The Speculist

If You Can't Laugh About Terrorism...

Robert Zubrin — our good friend, outspoken critic of the space program, author of The Case for Mars — has either lost his mind or charted out a brilliant new course for himself. Or maybe it's a little of both.

His new book is a novel (okay), a science fiction novel (makes sense), a satire of the War on Terrorism (huh?) According to a review found on the well-named FantasticReviews website:

The story opens when a race of galactics called Minervans occupy the town of Kennewick, Washington, which they claim as their ancient homeland. For those of you unfamiliar with the state of Washington (like the Minervans, I call it my homeland), Kennewick is a dusty little town in apple-growing country, about as unlikely a piece of real estate for people to fight over as . . . you guessed it. Although Zubrin never mentions it, Kennewick’s main claim to fame is that it is the home of Kennewick Man, whose fossilized remains certain Native American groups have disgracefully sought to conceal from scientific study. One suspects that in the universe of The Holy Land, Kennewick Man was a Minervan from the time before they emigrated into space.

The Minervans are looking for a quiet place to escape the persecution they have suffered at the hands of other space-faring civilizations, including a recent attempt by one of the major galactic empires to exterminate them completely. Kennewick proves a poor choice.

The United States government, largely controlled by Christian fundamentalists, finds the presence of these pagans on American land intolerable. It launches a military campaign, which the Minervans defeat with their technological superiority.

It shouldn't be too hard to see the parallels with the events of 1948. After the "U.S." suffers this defeat, they adopt a new strategy:

Unable to evict the Minervans by force, the US government turns to guile. It forces former residents of Kennewick, most of whom had already settled in other parts of the country, to live in squalor in refugee camps outside Kennewick, then trains the refugees’ children to carry out attacks on the Minervans.

All of this is designed to generate bad publicity for the Minervans and sympathy for the “Kennewickian” refugees. The other galactic races, including the largest galactic power, the Western Galactic Empire (“WGE”), are shocked by the Minervan mistreatment of the Kennewickian refugees and the atrocities against the Kennewickian children.

You can see why Zubrin decided to make this a science fiction story. If you set a story like this in the real world, it would be too absurd to be believed.

Oh...yeah. Right.

Matters are complicated when Earth is found to possess huge reserves of helicity, a valuable resource necessary for space travel. The proceeds of helicity sales soon begin to line the pockets of corrupt American officials. Some of the funds are used to purchase anti-telepathy devices. These devices facilitate suicide attacks against the WGE, beginning with the hijacking of four spaceships, three of which succeed in destroying WGE planets.

The WGE is well aware that Earthlings carried out these attacks, but is reluctant to take action that might interrupt its supply of helicity. The Americans, aided by an extremely friendly galactic press, try to persuade the WGE to place the blame on the Minervans, on the theory that their mistreatment of the Kennewickians caused the whole situation. Failing that, the US tries to divert WGE reprisals to Peru and Mexico, where the terrorist training camps were located. Never mind that the terrorists were Americans, funded by Americans.

Read the whole review.

I just got my hands on a copy of the book last night, so I can't recommend it yet. But I have to say that I like the idea and I'll be disappointed if I don't enjoy it.

I'm sure some will find it offensive that Zubrin attempts to draw humor out of a tragic situation, but there's something to be said for looking at these events from arms' length. As a warblogger-sympathizer, I tend to bristle at the suggestion that our invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan were somehow diversions. But Zubrin isn't saying they were; he's just pointing out the absurdity of attacking "Peru and Mexico" while still claiming to be friends with the "US" And that situation is absurd. Others might object that it wasn't really the Israel/Palestine situation that inspired Osama to attack the WTC. That's true, although incursions into the "holy land" of Saudi Arabia were one of his major beefs. Plus, I think you have to allow for some artistic license in a work like this.

I was at an event last night at which Zubrin spoke about The Holy Land to a group of science fiction fans. The members of the group had read the book in anticipation of the event; most of them appeared to like it quite a bit. That response may have been colored somewhat by the fact that they were face-to-face with the author. Still, I was encouraged by their response because the group was in no wise conservative or pro-war (one expressed an admiration for Michael Moore; another for Noam Chomsky). And yet, none of them took issue with the basic premise of the book: that the situation in the Middle East is logically and morally absurd.

Perhaps the artifices of satire really do help to get the point across. In any case, I would expect this book to be of great interest throughout the blogosphere. I hope it gets some lively discussion going.

Posted by Phil at October 23, 2003 07:02 AM | TrackBack