(urth) Oannes

[DAVID STOCKHOFF]

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 From: Thomas Bitterman <tom at bitterman.net>
To: The Urth Mailing List <urth at lists.urth.net> 
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2012 12:55 PM
Subject: Re: (urth) Oannes
 

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The fact that slavery, tempered with many humane restrictions, was permitted under the Mosaic law would have sufficed to prevent the institution form being condemned by Christian teachers as absolutely immoral. They, following the example of St. Paul, implicitly accept slavery as not in itself incompatible with the Christian Law. The apostle counsels slaves to obey their masters, and to bear with their condition patiently.
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Judging by his stories, Wolfe knows this teaching and accepts it.  There are a fair number of enslaved characters and I cannot recall any of them or any sympathetic character disparaging the institution itself.  Particular conditions, sure, but the fact that one person owns another is perfectly fine.

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"Perfectly fine" may be a stretch, but it is an interesting question. If you recall the story of the Pelerine slave, the mere fact of being owned by humane mistresses indeed did not seem so bad itself---under the circumstances, which included the potential for starving to death out in the world.

The problem is not the ownership, which in that instance was after all merely another form of contract. Indentured servitude historically was practically indistinguishable from contractual slavery. The problem for the Pelerine slave was the threat of being treated like a commodity and being sold to a worse owner. Slavery/being owned means exposure to all the abuses that slavery and indentured servitude are known for, including rape, torture, and murder. 

(The African slave trade is another matter, since that invented a new class of people whose status was not subject to any contract. Wolfe's characters generally don't have to deal with that and as a result have the choice of entering such a contract or not.)

Those things arguably could happen to you anyway, but slavery opens the door to them and as such is very bad indeed. But still there is a sense that slavery doesn't mistreat people, people do. Everyone makes a personal choice. And I believe this is another way Wolfe suggests that some gods are better than others: we may choose our master, or our master may be chosen for us. Or something like that.
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