by Diane Duane
“You have sold honor for power. You have sold what a Rihannsu used to be for what a Klingon thinks a Rihannsu ought to. You have sold your names, you have sold everything that mattered about this world – the nobility, the striving to be something right – for the sake of being feared in nearby spaces. You have sold the open dealing of your noble ancestors for plots and intrigues that cannot stand the light of day, and sold your courage for expediency. Your foremothers would put their burned bones back together and come haunting you if they could. But they cannot. So I have.”
A comment made by idiosynchronic has sparked an idea. He said, “I’d have problems reading Vulcan’s Soul, I think. I’m pretty entrenched into Diane Duane’s Vulcan pre-history, and that’s a pretty high standard to meet or exceed.” I want to know how well the Duane and Sherman/Schwartz backstories mesh. So I am taking a Vulcan/Romulan diversion from my chronological schedule. I’ll be reading Duane’s Rihannsu series and books about Vulcan by Duane, A.C. Crispin, and D.C. Fontana herself. I will follow with the “Vulcan’s Soul” series by Josepha Sherman and Susan Schwatz. Then we will return to our regular schedule, having become Rihannsu Historical scholars.
How did the Romulans become the Romulans? “The Romulan Way” is the story of The Sundering: the history of the Romulan culture, how and why they split off from the Vulcans at the time of Surak, how they found their new homeworlds and formed their own culture. During their journey, the Romulans change their language and social structure and become Rihannsu.
In the ‘present,’ Arrhae ir-Mnaeha T’Khellian is the head servant in the household of a mid-level Romulan Praetor. She is also Terise Haleakala-LoBrutto, a deep-undercover agent who has lived on the Romulan homeworld for 8 years. She has recently failed to report and McCoy is sent in to check on her. The historical text is from her writing and research.
Random Thoughts Written Down as I Read:
Language shapes thinking; words are important.
80,000 Vulcans left Pre-unification Vulcan in 16 ships. 450 years later 18,000 Rihannsu arrived at their new home in 5 ships. The Eisn system was literally their final chance.
The 80,000 call themselves “the Declared” (rihan) and they leave Vulcan because they object to the pacifistic ways of Surak. The disagreement is so passionate it may end Vulcan society forever.
The journey lasts 450 years in real-time, but only 85 relativistically. Many who began the journey saw the end of it. Others died from diseases, mutations, and when ships were lost in disasters. Many were born along the way.
More die on the planets from disease and war. They nearly wipe themselves out.
Rihannsu fourth names are like internet identities. They are self-chosen and shared only with special people.
The ‘present’ story occurs 8 years after the theft of the Cloaking Device in “The Enterprise Incident” and 1 year after the events of “My Enemy, My Ally.”
Ensign Naraht (the Horta) is now a Lieutenant and accompanies McCoy on the mission.
McCoy’s use of the Rihannsu ‘Right of Statement’ to filibuster his execution is wonderful and completely in character. McCoy has never been a physical character, and here he gets to show off his excellent wit and intelligence.
Ael rescues McCoy and takes the Sword from the Empty Chair. The sword is a beloved symbol of the founding of Rihannsu.
Arrhae/Terise elects to stay on ch’Rihan. She is given a message for the Rihannsu: “If they’ll listen, tell them that the rest of the family is waiting.”
etc:
“A people who have come to speak an artificial language will naturally be preoccupied with the meanings of words and names.”
Yay!! This will be interesting! (not that the other reviews haven’t been, but this will be geek nirvana . . )
Context: “Language shapes thinking; words are important.”;“the Declared” (rihan); “Rihannsu fourth names are like internet identities. They are self-chosen and shared only with special people.”
Diane wrote The Romulan Way in ~1986, and it’s antecedent, My Enemy, My Ally from ’82-83. You can see the rapid development in the first computer network communities reflected in these books because Diane loved them just as much as we love the Internet.
Diane cut her teeth reading the conversations in the early Star Trek fanzines of the 1970’s and the sense of community that grew even in the insanely slow fanzine exchanges. These are self-chosen people; they communicate almost exclusively through the written word.
Once the cost and complexity of computer BBS systems fell low enough, the fanzines became some of the first electronic systems and communities. By the time MEMA was written, BBS’s had almost completely replaced ‘zines except for the best and/or hardcore ‘zine publishers, which were themselves going professional.
It wasn’t the Internet yet, though. Most BBS’s had only a single line, and we all were still using dial-up. Each BBS was a standalone complex; users often participated in several systems under the same handle, but the comment threads weren’t shared. Some university BBS systems existed in the ARPA-net, but these were also stand-alone, and users could only access them through connected university systems. Diane’s vision of the Enterprise BBS in 1982 reflects this stand-alone nature – in some ways, it’s not very different from the 70’s ‘zine cultures. (and BTW, the notions behind the Stand-Alone Complex from Ghost in the Shell have clear ancestry back to these separate-yet-sharing-trends environments.)
Some bright people figured out that while humans on dial-up are slow, data synchs between two (or more) BBS’s could be fairly quick. (if the BBS authors did their coding right) And this ARPA-net thing would work even better . .
So BBS’ing radically changes in 4 years between books. University ARPA-Net systems begin doing data synchronizations of these recreational BBS’s – and suddenly in The 1986 Great Renaming, world newsgroups like rec.startrek were called into being.
I can see Diane writing TRW, and going, how the *fuck* am I going to get many ships’ thought-based BBS systems to communicate & synchronize at near-relativistic speeds? Maybe if I just ignore it . . :-)
But the cultural shift she was witnessing on the BBS’s comes through loud and clear in her books – BBS’s, newsgroups and last, Internet forums. Chosen societies, whose only means communication was the written word. (and then the rest of the world gets the Internet . . value and judge that how you want . . )