Throughout the first half of “The Coming Race”, the narrator
spends his time cataloguing the intricacies of the Vril-Ya. He describes the
fairness and equality of their society; everyone is considered equal and is treated
fairly. The society appears to be perfect, with no crime or destruction- the
race only seems to improve with time, discovering new technologies and
interbreeding with the higher races. Despite this superficial fairness and
tolerance, the Vril-Ya look down upon what they perceive to be the lower races,
who cannot harness and control the power of vril. To the Vril-Ya, these races
are barbarous and to be avoided at all costs. Even the narrator’s race is
looked upon with contempt: “…such were the feeble triflings with nature of our
savage forefathers…”(92). The Vril-Ya
may claim to always be respectful and compassionate, but they regard lower
humans with the greatest disdain. They even treat the animals they find useless
with more compassion, always making room for them to graze around the outskirts of their cities. The
lower races are referred to as “primeval savages who dwell in the most desolate
and remote recesses of uncultivated nature” and are compared to grotesque insects
and vermin: “as do many creeping, crawling and flying things”(51). How can a
race so proud of their equality and tolerance harbor such scorn for another
race? There is something amiss with this race- they cannot be nearly so fair
and reasonable as they claim. They despise these barbarous races, and even seem
to be practicing a form of social Darwinism, refusing to interbreed with these
uncivilized races, lest they taint their perfect evolution. This subterranean race is hiding much less sympathetic and impartial feelings and I can't wait to find out what will become of these views.
This is an interesting point: the Vril-ya definitely look down on the human race, but I wonder exactly where that feeling of superiority stems from. Human beings definitely hold ourselves higher than other forms of life, as a whole. There are some odd exceptions, such as the lengths that people (myself included) are willing to go for their pets, but in general people separate themselves from plants and animals. This can be justified by human technological advancements that make us "sophisticated" and "superior" to other species--but is this not what the Vril-ya are using to justify their own dominance over the human race? The Vril-ya are indeed compassionate and accepting to their own kind, but this treatment does not extend to other species. This can be used as a criticism, but I think that this criticism would also apply to human beings.
ReplyDeleteLack of true compassion, I agree, underlies the Vril-ya's hypocrisy. And in a way, this help us relate more easily with the Vril-ya, since we as a human race also suffer from our own hypocrisy. If so, the fact that the Vril-ya discriminate against those whom they deem barbaric and unintelligent can prove that this novel is a social commentary of the Victorian Era, an age where genuine mutual understanding between cultures did not unfortunately catch up with their mutual encounter. At the same time, however, I feel hesitant to make a definitive conclusion as to the true intention of portraying the Vril-ya as a race full of themselves. I feel so because, as we discussed in class, Bulwer Lytton did not see child labor as a major ethical issues. Assuming that this were true, who's to say that he saw the contradicting nature of the elitists, let alone deemed it such a troubling hypocrisy that needed to be addressed? Probably as he fashioned this Vril-ya race after the upper-class of the time, he simply overlooked this fallacy of their because he was one of them too. But yes, any rate, only by finishing this book can we come closer to unraveling the nature of the Vril-ya, and ultimately the true intention of the author.
ReplyDelete