message 0122

• Religion and Beliefs in C.J. Cherryh's Compact and Union/Alliance books
• Life on Carriers

>From: Jo Jaquinta <jaymin@maths.tcd.ie>
>Subject: CherryhList // Religion
>Date: Fri, 7 May 93 9:36:35 BST

> >From: nancy ott <ott@ansoft.com>
> I suppose that being settled largely by cynical former Eatern-block
> scientific types gives Union a decidedly non-religious bent.  About
> the only religious reference that Merchanters seem to make is to a
> quasi-mystical relationship with "the Deep" (as in deep space).
	If you look at her history you have the early stations being
settled by these long term STL ships. On all ships there is a minimum
of free space for anything. Whereas giving the crew space to practice
their religion would be psycologically justified I have this feeling
that the crews were probably chosen from a wide ethnic mixture thus
making it impractical to represent each person's religion.
	Thus not having a religions foundation to build upon and
existing in an environment where there is little unexplained and
for that which is unexplained they have the rite of the Scientific
Method the only grouns from religion to grow from is centered around
Death.
	One might draw an analogy between the mobile and close knit
family based merchant ships with verious wandering primitive tribes.
Occasionally they meet together during times of festivity. Is their
"quasi-mystical relationship with The Deep" the start of early signs
of totenism?
	Certainly as The Fleet is run down they take on the social
detrius of society, strip them of their past and indoctrinate them
in new ways, they create an environment where ignorance propigates.
Only the technical class know how to make things work but not necessarily
how things work. The troops in the belly live in a world where things
just happen and they only have to ponder orders. Cherryh portrays thems
"dicing with the deep", i.e. playing games of chance as they hit
jump space. It seems an echo of Samhain here in Ireland. Samhain
(Halloween) comes at a time between seasons, where the normal rules
of How Things Work break down. In folklore it is when the Otherworld
is close to this world and all sorts of "divination games" are played.
You know like suspending a wedding ring over a womb to determine the
gender of a child, weather one gets the pea or the ring or whatever
in the barm brak, etc, etc. Would not going through jump be an analogous
time when the normal rules break down? Remember the Troopers seem to
take a different sort of jump drug that doesn't leave them totally
incapicated during jump. [Maybe that's why they are all a bit mad :-]
	If not amongst the fleet, then the fleet itself. It comes
from nowhere, swoops in in ships very much more powerful than normal
merchants (remember in Merchanter's Luck when the Norway jumps in,
and passes out what the Lucy had taken days to cross), and leaves
having stuck. Technology may have eliminated cholera and other desieases
but The Fleet is still there to suddenly cull family members.
	Not only that but The Fleet stands largely outside of time.
Being almost constantly on the move the time dilation of jump means
they live a very long time. Has anyone actually read Rimrunners and
counted the number of days that pass for Bet Yeager compared to a
year going by on Thule? For Stationers The War is a long, drawn out,
and sparodic thing. (A bit like Northern Ireland in our papers here)
Yet for The Fleet it is much more compressed. With this higher level of
intensity it would not be difficult for The Stationers to personify
them as archetypes.
	If religion is not strong in Union-Alliance now, do we see the
seeds of the folklore for their future?

				Jo