"Hard sf is, essentially, a right-wing form. By that, I mean that the underlying principle of all hard sf is that the law is all, the law of nature is inflexible and must be obeyed at all times. There is no appeal; Marilyn must die, because absolute and unquestioning obedience to the law is the be-all and end-all of existence in a hard universe. The relationship between humanity and its environment that James Gunn talked about is one of subservience, the individual, one’s self, does not matter in this universe, ignorance of the law is a capital crime. Although ‘The Cold Equations’ is one of the very few hard sf stories that makes it explicit; more usually some competent man (and it is invariably a man) will find some way to bend the law, like a cosmic Dirty Harry. But when it comes right down to it, for most people you either do as you are told, or you die. And in this instance, it is no coincidence that it is a girl who must die. ... I cannot help but feel that ‘The Cold Equations’ is, however unintentionally, a story about inhumanity used to disguise a failure to relate to the environment. The laws of the universe may be rigid, but in this story humanity has not learned how to live within the law."
Posted on: Sun, 01 Sep 2013 16:07:42 +0000
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