(urth) Bloodsport

[Marc Aramini]

I guess what I see as inscrutable is the relationship between the game and the reality.  Is there a "real" society outside the allegory of the game?

Because its pretty harsh to just kill your allies, and works symbolically and metaphorically but not realistically.  What is the point of the game?  Real power?  Entertainment?

--- On Thu, 2/10/11, James Wynn <crushtv at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: James Wynn <crushtv at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: (urth) Bloodsport
> To: "The Urth Mailing List" <urth at lists.urth.net>
> Date: Thursday, February 10, 2011, 12:28 PM
> I'm not sure I would call it
> "bizarre". Perhaps I'm missing something. I didn't find it
> in the least inscrutable.
> 
> I think thematically it's a Liberation story. The
> characters are forced to play a game based on chess but the
> rules are not the same. For example, there are "bowmen"
> (perhaps they are equivalent to a rook). The Queening
> process of the pawn is a chess allegory as you say but it is
> motivationally justified on two levels:
> 
> 1) On a literary level, when Lurn, as a pawn, queened
> herself she restarted the game. In doing so, the Valorius'
> (the Knight's) obligations were set in stone. He had to take
> her out. This is not determinism. This was a course of
> action that she consciously chose for the purpose of gaining
> power.
> 
> 2) Valorius' actual motivations were not game-related. They
> were related to notions of liberty--he did not want the
> tyrannical governmental system resurrected after the good
> fortune of it being destroyed. She took power based on the
> legality of the destroyed tyranny and declared her intention
> to restart it along with the games that just previously had
> the two of them trying to kill each other for no good
> reason. It seems that Valorius thought it quite credible
> that she would succeed.
> 
> You say power corrupting absolutely is not a common Wolfe
> theme. That's true. But opposing Power for its Own Sake
> (that is, tyranny) is a common Wolfe theme. Silk is a
> revolutionary. The Rajan is a revolutionary. Able meets and
> defeats (or reforms) several tyrants.
> 
> On a side note:
> The name Hunas is an phonetic spelling of Hunus, that is,
> Latin for "Huns".
> Valorius' name also suggests a Roman culture.
> However, I can't find any reference, foreign or domestic,
> for "Lurn".
> Where did he pull that from? I just can't believe it's
> merely a bad reference to "lune". Wolfe does better than
> that.
> 
> When I read the part about Lurn's "moon" people, I could
> have sworn I recalled one of the sides of chess being the
> "moon" side or something. I couldn't remember what the other
> side was. But I don't find any source for that
> recollection.
> 
> It's difficult to determine whether Lurn's side is White or
> Black. It could be either with her black hair or her albino
> white skin. Presumably this was intentional, and cleverly
> done.
> 
> u+16b9
> 
> On 2/10/2011 1:33 PM, Marc Aramini wrote:
> > Yeah.  I don't know that I have much insightful
> to say, I need to re-read it.  On one level I think it
> speaks of how any combat is just an accident of allegiances,
> but that's a weird message coming from Wolfe.  Chess,
> Allegory, I don't know.  I feel like it begs for
> explication.  Maybe I'll look at it again, but the
> queening process and the subsequent shift towards
> "overthrowing tyrants" is bizarre.
> > 
> > --- On Thu, 2/10/11, James Wynn<crushtv at gmail.com> 
> wrote:
> > 
> >> From: James Wynn<crushtv at gmail.com>
> >> Subject: (urth) Bloodsport
> >> To: "The Urth Mailing List"<urth at lists.urth.net>
> >> Date: Thursday, February 10, 2011, 11:02 AM
> >> Did anyone here read 'Bloodsport' in
> >> the Sword&  Dark Magic anthology?
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> > 
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