The Last Temptation III

More curious features of James Blish's "A Style in Treason" (Anywhen, New York, 1970):

(i) Some professional traitors are valuable because they can never have an identity crisis but Simon is High Earth's most distinguished traitor because he has them regularly (p. 15). I am not sure what this means.

(ii) "'...Gro's own horns...'" (p. 54) ER Eddison's Gro was a member of a horned race, as far as I remember, although this cannot be true of the Traitors' Guilds' Lord Gro.

(iii) Lord Gro writes that the question why entrust traitors with important information should never be answered but he writes this in The Discourses which therefore are not public documents?

(iv) Simon's original mission was simply to bribe the Boadacean Traitor-in-Chief, Valkol, but, when this failed, he had to devise an alternative plan. However, I am still not clear how offering Valkol documents damaging to High Earth, then adding further documentation for a Boadacea-High Earth alliance when Valkol was not expecting this was supposed to work.

(v) Gro writes that traitors should have no personal loyalty to rulers because it "...tears the economic tissue..." and that "For the professional, loyalty is a tool, not a value." (p. 28) But Simon is motivated throughout by obligation to High Earth and hatred of the Green Exarch, not by economics, and the story would have taken a strange turn if he had suddenly accepted a large payment from Boadacea and hidden from High Earth, as Da-Ud suggests.

(vi) Did Simon come to Boadacea to bribe, "...to gull..." or to forge an alliance? (p. 29)

(vii) High Earth has ways of showing displeasure with "...failed traitors..." (pp. 38-39) So they expect him to forge an alliance with Boadacea, not to sell them out, even though he is a "traitor" with no personal loyalty to them?

There may be more but that is it for now.

28/4/13: (viii) Why will Simon be no further use to High Earth after his experience on Boadacea?

The Last Temptation II

Despite his status as a "traitor," Simon de Kuyl remains loyal to High Earth throughout James Blish's "A Style in Treason" and we would be shocked if he did anything else. Simon tells Da-Ud that he, Simon, must complete his mission but does not tell him what it is.

Since the Boadacean Traitors' Guild has killed Da-Ud's half-sister while she was with Simon, both have a motive to cheat the Guild but how is Simon's deception meant to accomplish this? Using the Rood-Prince's "...toposcope-scriber..." and "...brain-dictation laboratory..." (I am not sure what these are), he generates documents purporting to show that he has sold to Da-Ud partial evidence that High Earth has conspired against several major human powers "'...for purposes of gaining altitude with the Green Exarch." (Anywhen, New York, 1970, pp. 33, 34) Both High Earth and the Exarch would pay for such documents. Da-Ud is to tell the Guild that the remaining evidence is also for sale at a higher price. However, this is a "...double blind..." (p. 35)

When Da-Ud has dealt with the Guild and suggests that Simon directly sell them the remaining evidence instead of cheating them, Simon senses that Da-Ud is helping the Guild against him. He proposes to sell the remaining evidence to the Rood-Prince so that the Guild can acquire it by attacking the Principality, thus saving Simon from assassination by a hypothetical second agent from Earth if he is seen to approach the Guild directly with the information.

When Simon, having been captured, is interrogated by the Traitor-in-Chief of Boadacea, he informs the latter that the apparently human representative of the Exarch who is with him is in fact a vombis, a metamorph entirely loyal to the Exarch. Then he turns his coat under Guild laws, offering the information which was not found in the attack on the Principality but to Boadacea, not to the Exarch. His stated motive is that he wants to deal fairly with Boadacea, then become honest with himself. His offer accepted, he writes the requested document, whose authenticity can be confirmed toposcopically, and adds an alliance with High Earth, which was his object from the start.

An alliance with High Earth would not have been acceptable as long as Boadacea was linked to the Exarch but Simon has severed this link by revealing the identity of the vombis and by the impressive elegance of his surrender. Does this make sense?