Inspiration and Relation To Other Works
The book's narrative describes a historical framework which serves as a setting for a number of Resnick's other woks of fiction, including the novels Ivory, A Miracle of Rare Design, and Santiago.
The story is very obviously inspired by Resnick's personal interest in Africa. Mankind's behavior and motivation is a direct continuation of 16th to 19th century European colonialism and imperialism: ruthless exploitation and domination of other cultures, justified by an ideology of racial superiority. "Birthright" is based on the speculation that this behavior could be a fundamental trait of humans, which would be exhibited in just the same way towards extraterrestrial aliens. The later part is apparently based on the rather less speculative notion that seemingly invincible empires can and invariably do crumble and disappear, often quite quickly. History provides numerous examples, including Ancient Rome, the Mongol and British Empires and the domain of Alexander the Great.
"Birthright" can also be seen as the antithesis of the SF stereotype of vicious, dangerous aliens who threaten mankind, as seen e.g. in Starship Troopers, the Predator and Alien movies, and many others. In Birthright, it is mankind itself that is the most vicious and dangerous of galactic races, also the basis for Resnick's short story With Friends Like These and works by others, such as The Damned trilogy by Alan Dean Foster.
Read more about this topic: Birthright: The Book Of Man
Famous quotes containing the words inspiration, relation and/or works:
“As one knows the poet by his fine music, so one can recognise the liar by his rich rhythmic utterance, and in neither case will the casual inspiration of the moment suffice. Here, as elsewhere, practice must precede perfection.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“There is a certain standard of grace and beauty which consists in a certain relation between our nature, such as it is, weak or strong, and the thing which pleases us. Whatever is formed according to this standard pleases us, be it house, song, discourse, verse, prose, woman, birds, rivers, trees, room, dress, and so on. Whatever is not made according to this standard displeases those who have good taste.”
—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)
“And when discipline is concerned, the parent who has to make it to the end of an eighteen-hour day—who works at a job and then takes on a second shift with the kids every night—is much more likely to adopt the survivor’s motto: “If it works, I’ll use it.” From this perspective, dads who are even slightly less involved and emphasize firm limits or character- building might as well be talking a foreign language. They just don’t get it.”
—Ron Taffel (20th century)