Re: Anyone read Stirling's latest?

On Jul 21, 2:16 am, "Mike stone" <mwst...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> "prestorjon" <prestor...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
>
> news:2d02df28-d54c-4776-9a92-c3c859df612f@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> On Jun 4, 1:34 am, Steve <joatsim...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
>
>
> >> -- if you're thinking of the Draka books, the "subaltern groups"
> >> mostly show _are_ white people.  Unless you don't count the French in
> > >that category?
> >Of course many of the subalterns in Draka are white, but that doesn't
> >negate the racial aspect here.  With the exception of the USCG
> >commander in ISOT, who notably rejects much of her racial
> >identification, there aren't any non-white leads that I can think of
> >inStirling'sworks.  Those non-white characters who exist are mostly
> >cyphers.  They have no real personality of their own, concerns of
> >their own, goals of their own.  They just exist as extensions of the
> >white protagonists willpower and an example of the dominance of
> >western, mostly white, people over non-western non white peoples.
>
> I sometimes felt that the language used by serfs to Draka - "Mistis" and
the
> like - had a distinctly "Gone With the Wind" flavour to it, which seemed
to
> be more noticeable in the ones who were more loyal tot heir masters. But
> it's been a while since I read the books, and that may have just been my
> imagination.
>
> --
>
> Mike Stone - Peterborough, England
>
> Q) In the Roman Civil Wars, why did all the bachelors fight for Sulla?
>
> A) Because they weren't the Marian kind.

Oh it's definitely taken from stereotyped versions of African American
English.  I don't have a big problem with that because that's
obviously something imposed by the Draka on their subordinates and it
seems like the kind of thing that would be realistic.  "You will
always address me as Mistis!"  Names and labels are powerful things
and one way that people assert control.  That's why black people
during segregation were supposed to refer to whites as Mr or Mrs but
whites almost never refered to blacks with such honorifics.