Reading 1001 discussion

6. Who are the barbarians?

The local native population.

I got that they were nomadic, who moved with the weather, primarily wanting to trade. However, it does sound like they weren't to be angered: they could be vengeful. There were also fishermen who traded their extra catch with the Empire's settlement, living alongside the lake, in the shadow of the city walls.

They could be anyone who was unknown and therefore to be feared.

The Barbarians are the people who mistreat others in cruel ways without regard for the humanity of the other.

Initially they are the native's but later the magistrate used the word for those who came to torture the indigent people.

In terms of the book title the Empire is waiting for the Barbarians meaning the native nomadic people who commit raids on settlements and destroy crops. At the end of the book the people of the settlement are waiting for the return of the Empire soldiers whose Barbaric ways have plunged them into a war again waiting for the Barbarians.

Aren't we all barbarians? All capable of barbarous behavior towards others? In the book, the nomads are referred to as the barbarians, which distinguish them from other native populations that live peacefully, or as peacefully as they are allowed, on the edges of civilization. The men of the Third Bureau are certainly barbaric and the Magistrate learns that they are the true face of Empire.

Even the Magistrate is through torture reduced to the state of barbarism. Perhaps it could be said that by ignoring the behavior of Joll he is complicit in Joll's barbarianism. Could perhaps his behavior towards women also be viewed as barbaric?

In Waiting for the Barbarians, the townspeople themselves begin to act barbarically towards each other, and the army worst of all.

Well said, John.

I agree, John. The barbarians come from all of us, from our ideas, attitudes and values.

John nailed it.