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Ninefox Gambit Q6: Characters and the human condition
We meet a few characters, but only spend time with Cheris and Jedao. Were these main characters well-drawn and believable? Did you care for either of them? Did your opinion of either change through the book? What about the minor characters?
"Formation instinct" is a key feature of Kel culture. What do you think of this conditioning? Were its consequences believable in the book? What does this book say about loyalty versus conscience? How to Cheris and Jedao differently relate to the ideals of loyalty and conscience, and how does that change through the book?
Is Jedao actually mad?
Comments
I quite liked Cheris, but she was fated to be overwhelmed by Jedao. In the end, she was Jedao.
As for formation instinct, it was very magical and made no sense at all to me.
Yes, Cheris was quite interesting but was progressively eclipsed. But I was neither sorry nor pleased that she vanished.
Formation instinct (and I guess part of me baulked at the word instinct when it was apparently actually a culturally imposed behaviour pattern) just seemed to be a population control mechanism for ensuring that people sacrificed themselves for the (presented) greater good.
How are we measuring madness? Did Jedao fit into this culture? Well, in one sense you could say he was its ideal exponent in terms of sacrificing anything to achieve an agreed goal. But in another he's a rebel in that he wants to undermine the system, and I strongly suspect that by this society's definition, to be a rebel is to be mad. Wasn't much the same theme used in Death Race 2000, where the (seemingly) ultimate bad guy is only secretly doing it so he can assassinate the president?
The characters were fine, but their context was really lacking. Formation Instinct is something I also flagged this in my notes as a 'what is it'? - I never learned. Is it 'instinct derived from training? I never really knew was 'formation' meant in this book. I never really bought into the whole 'this group of people is like this, and that group is like that' logic of the setting. Why must all the Kel be one thing, and the Shuo be another thing? Makes no sense to me. Very little about the setting made sense, and so the characters felt ungrounded, and therefore I never cared that much about them.
My thinking was - and this is a guess - that Formation Instinct was a particular mindset imposed from the top, and triggered by taking a physical formation, be it of ships or troops. The Formation Instinct gave the formation power it otherwise would not have. It made me think of formation based video games like Galaga. It is all quite arbitrary and magical, but as we all know, technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic, and the author has internalized that.
That was sort-of my thinking. Physical formations are invaluable - a wedge is good against a line, a square is good against cavalry, missile troops are better deployed behind melee troops and so on. EE (Doc) Smith was heavily into this with spaceship battles, and his books are full of cones, spherical englobements and so on. That's fine. But as mentioned before, I internally protested at the idea these were instinctual, which I understand to mean some behaviour or survival strategy passed on genetically and acted upon (typically) unconsciously. Another use of (magical) formations which enhanced power is in the Thomas Covenant series (which I think we all agree went on w-a-a-a-y too long, but had some good points) where again a wedge is used to focus the magical strength of a group of practitioners into a kind of needle or lance.
"Formation instinct" doesn't seem to me to be instinct at all, but appropriate use of situational battlefield tactics which a good general will deploy rapidly with comprehension, and a poor general slowly and by the numbers. Instinct would mean that the participants either ran away or charged screaming at the enemy, and typically has to be eroded by training to end up with something more useful.
Was the book suggesting that biological science had advanced to the point that military tactics could be encoded in utero? Maybe, but it wasn't a very sciency book and such thinking seems a bit alien to it. The whole structure seemed to be based around the calendar concept (whatever that was, which we can't seem to agree amongst the few of us) rather than flashy genetics in biolabs.
I believe the Kel were given this instinct when they entered the service, and it was removed when they left, which gave me the impression it was indeed genetic, perhaps delivered by a retro virus, and perhaps restored the same way.
I thought "formation instinct" was conditioning to obey orders, quickly and unquestioningly. How much of the good formation's benefit comes from purely physical ordering, and how much from mystical agreement with the calendar, is open to debate.
The conditioning gets mentioned a few times with Cheris being hesitant when speaking up to other high-ranking officers.
I think Lee brings up an interesting idea of when you should "be a team player" or "just follow orders" , versus "do the right thing". The formation instinct pushes the balance towards doing what you're told. But, as with many things, he skips over the meat of this question.