Jeffrey Kiok <blackbird0 at yahoo.com> writes: > Greetings everyone. I've long been an avid reader of Steven Brust. > I've read most of his works, and I just recently found this e-mail > list. Let me preface my question saying that I suppose it is of a > personal nature, certainly touching upon the personal politics of > Mr. Brust and his family, and I apologize if Mr. Brust finds it > offensive, or forward. > > I once was telling a friend about Steven Brust's book, recommending > them in fact, when my friend told me that once reading in a book about > the Minneapolis Teamsters' stike in 34', the name of two Brusts (Jean > being one) being active in that movement. I could not help but be > suprised, as Steven Brust would have been much too young to > participate in that, I figured it must've been his parents or other > relatives. I was unable to find all that much information linking > them; however, I found a clip on the internet listing prominent labour > activists in Minneapolis that linked Jean Brust as the mother of a > Steven Brust. Steven's parents were Jean and Bill Brust, and they were certainly active in left politics in the area throughout their lives. A very brief biography touching on some of that, taken from his final book edited by his wife, can be found online at <http://www.mnhs.org/library/findaids/P2143.html> (the Minnesota Historical Society appears to have Bill's papers in their collection). However, the timing is off for the example you cite, since Jean married Bill in 1948, so wouldn't have been Jean Brust in 1934. (The bio has Bill graduating from highschool in 1937, so 1934 is a little early for him to be terribly visible in the labor movement I'd have thought.) Now, I don't know what Bill's parents were named; it's not in the bio and I don't remember, if I ever heard. There *could* have been a "Jean Brust" of that generation, for all I know. (His parents came from Hungary, bringing Bill with them, in 1920, it says here, as a result of having been on the losing side in the 1919 Hungarian revoluion.) > Now, I brought this all up to ask I suppose a simple question. I > certainly noticed, while reading Teckla that there undeniable > political undercurrents in the whole concept of Teckla movement, and > certainly specifically in Kelly's movement. I was wondering, does > Kelly's movement embody any sort of modern (I use the word modern > because Dragaeran politics certainly don't fit in any concept of a > "modern" political system) revolution of labour theory. I ask this > because I always had a nagging suspicion that they were of a "leftist" > tendency. After seeing the beliefs of what I believe are Mr. Steven > Brust's parents, I would be inclined to answer that Kelly's group > does. I certainly do not mean to offend or to pry into Mr. Brust's > personal life and I apologize if I so do and I retract this message if > it does. Interesting. I don't study the detailed cladistics of the left with sufficient energy to be able to tell you if Kelly's movement exactly matches any movement on Earth in its beliefs, but it certainly struck me as very typical of the communist left, probably some piece that uses "workers" in its name. It's really quite a tragedy; Earthly revolutionary theory doesn't actually make much sense on Dragaera, where the Empire and its monarchy really IS ordained and protected by the gods, and controlled by the cycle. The Teckla revolution has no chance until it's their turn. You don't ask about Steven's personal life in this part that I can see; the question of whether Kelly's group is anything like politics on Earth being different from the question of whether it's like *Steven's* politics or the politics of any other actual person. Authors, as you know, often write about characters and groups that they don't fully agree with. -- David Dyer-Bennet, <mailto:dd-b at dd-b.net>, <http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/> RKBA: <http://noguns-nomoney.com> <http://www.dd-b.net/carry/> Photos: <dd-b.lighthunters.net> Snapshots: <www.dd-b.net/dd-b/SnapshotAlbum/> Dragaera/Steven Brust: <http://dragaera.info/>