Messenger

The Idea

Many years ago, I read an article that suggested China’s One Child Policy had led to the existence of far more baby boys than baby girls. The article claimed the preference for sons over daughters (shared by many cultures) had led to the abortion of female foetuses and neglect of ill female babies and predicted that in the future, many Chinese men would be unable to find a Chinese wife. And so it has proved to be.

The article made me wonder whether women would be more powerful in society if they are scarce. (Evidence suggests the reverse is true, with poor women in particular vulnerable to being trafficked). I wrote Messenger in part to explore this question but also to explore how people might overcome historical antagonisms for the common good.

The Secondary World

Messenger takes place in a world deeply damaged by wars. The last war produced an illness with catastrophic effects on the grand northern city of Andhaka and precipitated the departure south of half its population. Over the years, those who stayed in the north and those who settled in the south, diverged physically and culturally. Both populations suffered dramatic declines in fertility, especially in the birth of girls.

The north is more mountainous than the south and divided from the south by plains subject to dangerous snowstorms in winter. Scattered forests harbour wild dogs and cats descended from domestic dogs and cats displaced by wars. Their savagery makes them dangerous to both herd animals and humans. The plains are traversed by communities of gay men (Travellers) who live a gypsy-like existence in beautifully ornamented wagons (wains) as they follow seasonal grazing routes with their animals. Travellers trade meat, cheese and leather products with Andhaka.

The southern population live in Stockades: smaller, scattered and more rustic settlements than the city of Andhaka. Each Mob (community) is led by a Boss who has absolute authority. The Mobs live by grazing herd animals around their Stockades. Skirmishes and sometimes deadly attacks by one Mob on another are not uncommon. Some Mobs also raid and rob the Traveller wains.

Both the north and south rely on horses and wagons for transport and since the last war, weapons are limited to bows, arrows and knives. Guns were shunned after the catastrophic consequences of the last war. Even so, remnant caches of guns and ammunition occasionally turn up.

Andhaka was originally both a Christian and Hindu city but these belief systems are now only evident in naming conventions and in the invocation of Christ or Vishnu in times of need.

The Music  

Messenger begins with Shanandra playing the harp and harps are referenced later in the story, so harp music seems fitting.

Deep Fantasy

Messenger explores the idea that a better world can be built by those of good will if they unite but the world of Messenger is one of separation and exclusion. Women are excluded from power by being rare and valuable. Abram confines his women in the Enclaves; the Andhakans confine theirs behind the city’s walls; and the whores are confined by the Ruins. And yet, as outsiders, the whores are the only women to have any level of autonomy.  

The Travellers are also outsiders but exclude others too. They provide refuge for men (and boys) expelled from the Mobs because of their sexuality, refusal to kill, or nonconformity, but exclude women and overtly heterosexual men.

The ultimate outsider in Messenger is Severine which makes her uniquely placed to be the harbinger of change. She is female; of mixed north-south parentage; raised by Travellers; and experienced in the life of the Mob's Stockade, the Enclaves, and Andhaka, and so achieves what Abram is unable to.

Severine inherits her father's fighting spirit, her mother's mindspeaking skills and, from the Travellers,  an understanding of the true meaning of love that, in various ways, she teaches Jeph.  Severine cannot achieve her quest to unite the north and south without Jeph's help, and Jeph cannot become a whole human being without Severine's.

The lack of women (and their traditionally gendered traits of love, connection and nurture) results in violent male-dominated societies in both the north and south. The savage packs of wild dogs and cats symbolise the breakdown of the pre-war society; Andhaka’s empty, ruined houses reflect the city's dead heart; and the northern leader’s cold pursuit of power costs him the warmth of family.

There are several motifs of the liminal (the place in between where characters change from what they were to what they will become). Jeph finally commits to Severine when he loses her in a blizzard (when the air is filled with snow and so is neither truly a gas nor truly a solid) and their antagonism dissipate in a cave (symbolic of the unconscious) where they shelter together. The cave overlooks the spot where Jeph’s father was killed and Severine’s mother buried. It is a place of death of the previous generation and of a (hopeful) beginning of the next generation.

Happy reading.