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THE MOUNT THE
MOUNT, like ANIMAL FARM, uses a fantastic other world to mount a
courageous critique of our own. In this world, humans are used by
an alien race in much the same way that we use horses, as mounts and
work animals. A young mount, raised to a complacent, healthy
stupidity as the pampered prize mount of an alien prince, begins to
have glimmerings of consciousness as he learns bits and pieces of his
history.
The compelling centerpiece of the story is his ambivalence as he is attracted to his oppressors and disgusted by his own people. Emshwiller's writing is very controlled in THE MOUNT, but the restraint makes the horror that wells up all the more powerful. When she describes the protagonist's feelings of pride in his racing silks and his willingness to betray his own kind for a strawberry treat, it is not to denounce the protagonist but to confess complicity in the shame of collaboration, to proclaim that the decision to resist domination is a very difficult one indeed. Ultimately, Emshwiller suggests that the solution to oppression is not the slaughter of the oppressors but self-knowledge and the courage to demand what one needs. She suggests that coexistence without domination is possible and desirable. It is an optimistic conclusion, and while this happy ending is not entirely convincing, it does not give away what Emshwiller has earned getting there. --C. B. Coble |