Maybe there are successful stories!
So, maybe my last blog post was a little downcast. Maybe it's a bit premature to call for SETI to shut down! Eifelheim has changed my opinion, and perhaps for the better!
What aspects of Eifelheim make it seem that humans and aliens won't end up killing each other? We could chalk it up to author's discretion, but Flynn throws in so many other depressing scenarios (the down being struck by the Black Plague) that it seems that he had other intentions when it came to dictating the fate of the Krenken. The scenario is like The Sparrow, but at the same time, distinctly different. The humans seem as innocent as the Runa in this case (perhaps Eifelheim is The Sparrow in reverse with no Jana'ata?) And maybe there's something to that kind of innocence, or even ignorance.
In Conquest of America, Todorov listed three primary ways of understanding the other. The most familiar was the simple factual level. Cortes knew many facts about the Aztecs, but still destroyed them. Clearly this kind of understanding doesn't necessarily save lives. But what about the opposite? Does complete ignorance allow survival? The Runa and humans in Eifelheim seem to be models of this kind of ignorance - they are incapable of any kind of greater understanding of their situation. It's no coincidence that neither of them truly recognize the "alien-ness" that surrounds them. Of course, its difficult to pinpoint the exact reason why a kind of ignorance allows for peaceful interactions. There are clear factors which influence their "acceptance" of the other: inability to realize the full extent of "alien-ness", and the inability to understand the other on an intellectual level.
The problem with this, of course, lies in the fact that the Krenken and humans in The Sparrow ARE capable of intellectually understanding their counterparts, yet THEY make other critical translation mistakes (Jesus as an actual person in the case of the Krenken). Therefore, I think there's a kind of set dichotomy here, at least in cases where one species is more advanced than the other. The case might be that, in interactions like these, the wild card is whether or not death will result from mistranslations and ignorance. In the end, it seems, things may just be up to chance.
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I like your comparison with The Sparrow--the Runa and the humans as innocents, who don't seem to truly comprehend the otherworldliness of the creatures with whom they interact. If they truly comprehended the alien nature of the Krenken or the humans respectively, would things have turned out differently?
ReplyDeleteI am reluctant to conclude, however, that every Krenken was incapable of understanding religion. Some of them convert, and clearly establish a comprehension of the metaphysical nature of Jesus as opposed to a practical version. The thing that's interesting about it, though, is that even today, if you ask some people about, say, the Rapture, they truly believe that they will be physically ascended to Heaven. Some Jews literally believe they will be resurrected in the presence of the Messiah. So I don't think that disconnect has entirely to do with them being Krenken, because religion's hard enough to get in a human sociological context.