planets), and there is a lack of interested recruits at home or abroad in changing the situation. Meanwhile old guys are getting tired of the struggle.
The local population is largely happy with the situation. The terrorists are giving up. After thirty years. After ten years.
It does rather make me wonder whether Lois McMaster Bujold has ever looked at a map of Europe. Or indeed a map of the world.**
To take an example from closer to home, I give you stories from today on the BBC news website:
Roslea Orange hall destroyed in blaze
Viable pipe bomb found near Strabane playpark
Incidentally, the BBC website history of the Troubles starts in 1167. Ten years seems a bit short, somehow.
So, a challenge: the fic of your choice to anyone who can come up with landmass A being invaded by the government of landmass B, and after 30 years from the start of the conflict the general population of B accepts the situation as de facto permanent and the resistance/independence groups (including groups engaged only in legal activities, legal being defined by the occupiers) are becoming moribund. You have all of Earth history to play with.
*I think that we have to assume that any groups wanting a Free Komarr are by definition underground and by Barrayaran definition terrorist.
**Of course, I could be wrong and we're meant to read Aral Vorkosigan as incredibly politically naive. One could also make interesting comments about the contrast of the portrayal of the Komarrans with the Vor who do in fact throw off the Cetagandans after twenty years without apparently getting bored in the meantime. Maybe they were just ordained to rule?