Substantive: Grass

After spending my spring break in Tampa, FL, I realize that Grass probably wasn't my number one choice for a beach book, or at least it wasn't your typical relaxing read. The entire work read nothing like we've covered so far in class, and at the beginning felt more like Dune with complex terminology introduced immediately compared to the ease of reading something like Ender's Game. I had no idea what Tepper was trying to get across with "hounds" and "mounts", and it took far longer than other novels to get to the "alien as the other" distinction that we've been covering so far.

But despite my initial struggles with the novel, it was well worth the time it took to read. What Grass offered wasn't the typical alien situation where we could easily Schmittian politics - it went, in many ways, into territory that Schmitt can hardly answer. In our class discussion from The Concept of the Political, we outlined situations in which the Schmittian model breaks down - when the species are far too powerful, or they are far too weak. I feel as though in Grass, we've reached first conclusion - the Hippae are far more powerful than the humans. That fact is unique in itself since the Hippae are at best described as mere adolescence compared to their next form, the foxen. But even at this juvenile stage, the Hippae have managed to not only wipe out the Arbai, but have also nearly wiped out the humans.

What is Tepper trying to accomplish with Grass? Of course it's worth noting the dominance of Sanctity in Tepper's vision, virtually eliminating other religions as a consequence. But even this organization is ignorant and foolhardy when it comes to Grass and handling the plague. It seems completely unable to understand the realities of the Hippae, and are ill-prepared when they finally land upon the planet. In my eyes, Sanctity represents a humanity completely out of touch with the natural world, unable to understand its ways. Marjorie, through her deep relationship with her horses, understands what is happening on the almost primitive world of Grass. It seems as though Tepper is telling humanity, through this particular experience with extraterrestrials, that we are far from understanding the natural world, and that sometimes the natural world does not want us understanding it, and sometimes the natural world purposely prevents us from seeing its true self.