The Coming Race · Chapter
Chapter XVII explained
The narrator describes the Vril-ya's division of time, their longer lifespan, and the absence of seasons.
What happens
The narrator describes the Vril-ya's division of time, their longer lifespan, and the absence of seasons. He learns about their serene society, which lacks ambition, crime, and political strife, and contrasts it with the savage Koom-Posh societies that resemble the upper world. Aph-Lin explains why literature, especially poetry, has declined among the Vril-ya due to the absence of strong passions and social change.
Themes in this chapter
Utopian Society and Its Costs
The Vril-ya's perfect society lacks ambition, crime, and strong passions, leading to a decline in literature and individual distinction.
Critique of Democracy and American Politics
Aph-Lin's description of Koom-Posh directly parallels democratic and capitalist societies, criticizing their inequality and conflict.
The Limits of Human Happiness
The Vril-ya's serene happiness comes at the cost of artistic and emotional depth, questioning whether such tranquility is truly fulfilling.
Gender Roles and Female Empowerment
The Gy chooses her mate and is responsible for domestic happiness, suggesting a unique but limited form of female agency.
Characters to notice
- The Narrator
Observes Vril-ya timekeeping, longevity, and social tranquility; expresses horror at the Vril-ya's power over Koom-Posh.
- Aph-Lin
Explains Vril-ya time divisions, the absence of seasons, the decline of literature, and the barbaric nature of Koom-Posh societies.
- Gy
Mentioned as the female who chooses her mate and ensures domestic happiness.
- Koom-Posh
Described as a low stage of being with perpetual conflict, inequality, and savagery, contrasted with Vril-ya civilization.
Key passages
“They are not tormented by our avarice or our ambition; they appear perfectly indifferent even to the desire of fame; they are capable of great affection, but their love shows itself in a tender and cheerful complaisance, and, while forming their happiness, seems rarely, if ever, to constitute their woe.”
The Vril-ya are free from greed, ambition, and the pursuit of fame; their love is gentle and brings happiness without causing sorrow.
Highlights the Vril-ya's emotional tranquility and lack of passionate turmoil.
“When they do not fight with their neighbours, they fight among themselves. They are divided into sections, which abuse, plunder, and sometimes murder each other, and on the most frivolous points of difference that would be unintelligible to us if we had not read history, and seen that we too have passed through the same early state of ignorance and barbarism.”
Koom-Posh societies are constantly at war internally and externally over trivial matters, resembling humanity's own barbaric past.
Critique of democratic societies as primitive and self-destructive.
“We have no events to chronicle. What more of us can be said than that ‘they were born, they were happy, they died?’”
The Vril-ya have no history worth recording because their lives are uniformly peaceful and uneventful.
Explains the absence of historical literature in Vril-ya culture.