Subject: "Sideshow", by Sheri Tepper

From: [email-masked] (Dani Zweig)
Date: Sun, 27 Sep 92 22:24:00 GMT

"Sideshow", by Sheri Tepper, is the centuries-later semi-sequel to
"Raising the Stones" and, to a lesser extent, to "Grass".  "Raising the
Stones" focused upon questions of religion.  To the mix of religions
existing in that milieu -- mostly unattractive parodies of contemporary
religious trends -- Tepper added the Hobbs Land Gods -- beings that had
all the attributes normally attributable to Gods but one; they were not
supernatural.  The book left the reader with some interesting questions.

Centuries later, in "Sideshow", the human galaxy is under the benign
influence of the Hobbs Land Gods.  The descendents of those who didn't
consider that influence benign -- over a thousand distinct cultures -- now
live on the planet Elsewhere.

Elsewhere is not a nice place.  The cultures which Tepper shows us range
from the stunted to the vicious, with the latter predominating.  What most
of these cultures seem to have been saving from the Hobbs Land Gods was the
right of those with power (of one sort or another) to treat those without
power badly.  Preserving these cultures, in the name of diversity, is a
central authority of bureaucrats and enforcers.  No custom is so foul that
outsiders are allowed to interfere with it.  And not only do the enforcers
prevent one culture from trying to change another, but they also work -- in 
the name of diversity -- to prevent change from within.

Elsewhere is a sideshow in two major respects.  It is a collection of
cultural freaks and anachronisms in a galaxy which has outgrown them.
And what happens there isn't particularly important from the rest of the
galaxy's perspective.  (Actually, it's not clear that the rest of the
galaxy even knows they exist.)  When the power-hunger which motivates so
many of Elsewhere's cultures appears in its most malignant form, the
resolution is a matter of life and death to the inhabitants, but it is
unlikely to have much effect upon humanity in general.

"Sideshow" doesn't work as well as "Raising the Stones", partly because
it is less focused.  Tepper is trying to raise too many issues at once to
deal with them effectively.  There is the problem of whether it is right to
impose one culture's standards upon another (eg, in the realm of human
rights) just because the first culture finds the second's ways offensive.
It's hard to see ourselves in this particular mirror, partly because the
ways in question in this the book are *so* offensive to us, and partly 
because the possibility of change from within is absolutely precluded.

There is the problem of overpopulation, and how in one way or another it
always seems to express itself in dead children.  (Implicitly or
explicitly, the central authority must share Tepper's view that over-
population is one of the main sources of humanity's woes, because one of
its main weapons in service of the status quo is the customized plague.)
Every one of Elsewhere's cultures seems to have developed an underclass,
but children are the universal underclass.

If there is a general issue, it is one of community.  Community provides an
institutional context in which the strong can gratify their desires at the
expense of the weak.  Community also restrains the self-styled strong.
Machievelli made the point that the great majority will accept any society
which will protect them from being despoiled.  The least acceptable thing,
to most people, is to live in a society in which they may arbitrarily
become victims.  Even in its most selfish manifestation, the basic human
right becomes "people like me shouldn't be victimized."  If the definition
of "people like me" expands to include other races, other religions, the
opposite sex, children, other countries, then that protection must also be
expanded.  What Elsewhere's cultures have in common is their refusal to
accept the idea that "people like me" means everybody.

If Tepper fails, it is by making the choices too simplistic.  The abuses
of power are present, but the factors which mitigate or oppose such abuses 
are not.  Elsewhere protects each culture from the interference of outsiders.
It also protects each culture from the actions of internal reformers.  It 
doesn't even permit its cultures to evolve in the directions mandated by 
their own cultural goals.  And technological progress, which may be able to 
mitigate or undermine many abuses, is also restricted.  It is hard to accept 
this as an honest metaphor for our own world.

-----
Dani Zweig
[email-masked]

"The best lack all conviction, while the worst
 Are full of passionate intensity." -- W.B. Yeats