Postscript: The Affordable Care Act

So it’s in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court now. We heard the arguments, heard the querulous questions of the Justices (all those old voices), and listened to the hordes of tea-leaf readers. WC, while he has little confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court, has no idea how it is going to turn out.

But between now and a decision late this summer or early next fall – at the earliest – WC will leave you with this quote, from David Frum, over at The Daily Beast. If ACA is held unconstitutional, what next?

In that case, Republicans will need a Plan B. Unfortunately, they wasted the past three years that might have developed one. If the Supreme Court doesn’t rescue them from themselves, they’ll be heading into this election season arguing, in effect,Our plan is to take away the government-mandated insurance of millions of people under age 65, and replace it with nothing. And we’re doing this so as to better protect the government-mandated insurance of people over 65—until we begin to phase out that insurance, too, for everybody now under 55.

In the meantime, we are all in stasis, a stasis we can ill-afford, waiting for the Court’s decision. Well, everyone but the health insurance industry, who doubtless will continue to raise premiums.

Elizabeth Moon: The Deed of Paksennarion

The Deed of Paksenarrion, Trade Volume

WC is an unapologetic reader of fantasy literature. There’s a lot of really bad fantasy literature, but there are some gems, too.

The Deed of Paksennarion is a trade volume of Elizabeth Moon’s frist three novels, a fantasy following the life of Paksennarion Dorthansdotter. Published between 1992-1995, the story starts with Sheepfarmer’s Daughter, which tells how Paksennarion – “Paks” to her friends – escaped from a forced marriage to join a mercenary company, and her adventures there. Paks is a difficult person; she gives unquestioned loyalty, but not always to those who deserve it, and her stubbornness and quick anger will annoy you as a reader sometimes. But she is real, vivid and earthy, and unlike far too many fantasy protagonists, she has flaws. Moon’s military experience – she is an ex-Marine – informs her writing, which lends it realism. But it also serves to emphasize the boredom and tedium of much of a soldier’s life. This first novel ends with Paks patently deceiving herself about her future and her experiences.

The second novel is Divided Allegiance. Paks leaves the mercenary life she has known, rather than allow her services to be sold to causes she dislikes. Naive and inexperienced, she makes serious mistakes, has serious adventures, but begins to learn from them, and finally begins to break out of the stubborn shell of denial and to accept the role that has been cast for her. But she is captured by Dark Elves, who damage her, destroying what she thinks are the core strengths she possesses. The novel ends with Paks in dire circumstances.

The final novel is Oath of Gold, where Paks finally accepts that the gods of her world have tasks for her, and sets out to accomplish them. In a world where good and evil are near-absolute, where gods themselves grant power to characters who are “good” and to characters who are “evil,” aligning yourself with “good” sometimes means suffering at the hands of evil. As Paks grows to understand true courage and sets out to achieve the tasks that her gods have set for her, she grows to become a paladin, the religious knight of fantasy literature, in real ways. Because she is prepared to pay any price to achieve her goals, she becomes capable changing her world.

These were Moon’s first books. They have their flaws, and they are undeniably derivative to the role-playing game, “Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.” But saying that Moon wrote a dungeons and dragons ripoff is unfair; filet mignon and hamburger are fundamentally the same product, but a completely different experience. Moon started from the classic characters of AD&D – itself derivative to Tolkein and Lewis among others – and conceived a new universe around it, peopled by gods, demons, elves, dwarves, gnomes and humans. Her universe has a deep and rich history, with its shares of tragedy and loss, some half-glimpsed and some detailed. By contrast, what passes for history in AD&D, for the most part, resides in the players’ heads.

Others have criticized her world as illogical and inconsistent – where did all that steel come from, they ask? The point is valid, but looking for absolute logic in fantasy strikes me as unrealisistic and, in any event, that particular logical flaw can be traced back before Tolkein to T.H. White and Spencer. Moon’s universe is much more self-consistent than most and the inconsistencies do not detract.

Still others criticize Paksenarrion, who at the end is a religious knight, and complain the morally ambiguous Arvid is more interesting. That’s a problem endemic to literature. E.E. “Doc” Smith’s epic villain, DuQuesne, is vastly more interesting than the good guys who fight him; shucks, “Inferno” is by far the most interesting book in Dante’s “Divine Comedy.” We like moral ambiguity; perhaps those who are truly and completely good make us nervous and a little guilty. It’s easier to identify with Arvid.

Moon’s use of a heroine as the principle protagonist was pioneering. And her creation of a sometimes foolish and stubborn heroine at that, blind to some important issues, makes this book much better than most. Moon did not invent the naive or foolish protagonist; think of Ford Maddox Ford’s The Good Soldier. But she did pioneer the use of the device in epic fantasy. Like Tolkein and Ursula LeGuin’s Earthsea novels, Moon provides glimpses and fragments of deep history for her imagined world, and uses that deep history to inform its present. It’s skillfully done, and makes a reader wish for more stories from Pak’s world.

Overall, this is a compelling story, hardly Tolkein but far superior to 95% of the genre. This is a moving, well-told and well-cast tale. Strongly recommended.