Critical Thinking - Kipling II

Although Kipling only wrote two stories that I would consider science fiction (see here), his influence over the genre was much more pervasive. Some authors and publishers took from him directly. Others more in an osmosis (osmosivity?) of his work. And there is at least one significant science fiction phenomenon that I'm not sure the authors even realized Kipling (and many of his contemporaries) believed in long ago.

Indirect exposition. I was reading Persuasion the other day (I'd left my Asimov's at home and needed something to read at Starbucks--wait that sounded defensive, didn't it? Yes I read Jane Austen! Her zombies are delightful!) and was struck by the narrative. So much info-dump! I think two long chapters passed with only a handful of quotes--and many of them were so removed, they were written in the third person. Compare that with "With the Night Mail." (You did read it, right?) Narrow point of view, ignorant POV character--perfect set-up for the show-not-tell. It seems so obvious, now, but back in the day it was a big thing.

Bildungsroman. (From Wikipedia) "...a coming-of-age kind of novel. It arose during the German Enlightenment, and in it, the author presents the psychological, moral and social shaping of the personality of a usually young main character (the protagonist)." Where do you want to start? Kim? Mowgli? Captains Courageous? The one that gets me: read Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game, then read Stalky and Co. Boarding schools taking boys, allowing them to refine their natural abilities, then sending them to war? Shoot, read Harry Potter, for that matter.

Military Fiction. Wars have been written about since the book of Genesis. When Kipling wrote, most such stories focused on heroes and their tragic and valiant battles. Kipling wrote about getting drunk and drummer boys and flirting with the girls. My kid's obsessed with Star Wars: Clone Wars. (I know, but what can you do?) I see a lot of Orth'ris, Learoyd, and Mulvaney in the story lines. (Well, not the getting drunk and chasing girls part.)

Story. I've noticed several references to Kipling in Elizabeth Moon's stories, so I emailed her and asked her why. She responded directly, sending her over the top in the list of "My Favorite Authors Whom I Don't Actually Know." This is what she said:

Kipling was, and is, one of my favorite writers--and as such, I'm sure he influenced me, though I can't define what, exactly, I took from him (the microscope cannot see itself.) He did so many things so well...he could write stories that still send chills down my back, or hilarious stories ("The Village That Voted the Earth Was Flat" or "Bees" ) poking fun at pomposity or savage indictments of political stupidity and cultural blindness or gentle and charming stories of the English countryside. He could change styles (and wrote well in each he tried); he created characters as vivid as any in fiction; he wrote page-turners you can't put down as well as the perfect "warm summer afternoon in the shade" stories. While visiting friends across the country a few weeks ago, I found myself nabbing a Kipling off the shelf to read in bed at night...(_Plain Tales from the Hills_) At a point in my life when I'd read any horse story, no matter its quality, a chance encounter with "The Maltese Cat" showed me that a horse story could be brilliant. By then I'd read "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" (had me checking the bathroom for snakes for a month at least, and wishing for a mongoose) and later I found _Stalky & Co_...and the rest, or at least most of the rest. Much later I found a little paperback of _A Fleet in Being_, not fiction at all...and still inimitable Kipling in its vivid, crisp description of the Royal Navy at that period.

The Prime Directive. When Kipling wrote most of his India stories, he was between the ages of 17 and 23. He was a reporter for several journals, a member of the country club, a white man of the ruling class in a British colony. He arrived back in India in 1882, 23 years after Darwin's Origin of Species and "all that entailed." In 1899, he wrote "The White Man's Burden," explaining that it is the white man's responsibility to rule and care for the lesser creatures of the Earth.

Yeah, so he was a young, idiot racist*. He loved India, loved the people--but only if they remained "native." In The Jungle Book, he describes the Bandar-log--the monkeys--as having "no speech of his own, but use the stolen words which they overhear." Similarly, in "The Head of the District," he describes an educated Indian man as having merely "much curious book-knowledge of bump-suppers, cricket matches, hunting runs..."

(* Although Kipling had swastikas imprinted on the covers of many of his books, they were strictly pre-Nazi-era. They're actually backwards, a good-luck charm in Hindi. Once the Nazi's came along, he banished them from all further publications of his works. I have first editions of Puck of Pook's Hill (fun!) and The Light that Failed (depressing!) that have Indian swastikas on their covers.)

I was at a friend's birthday party a couple of years ago and met her son. He's a teacher up in Chicago. We were talking about the war and I mentioned I knew a woman who ran a school in the Kurdish region that taught Western thought and Christian values. My friend's son was horrified. Why would we want Middle-Eastern Muslims to learn our way of thought? How is it any better than theirs? He was attempting to display a kind of reverse-racism, but, in the end, shouldn't people be educated enough to choose their own path?

Distance in Fantasy. I don't know that that particular theme--a technologically-advanced race's responsibility to the more primitive races it encounters--has been explored sufficiently in science fiction. There are several cases of humans meeting emerging alien races and "sponsoring" them into space-farerdom. And then there's the whole Star Trek-hand's off thing. Are there books out there that explore the philosophical quandary, or do they all just make assumptions and press on to the battle scene?

Another theme I'd like to see more of is the whole colonial deal. Kipling was a huge colonialist--huge imperialist. Couldn't understand why everyone in England wasn't thoroughly educated on the British colonies. This tension could easily be explored in a sci fi novel.

And this is another major influence of Kipling's on science fiction--the ability to present a modern-day dilemma in a way that's just distant enough that modern audiences can consider the sides and ramifications without getting all up in arms about the context. Want to talk about gene therapy? Read "The Eye of Allah." How about the state of journalism? Try "A Matter of Fact." Want to talk about the environment? Watch Wall-E.


(Sources: Here, here, here, here (but don't believe the bit about him being a liberal and suspicious of the government), and this guy that nobody reads anymore.)

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What can you say about Kersley Fitzgerald, really? She can make excellent baked apples, yet burns toast. She designed her tattoo on AutoCAD. She reads Jane Austen, Eugene Peterson, and Ben Bova. And she's going to continue telling you about her impending publication until you're sick to death and ask Vidad to write a story wherein she meets a terrible demise. Possibly by gerbil.