The Connatic - Part I
Introduced in Trullion: Alastor 2262 (1973), Jack Vance's Alastor trilogy contains a splendid idea in the form of the ruler of the Gaean Reach's five trillion souls: The Connatic. Vance only briefly touches on this character throughout the Alastor trilogy, and yet in reading it one can easily imagine and feel the unique balancing power this enigmatic character holds. Despite having over-Whelming (pun intended) power to enact and enforce any policy desired, I find that The Connatic is characterized as being so very aware of the random nature of his blessed existence, and with that understanding comes a wonderfully light and mellow ruling hand on the galactic scale.
Describing this aspect of The Connatic is one of my favorite Jack Vance passages. Below is said quote from The Connatic himself, from Chapter XIX of Trullion: Alastor 2262:
Note that the "Fanscherade" referenced below is a youth movement of sorts centered on the idea "that each person must establish exalted goals, and fulfill them if he can". In failure: "he fails honorably and has satisfaction in his striving". And thus, the "Fanchers" referenced here indicates those persons engaged in the pursuit of Fanscherade.
The Connatic made a wry gesture. “I enjoy the comradeship of the public house, the country inn, the dockside tavern. I travel the worlds of Alastor and everywhere I find people whom I find subtle and fascinating, people whom I love. Each individual of the five trillion is a cosmos in himself; each is irreplaceable, unique ... Sometimes I find a man or a woman to hate. I look into their faces and I see malice, cruelty, corruption. Then I think, these folk are equally useful in the total scheme of things; they act as exemplars against which virtue can measure itself. Life without contrast is food without salt ... As Connatic I must think in terms of policy; then I see only the aggregate man, whose face is a blur of five trillion faces. Toward this man I feel no emotion. So it was in the Vale of Green Ghosts. Fanscherade was doomed from its inception; was ever a man so fey as Junius Farfan? There are survivors, but there are no more Fanschers. Some will doff their uniforms and once more become Trills. Some will move on to other worlds. A few may become starmenters. A stubborn few may persist as Fanschers in their personal lives. And all who participated will remember the great dream and will feel men apart from those who did not share the glory and the tragedy.”
Amazing. We should only wish for the leaders of our world to have such a refreshing take on their role in shepherding in a better future for our world. I think we should pass some laws such that all elite civil service roles are required to undertake an orbital lap around the Earth in order to expand the scale of their vision.
An additional interesting bit from this passage is that last sentence about the Fanschers. To me, it invokes the same perception that the hobbits of The Lord of the Rings' must have experienced in their return to The Shire after their remarkable adventure...the feeling of being hobbits apart.
Hopefully more to come on The Connatic in the future. Thanks!