From: mcconnel@Chaos.mcs.kent.edu (Mike McConnell)
Subject: Re: BOOKS BY DAVID EDDINGS
Organization: Kent State University
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 16:36:55 GMT

In article <0149@calsci.UUCP>, al@calsci.UUCP (Al Petterson) writes:
|>   
|> Since we're all mouthing off about the Belgariad, I'll put in my comments,
|> since I haven't seen anything posted yet about this aspect of the series.
|> 
|> I found it light, fluffy, and generally enjoyable, but with an unpleasant
|> aftertaste for this reason: the nationalities were all incredibly
|> stereotyped.  Granted, the stereotypes were *interesting* at least met as
|> individuals, but I found it not only unbelievable ("Everyone from nation A
|> is sneaky but with a heart of gold!  Everyone from nation B is a witless
|> dupe of evil!  Everyone from culture C is an untrustworthy backstabber!" and
|> so on) but frankly racist.  Yes, sure it's escapist fantasy, but I look for
|> cleaner morals when I want to escape.
|> 
|> Now if the story is compelling *enough* I can accept a certain amount of
|> unpleasant moral assumption (Mote in God's Eye, Dune, Watchmen, and Starship
|> Troopers come to mind) but the Belgariad simply wasn't good enough to
|> warrant that kind of cavalier fascistic morality.  It didn't make a moral
|> statement, as far as I'm concerned, and there was no reason given for the
|> racist assumptions in the underlying structure.
|> 
|> By the latter I mean: in Mote, the reason and background for human society's
|> militaristic and sexist attitudes were well-established;  in Dune the
|> genetic superiority of the Fremen was a central concept in the epic.  in ST,
|> Heinlein based the whole story around a disagreeable morality and at least
|> made several points about it.  There is no such rationale given in the
|> Belgariad for *why* the Murgos (do I have the nation right?) were *all*
|> *evil*.  Maybe there was in the later stories but from all accounts they are
|> otherwise inferior works.

   I'll start by saying that I agree with your general statements about the books.  I read the Belgaried about ten years back when I was an undergrad and remember that I enjoyed them, as diiid a number of my friends.  In fact, the waited in line for me to finish each new book as it came out.  Then last year I got the first book of the second series (The Mallornian?) and found it rather trite and boring.  
   However, to address your question, why does each race in Eddings' work have a racial characteristic that is shared by all of its memebers?  (Or at least I think this is a reasonable paraphrase of your question.)  This is because each race is directly under one of the gods of the world, and each god has this personality, i.e. the people of the race take on (perhaps must take on) the characteristics of their patron deity.  Perhaps this fits into the idea that the worlds of many fantasy stories are macroco



sms, where the conflict on a global scale represents conflict on a personal scale (in some ways a holdover of old morality tales?).  I am not, however, suggesting that fine old traditions make up for poor writing, or that practices that are acceptable in the general condone racist undertones.

Mike McConnell
Dept. of Mathematics and Computer Sciences
Kent State University