Roger Zelazny is in my Head

In his story “The Great Slow Kings”, Roger Zelazny tells of Drax and Dran who rule the planet Glan.  One day, after long debate, these two kings send their sole remaining subject, the robot Zindrome, off in the only functioning spaceship of a once-mighty fleet.  The robot’s mission: to find new subjects for the kings to rule.  In due course, Zindrome returns with two warm-blooded beings.  Although the creatures are sedated, the kings see them as blurs.  When the aliens awaken, they vanish from the kings’ sight.


Zindrome is sent off to retrieve more subjects, and he returns before Drax and Dran have decided upon how they will rule their future kingdom.  It appears that Zindrome returned to the creatures’ world only to find its inhabitants had progressed to the nuclear era, and in a terrible war, annihilated their species.  However, many years have passed on Glan in Zindrome’s absence, and due to geological shifts, the palace is buried under layers of rock.  The warm-blooded subjects released earlier have multiplied and spread all over Glan, but their descendants are unaware of the kings’ existence.  The kings listen with outrage as Zindrome reports that these creatures have learned to forge weapons and are killing each other.  So the kings decide to issue a proclamation that will both alert their subjects to their presence and end all future violence.  Unfortunately, before Drax and Dran can determine the proper structure and wording of this document, their subjects also develop nuclear weapons and destroy themselves.


In regards to this blog, two competing forces battle inside my head.  One is called Production, the other, Perfection.  One argues for daily output, the other, for original ideas, optimum structure, and precise wording.  One wants to publish new material every day, the other argues that what I post should be substantive.  Eventual entries represent a compromise forced upon these adversaries.  While I feel reasonably proud of most of what I’ve published, I yearn to become more prolific.


Thus Zelazny’s Drax and Dran don’t only live on Glan, they reside in my head, and fight for dominance in each of yours.  They may argue over different issues for each individual, but one will always represent action, the other, inaction.  Listen too closely to one, and you can produce much of little consequence; give undue credence to the other, and you only delay action on the issues that matter the most to you.  Likewise, Drax and Dran battle on in our community structures: in our churches, clubs, and committees, and yes, even in our government.  How we learn to compromise those competing voices at all levels determine not only whether we accomplish our personal goals, but the nature of the world that we will deliver to the next generation. 


Leave it to Roger Zelazny to pry open my skull and understand what he sees there.


“The Great Slow Kings,” along with poetry and other short stories from his early writing career, can be found in The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny, Volume One: Threshold.  The book is available from Nesfa Press.


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Deliberations and Decisions
A Defining Moment
Controlled By Chaos