Cary Neeper's Blog: Reviewing World-changing Nonfiction - Posts Tagged "family"

What brightened the holidays were gorgeous snows on Christmas and New Years eve, a lovely week with daughter Shawne and her husband Tom, and Darryl Pickett's book The Secret Feast of Father Christmas. His characters came alive from the first page, a likable young teenager you could easily remember as being just-like-you at that age. The fantasy world that engulfed him, though a bit edgy, is one I will not soon forget. The twist near the end turned up the critic in me for a moment, but it was so beautifully handled I decided to give the story a full five stars. It is indeed a good example of the power of story told well, without recourse to toothy danger and violence. There is love out there--real joy that celebrates the human spirit and creative energy at its best. Thank you, Darryl.

The Webs of Varok portrays a steady state economy, with all its differences from our current situation, hence it provides ripe fruit for Book clubs to pick, in discussion. Varok's legal definition of family provides another topic, as does the metaphor represented by the traitor Mahntik's unnatural ability to block her mind from reading.

The Webs of Varok might be called soft or relational or women's science fiction, because it features a mixed family of aliens and humans in an alternate 21st century solar system, dealing with their complex relationships. The book's aliens provide more fun than in most scifi stories, while the main thrust of the story deals with current economic issues.

The family is determined to see that an overcrowded Earth finds a way to solve its dilemmas. They decide that Varok would serve as a good model for how to maintain a sustainable, equitable society. However, when the family arrives on Varok, after a realistically long voyage, they find their trust in each other and in Varokian economics threatened by an ambitious traitor. The story's metaphor for human double-dealing is presaged in the first scene, in which the lovely human protagonist practices her mind-link with her varokian partner. The varokian traitor has learned to block her mind from its natural openness, giving her unusual leverage in the society.

The Webs of Varok is told by two storytellers. The human protagonist TANDRA tells her first person view on things as she leaves Earth for the alien planet Varok. When she is not present, the third person omniscient storyteller gets into the other interesting heads pushing the plot forward. The most fun is the ahlork Nidok, not too literate and yet able to exchange ripe insults with his best friend, the aquatic elll of the mixed family, CONN.

Here's an issue that the books in “The Archives of Varok” address--how should we define a "family" and provide it legal rights and protection? Come join the comment contest until June 20—a set of books going to the most thoughtful ideas about two issues. The first issue is directly related to my blog, the Hen House theme of our responsibility to animals that we adopt, as well as humans to whom we commit.

My reviewer at the Los Alamos Daily Post asked the best question yet--could an extended family including aliens and humans really work? The mixed family of The Archives surely do have their problems, and though they’ve met them head-on in The Webs of Varok, there are more to come in the next volume, Conn: The Alien Effect, to be released early this summer.

I’d like to believe that we humans have matured to the point where we could appreciate the alienness of other beings. We’re doing much better now, since Temple Grandin shared her experiences with us in her book Animals In Translation, New York: Scribner, 2005. I agree that my birds do see things in WISIWIG mode. It takes them some time to learn, then to remember, that the gate is really open and that they need to go around the pen to see that it is. Scientist now are not hooted down when they seek to explore the emotional lives of animals.

The grin on DeeDee’s face expresses unmistakable delight when she greets me at the gate, ready to join us in the living room for the evening. So why not aliens? Surely they can also feel emotions, even if their DNA reflects a different code. Does their evolution have to be so different we can’t relate to it? If we connect, can’t we commit to mutual support and be family?

My experience studying biology suggests that our understanding of chemistry, complex systems and self-organizing selection makes it reasonable to expect that evolution on Earth is a sorting process that could occur anywhere conditions are right. Some elements, like carbon, get together more easily than others, are more stable, more capable of devising interesting strategies for survival.

This is not to say that we are not unique. Even as individuals we are unique, though the details of our existence, the chemistry and physics that define our lives, are universal—and downright awe inspiring in their complexity and precision. Makes one very thankful to be alive.

Join the conversation and win a set of books. Place a comment here.

The 2 Book 2 Issues 2 Thoughtful Comments Contest deadline is June 20
on the stroke of Midnight. To enter you are invited to leave a comment here on my Goodreads' blog. Enjoy looking to a secure future. Cary Neeper.

Here are some questions related to the issues in The Webs of Varok:

Issue number 1: How can society ensure that "family" is defined legally to protect all persons and dependent beings included in the commitment? Are economic and emotional commitments enough for a legal definition? Tax benefits? Other benefits?

Issue number 2: The steady state economy of varok means minimal throughput (using just enough of everything that is acceptable and putting out the least amount of garbage possible).

What is the best way to get there, in order to ensure a pleasant standard of living for life on Earth for as long as possible? Are Conn's suggestions at the end of The Webs of Varok
enough?

“The Social Behavior of Older Animals” by Anne Innis Dagg, Baltimore,The John Hopkins University Press, 2009

Author Dagg details the behavior of many different animals, those near the end of their life. She makes a good deal of generalizations, but in one chapter focuses on the four methods animals use for teaching: imitation, making deliberate "opportunities" to learn, encouragement, and punishment.
 
Most other chapters include descriptions of adapting, sociability, reproduction, hierarchy, mothering and family, as seen by elder animals. Then the reader discovers amazing stories--interactions and behavior that reveal the wisdom, acquired knowledge, and deliberate teaching that individual animals exhibit, independent of their human connections.
 
We learn how similar animals are to us, not only in their interest in training the young but in their ability to play-act, or deny emotion when needed, or appreciate music, or play, or initiate brave behavior in fire emergencies, or mourn the death of loved ones.
 
Our denial of animal emotion illustrates a long history of human ignorance.
 
One of the most striking examples is the author's description of a big (440 lb.) male lion in the Kenya savanna who was apparently "knocked flat" by a 11 pound cub, who proceeded to grip with his teeth the big male by the throat. The big male pawed the air, groaned, then lay still, while the cub "slid to the ground and pranced off." Then the male sat up and gazed calmly into the distance. What a great parent!
 
Often, elder males may do battle to stay with their pride, but the loser will go off as a lone nomad.