Classics Revisited: The Folk of the Fringe: Summary + "Pageant Wagon" and "America"

The Folk of the Fringe is just that:  in praise of those on the outside.  "The Fringe" describes an actual territory that used to be infertile that in hard times begins to bloom, but this is to be taken thematically as well.  SF has always been the literature of outsiders.  Likely, Orson Scott Card sees Mormons on the outside, but he doesn't single them out for praise.  More often, the Mormons are aided by an outsider, who learns something of the people yet is also a catalyst for change within those people.

In "Pageant Wagon," the outsider is Deaver Teague, a range rider who joins the traveling playhouse family.  Deaver loses his horse, so the family gives him a ride.  Gradually, helping the family put on the show and interfering when he hadn't meant to, Deaver sees the family as the one he never had.  Their current play, of which the daughter is critical, connects the birth of America and the birth of Mormonism.  Interestingly, Deaver accomplishes uniting the family through not fully understanding what people want of him (although the family isn't certain, either).  The children, Ollie and Katie, want to escape; the grandfather wants to retire; and Marshall wants to stay the Patriarch when he should step down.

In "America" the catalyst outsider is Sam, who empowers all Americans by calling them all Americans.  His seed of change is figurative and literal as the Earth causes him to be attracted to and impregnates an older Native American woman to create a new Quetzalcoatl.  Interestng quotes:

"[W]hy else am I alive?  I figure the land kept me breathing so I can tell the story of its victory, nd it has kept you alive to heat it.  Gods are like that.  It isn't enough for them to run everything.  They want to be famous, too."

"This is what America wanted, what it bent our lives to accomplishing.  Even if we took twisted roads and got lost and injured on the way, even if we came limping to this place, it is a good place, it is worth the journey, it is the promised, the promising land."

Interestingly, much of the power of these works come out of their denouements.  Except "Salvage."  Since Deaver Teague has his moment in "Pageant Wagon," he cannot be fulfilled, but the gold of "Salvage" is in finding a different kind of gold.

Despite the politically uplifting and unifying nature of "America," which may have been why Ursula Leguin included it in her Norton Anthology of Science Fiction, the strongest aesthetic piece is "The Fringe," which stands the best chance of being reread far into the future.

(Revised) Classics Revisited: The Folk of the Fringe: "Salvage" and "The Fringe"

In "Salvage" one of the yougest members of the "West" trip goes diving for gold in the underwater Mormon church.  But the treasure he seeks isn't what he finds.

"The Fringe" is one of the more enduring of Orson Scott Card'short works.  It features a teacher with palsy, stuck in a wheelchair teaching children of the farmers working The Fringe, a portion of the desert that became arable when weather patterns changed.

As an educator myself, I found myself sympathizing yet cringing for Carpenter, the teacher.  LaVon is the typical bad combination of bright kid who is also the class clown and ne'er-do-well.  This is the kid teachers lose sleep over trying to figure out how to handle him.  Strangely, you rarely see the difficult student in genre fiction.  At first Carpenter's reaction is good--no reaction--but then he resorts to acerbic wit, beginning with a tasty worm and ending with a barb:

"Brilliant essay, Mr. Jensen.  The irony was powerful, the savagery refreshing. Unfortunately, it also revealed the poverty of your soul.  Alcott's title was ironic, for she wanted to show that despite their small size, the boys in her book were great-hearted.  You, however, despite your large size, are very small of heart indeed."

Sometimes retorts work--high school students are just learning and appreciating the power of being a smart aleck--and sometimes not.  It surprises me when it works, actually, but it's a rather new tool to high schoolers and students do enjoy witnessing its wielding.  Nonetheless, I cringed.  And later it doesn't fare so well for Carpenter.  He presses the students a little harder in an economics lesson where he barbs a thinly veiled, anti-stealing sermon.  A few students' parents are involved  in stealing from their colleagues, and Carpenter number-crunches the data to prove it.

Carpenter hands the data over to the authorities who then arrest the parents, leaving the family in a more difficult situation, trying to make ends meet without one of the families' providers.  Carpenter is so confident in the rightness of his actions that he allows his victims to know the name of the man who turned them in.  The boys of the imprisoned fathers decide to exact revenge on Carpenter.  They want to hear him squeal without the aid of his computer.  Carpenter's reaction is heartbreaking, nail-biting, and uplifting.  Much as feels for Carpenter, one also feels the man brought part of it on himself--an interesting complexity of emotion not often experienced in the genre.  Carpenter may be a symbol for Christ--retribution for some, forgiveness for others--a man apparently weak but full of strength.

This piece deserves its place as one of the best representatives of Card's work and the field in general.

Review: The World in 2099

The World in 2099 

Dr. C.S. Mahrok
Smith Publicity

Who is Dr. C. S. Mahrok and why should I care?  Mahrok is a mechanical engineer with a PhD in therodynamics and whose writing bases its conclusions on UN and government documents, which in theory should decrease bias, so that, encouragingly, the author may not have an ax to grind.  This surmise is supported not only by the author’s cautious and judicious phrasing of his statements but also by his frequent use of mentioning ideas of both proponents and opponents in any controversial topic--an increasingly rare trait in today’s rampant hyperbolic politics.  Speaking of the author’s style, this reader also commends the author’s accessible, non-academic style.  While he remains factual, the wording does not dip into the convoluted.

Mahrok opens his book with the state of the world at present and a quick review of the Industrial Revolution, which presumably impacts his predictions.  Although Mahrok predicts that mineral supplies should carry us through fifty years, he proposes that deeper and wider exploration is required.  He states and supports his idea that, while exploration needs to be environmentally based, under-educated opponents have exaggerated its detrimental impact.

Recycling has been around since Plato.  While some products may be economically and energy difficult to recycle (i.e. lumber), Mahrok lists several minerals and plastics that can be usefully recycled--both as increasing usable minerals and as decreasing environmental impact.  But cost estimates are dependent on who’s counting and how.  For instance, some are not environmentalists because more forests are maintained due to logging, but environmentalists say that these forests are often not as biologically diverse.  Recycling proponents say that it produces jobs, but opponents say that such jobs pay little for poor conditions.

Oil, coal and gas are the cheapest sources of energy; they are also limited and coal can produce much pollution.  Hydrogen, wind, sun, geothermal, and other alternative energies will need to be tapped.  Biomass is renewable but releases carbon dioxide.  Hydrogen as a source of energy needs infrastructure.  Mechanical and thermal energy from the ocean needs more research.  Wind's drawback is consistency and birds.  Nuclear energy has newer models of reactors are more efficient and produce less radioactive waste, but each has drawbacks, such as molten sodium which is reactive, but new methods can prevent meltdowns.

Agriculture has changed from subsistence to greater and greater crop yields.  Sustainability has become an important aspect.  Forty percent of the world's farm soils face degradation.  Many insects have resistance to insecticides.  Water resources are stretched by agriculture practices.  Livestock consume 70% of crops and produce most of the global warming gasses.  Organic farming may require more labor, forcing a shift from urban to rural areas.

Fresh water resources grow increasingly more scarce.  Agriculture uses much of fresh water resources.  Much of the water used comes from seepage which distorts our view of how much water is available. Many golf courses, often accused of using too much water, use treated effluent water, which doesn't impact fresh water resources.  Widespread water pollution through sewage and agriculture run-off.  While some high profile people claim water will be source of future wars, so far most countries sharing water do so peacefully.  Access to clean water has gone from 30% in 1970 to 79% in 2004.

Also covered are forests, climate, World Trade Organization (including controversy), overpopulation (largely positive projections), the adequate availability of nutrients, the crisis of fisheries (extensive background provided, discussing coral reefs, littoral areas, and thermohaline currents).

While informative and refreshingly low in bias, the title suggests more spotting future trends rather than showing the strengths and weaknesses of the world's resources.  Mahrok does discuss future possibilities  but these are rare.  The book resources include not only an extensive index, maps and pictures but also many hyperlinks to information online to broaden the reader's understanding.  The World in 2099 is your one-stop information fount about our current and future ecological concerns.