Dragaera

Orca, Banks (was: God's rocks)

Wed Feb 26 10:43:05 PST 2003

On Wed, 26 Feb 2003, John Klein wrote:

> On Tue, 25 Feb 2003, Gomi no Sensei wrote:
>
> @> > (I always took Orca as an indictment of banking and bankers specifically,
> @> > rather than just money in general, but maybe I'm reading too much into it.)
> @>
> @> That's an...interesting...interpretation of the text, to say the least
> @>
> @> It appeared to me at the time (and still does) that the banks and system
> @> of trade were _crucial_ to the smooth functioning of the Empire, and the
> @> indictment was of the sort of fraudulent shenanigans Fyres pulled off,
> @> because they monkeywrenched that smooth functioning. Saying that a
> @> financial crisis induced by fraud is an indictment of the whole concept
> @> of banking seems kind of, well, projection of personal beliefs onto the
> @> text.
>
> Could be, could be. Although I don't actually believe that banks are evil,
> so probably not. Looking back at the events of the book, I'm not sure why
> I believed this, but I'm sure there's a good reason. Guess I'll have to
> re-read it.

For one thing, Vlad's not fond of Orcas, both because of his childhood and
his interactions in _O_.  (See the interesting dialogue in _O_ chapter 14
about him liking people more when he gets to know them except in this
case.)  For another, the banking system of the Empire is described as
being rife with corruption and for that matter being more or less designed
to become rife (Kiera doesn't suggest not making stupid loans as a way of
making profit, for example, in Chapter 13; also the regulators seem to be
readily corruptible, and those who oversee them are stupid, and ...)