Re: observations of contrasting moods for Hyperborea and Zothique story cycles
Posted by:
Sawfish (IP Logged)
Date: 8 April, 2016 10:13AM
First, I thank you for your thoughtful response. It's hard to find discussion of authors I personally enjoy, CAS, of whom I'd never heard, forcing his way into the first rank of escapist enjoyment back when I by chance bought "Zothique" at the old Mithras Bookstore, in La Jolla, in 1970.
I still have that Ballentine paperback--falling apart, held together with tape, and have started re-reading for the 20+th time. I came to a new appreciation of Xeethra, it being one of my least favorite of the Zothique cycle.
If I may, I'd like to address your points individually, interleaved below:
Knygatin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I get quite the opposite feelings. I am uplifted
> by the Zothique stories, and feel depressed by the
> Hyperborea cycle.
>
> In Hypeborea there is cold, primitive conditions,
> barbarian conflicts, and the future holds nothing
> in store but frustrating harsh struggles through
> ugly history, leading all the way up to sick
> modernity.
Hah! We're seeing the same things, but our associated responses differ.
WRT Zothique, the entire continent, and likely the world as well, is dessicated. There's no evidence of any surplus moisture (not counting the oceans, which serve as a narrative device to isolate certain locales,thus providing a feeling remote helplessness, and also giving a bit of credence to certain behaviors of the inhabitants that would. perhaps, in a more cosmopolitan milieu, be less possible without interference. For example, Naat, or Uccastrog.
We've got to admit that most of the normal sensibilities of the main continent are pretty nihilistic, at best, but the practices prevalence on Uccastrog are extreme, even for the Zothique sensibility.
Then you've got the sun. What's with that, huh? :^) It's obviously in the process of becoming a red dwarf, and the sky, at noon and overhead, is described as blue-black.
So you've got a dim red sun in a blue-black sky, and what daily life must be like under those conditions, literally, would be funereal, to say the least.
Me, I tend not to envision the stories illuminated in the described fashion, for the simple reason that I cannot even imagine *how* much of the action might take place in a manner that would be visible to members of the human species--just would not be able to see most of that's supposed to be happening. So, I suspend disbelieve, and letting my imagination have its way, I default to something a lot like the Middle East, or maybe Egypt. Not accurate, but...
By contrast, in Hyperborea has plenty of moisture--and moisture commonly is linked with the idea of bountiful life, The flora is CAS's idea of primitive plant life, and the fauna include know extinct species, such as mastodons. etc.
As a rather exotic aside, articles of clothing and armor are sometimes described as being made of the skins of such beasts, and the implied hunts involved in obtaining these hides are, to me, inspiring and vital.
There is the odd contrast of the weather. Much of Hyperborea seems to be subtropical, but where the ice sheet descends, almost as a distinct line, it's cold--and this is at times portrayed as the result of enchantment.
Maybe the biggest contrast between Hyperborea and Zothique is the way cities are treated. In Zothique, many are deserted and ruinous; if one is abandoned, one might infer that no new population hub is established to handle the migrating mass of people. To that end, it certainly does appear that the human race is dying out.
In Hyperborea, however, the cities are comparatively new, and should one be abandoned, as happens to Commoriom, a new one is built a distance away.
What could be more vital and vigorous than a populace, obviously expanding, founding new cities?
>
> Zothique is warm, it offers glorious sunsets,
> rich, deep red, vintage wines. Rotting decadence
> and beautiful ruins. The herd mass is gone, there
> are few people to interfere with my strolls, no
> global banking, and no filthy barbarians left to
> flood my land.
>
> The Poseidonis cycle is also inspiring. It gives
> the pleasure of longing back to a distant past
> time and place that is better than our present.
This is a sort of disconnect to me. It's hard to see why Hyperborea, an imaginary land set in the murky past, and Poseidonis, also imaginary and also set in the past would not evoke the same general response.
The single biggest difference between Hyperborea and Poseidonis that I can see is that Poseidonis is, like Zothique, doomed. It is the last remnant of Atlantis. But then, so it Hyperborea doomed; after all, like Poseidonis, we know that it, too, no longer exists (if we choose to suspend disbelief (and I do!) and accept that they ever existed, at all.
But the Hyperboreans fight the encroaching doom, while those on Poseidonis and in Zothique have essentially abandoned themselves to the inevitable.
Hah! In a way Zothiue "feels" to me like looking at an Aubrey Beardsley drawing. Each reeks of decadence and abandon.
ASIDE: For Poseidonis, what did you think of "A Vintage From Atlantis"? I really, really like this narrative. So vivid! And the POV, being a sort of ruffian Puritan--great stuff to get your head around!!!
Thanks again for the exchange! I would welcome further exploration!