The Coming Race · Chapter
Chapter VII explained
The narrator is sworn to secrecy about his upper-world origins by Aph-Lin, who fears the disruptive potential of such knowledge.
What happens
The narrator is sworn to secrecy about his upper-world origins by Aph-Lin, who fears the disruptive potential of such knowledge. Zee explains the nature of vril, a unified force encompassing electricity, magnetism, and mental influence, which the Vril-ya use to control weather, minds, and bodies. The narrator describes the surface world, particularly American democracy and New York, but his account fails to impress his hosts, who view it with skepticism and concern.
Themes in this chapter
Technology and Power
Vril is depicted as a unified natural force that grants the Vril-ya immense control over their environment and minds, highlighting the theme of technological mastery.
Critique of Democracy and American Politics
The narrator's praise of American democracy and New York is met with skepticism, implicitly critiquing the ideals of democratic governance and progress.
Characters to notice
- The Narrator
Pledges secrecy about his world; describes American democracy and New York to the Vril-ya.
- Aph-Lin
Requests the narrator's silence about the upper world; questions him about surface life and expresses skepticism.
- Zee
Explains vril and its properties; uses vril to teach the narrator language and puts him to sleep with a gesture.
Key passages
“If you think as you say, that you, though a stranger, have received kindness at the hands of me and mine, I adjure you to reveal nothing to any other of our people respecting the world from which you came, unless, on consideration, I give you permission to do so.”
Aph-Lin asks the narrator to keep his origins secret to protect their society from potential harm.
This request underscores the Vril-ya's cautious isolationism and fear of external influence.
“I should call it electricity, except that it comprehends in its manifold branches other forces of nature, to which, in our scientific nomenclature, differing names are assigned, such as magnetism, galvanism, etc.”
Vril is a unified force that includes electricity, magnetism, and other natural energies, transcending human scientific categories.
This explanation aligns with 19th-century theories of a single underlying force in nature.