Superior Weaponry

[poliphilo]

I dreamed I was carrying out a coup de'etat in a prehistoric society.   I dodged the arrows that were fired at me and slit the throats of the Big Man's bodyguards.  Know what decided it? They were using knapped flint and I was using bronze.

Comments

[saskia139.livejournal.com]

My immediate reaction to that is, "That's a past-life recall".

I accept reincarnation as the most sensible postulate, but I don't put a lot of energy into seeking memories of my own past lives; I think I tend to dwell on the past of *this* life too much, anyway. So it's not my usual first reaction to think something is a past-life memory, but that was my gut response here. For what it's worth. :)

[sovay]

Know what decided it? They were using knapped flint and I was using bronze.

"This is the Buyer of the Blade—be afraid!"

[oakmouse]

Bronze was a revolution all by itself.

Fascinating dream!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I believe in reincarnation too.

And I'm always on the look-out for things that might be past-life recall.

This does look promising, I'll admit, but I'm a little worried by the extent to which it flatters me. I look rather too good in it. If I hadn't cast myself as the hero I might have trusted it more.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

"This is the great god Tyr!"

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Perhaps the greatest revolution of them all.

[oakmouse]

I think metal-working was slightly above stone-working. Both of them made major changes possible, but metal is just that wee bit more versatile. Alloys add all sorts of options to the mix.

[currawong.livejournal.com]

You've got a lot of dreaming to do until you invent plastic.

[sovay]

Here.

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

Symbolism? The people with the most modern killing machines will win? Nukes vs. conventionals?
I am afraid, have been ever since as a young teenager I realized that we could not survive an Atomic bombing.
Question: If EVERYONE has "bronze" and NO-ONE is afraid to use it, then would ANYONE want to get into it?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I may be being influenced here by Kipling's (grossly unhistorical) story The Knife and the Naked Chalk, in which the invention of metal-working makes all the difference between people being at the mercy of their environment and mastering it.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

And do I really want to?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I hadn't thought of it as symbolic, but I suppose it is.

As a matter of historical fact everyone got into bronze- and then- in the next great leap forward- into iron. Metal-working wasn't just about the arm's race. It was also about better tools and fancier bling. There's only so much a stone-age culture can achieve.

[currawong.livejournal.com]

well it should keep you in dreams for a few hundred years.

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

Also true of nukes - remember "atoms for peace"? Nuclear medicine, nuclear power, etc.? Sad, isnt it, that each technological leap forward also carries a down side....

[oakmouse]

Kipling was indeed terribly ahistorical (although admittedly they didn't know as much about the sophistication of the Stone Age in his day as they do now). But still, metal is more versatile than stone in many cases, so he had a point. Not as big a point as he thought, but nonetheless a point.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Another mistake of his was to leap straight from stone to iron, cutting out the bronze age altogether.

In spite of all the historical howlers the story "feels" right- and is deeply moving.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

So many new technologies are spawned by war. The military use comes first, the civilian application follows after.