The Currents of Space - Isaac Asimov

'Junz grimaced. "You make interstellar politics sound like a very dirty game." "It is, but disapproving of dirt doesn't remove it."'

The Currents of Space is the second book, in terms of when it takes place in Asimov's books set before the Foundation. So it comes after The Stars, Like Dust, but before Pebble in the Sky (which I'll have to track down). We've leapt far enough ahead that Trantor has half the Galaxy under its control, Earth is some nondescript world in the Sirius Sector, and there's little certainty as to what world humanity started on, or even if it started on just one world.

At this point, Trantor is trying to proceed diplomatically. They have enough planets under their control that using force willy-nilly would cast them as a bully for others to resist, but they don't control enough worlds where they can ignore that problem. One world not under their control is Sark, which controls the trade of the mysterious fiber kyrt. Kyrt's a wondrous thing, but it only grows on Florina, which is controlled by Sark. Attempts to produce it anywhere else in the galaxy results in ordinary cotton. So the Sarkites are pretty well off (a few of them, anyway). The Florians are the underclass, the laborers, treated as idiots who must refer to all Sakites as sir and not even look at Sarkite women.

Except there was a Spatio-analyst who found something that meant doom for Florina, for Sark, and he believed for the entire galaxy. Unfortunately, he fell into hands uninterested in that information being released, and he was psycho-probed. What was left of him was practically a newborn, no memories, didn't even know how to walk or talk, and was dumped in a ditch near a village on Florina, where the local Townman entrusted him to Valona, a young woman with no other family. He was given the name Rik, which means roughly "moron". Except Rik is starting to remember, and that's setting a lot of wheels in motion: on Florina, on Sark, within Trantor's government.

I'm going to guess Asimov was commenting on the continuing segregation in the United States (or maybe the world in general) when he wrote this in 1951. The ways in which the Sarkites dismiss the Florians, how the law enforcement is largely deferential to Sarkites, but feel free to harass or bully Florians, the way in which even well-meaning Sarkites treat Florians like essentially animals, talking about not frightening them, speaking somewhat down to them. Samia is the daughter of the most powerful man on Sark, and while she certainly means well, she clearly doesn't understand anything about Florians.

The Sarkites have even gone to the level of using school to determine the most gifted Florians, bringing them to Sark for training for civil service, which not only teaches them deference to Sarkites, but also places them in positions where they are forbidden to procreate. The idea being, the smartest Florians will be weeded out of the gene pool, producing a duller, more docile race of workers. It's like what farmers did with livestock, which is incredibly creepy, and yet, was no doubt proposed here on our world by some racist at some point or another. This does raise the question of who is going to run the government of Sark, as it is obvious the Florians do all the work. But it's also apparent the Sarkites' control is not nearly as absolute as they think it is. There's something a little encouraging in that, that arrogance and complacency will help undercut horrible ideas when they're applied.

That's hardly a great takeaway, but I wouldn't exactly call this a book to inspire confidence in authority. The man Junz is speaking to in the quote at the top is Trantor's ambassador to Sark, and he's hardly an idealist. He's as willing as the Sarkites to sacrifice the Florians in exchange for keeping a steady flow of that kyrt. It's only when circumstances shift, when that becomes irrelevant, that he decides to push for his government to do the right thing. At which point it's the right thing done for the wrong reasons. Maybe doesn't matter much from the perspective of the Florians (though I'm sure they wish Trantor had interceded sooner), but for us, looking down from on high, it's pretty depressing.

But again, nothing new. How many times have governments let people suffer because it wasn't economically beneficial to help them? Syria has been a freaking disaster area for what, a year now, and no country steps in. Because they fear some backlash if they do or some foolishness. I'm sure the same shit was going on 60 years ago when Asimov wrote this, with the U.S. and the Soviets in pissing matches over one country or another, but never actually concerned about the people in that country. Not an uplifting thought that we haven't progressed in six decades.

Speaking of depressing, there's also a point where one Florian, having had enough of being looked down upon and has gone a bit nuts, grabs her and kisses her. He's pulled off before he can go any further, and I'm not clear on whether he intended to. It's not addressed how Samia felt about it - she largely falls out of the story after that - and the primary aspect about Asimov focuses on is that someone took a picture and it would be a crushing blow to her father's position for his daughter to be kissed by a Florian. Diplomatic games of leverage, you see. I wasn't comfortable with that part. Maybe if we'd gotten her thoughts on it afterward, that she was scared because he lunged at her, but realized it was foolish to care about the fact he was a Florian or something. All we get is that she's clearly distraught, but that may be her fear that she's hurt her father somehow, rather than any distress at what happened to her.

All the depressing undercurrents aside, this did feel more like an Asimov story than the previous one. Far less melodrama, people matching wits, people forced to decide where their allegiances lie, a mystery as to who psycho-probed Rik. The story zips along, there's always something happening. Character's on the run, or fencing verbally, or someone coming to an important decision about themselves, the book doesn't really lag anywhere.