History Of The Creadds (Ch.13d)

Chapter 13d : History of the Creadds

Janus had finally reached a decision.  His present lifestyle of the last few months had reached the end of its term.  Life would have to take a turn.  It had begun with enthusiasm and a sense of freedom from routine and the slavery of work.  With relish he had produced art, researched critically assessed history, created a work of literature and written much of a book on the social and economic ills of present day society.  Janus had stated what he felt was wrong with the present and uncovered certain brave and more human centred approaches to human society of the past but he had reached no straightforward conclusions about where he wished society to be in the future in an ideal world.  Still less had he achieved much in his consideration of how it would be possible to move society in that direction.  He knew that probably only by degrees and in countless small achievements made by many people all working in their own areas of life, would it be possible to shift society in more human centred directions.  But the sense of direction was the most important thing even if the goals were unclear.  The time of thinking and creating had come to an end.

The last few weeks had become a futile living hell of dissatisfaction for him.  He had run out of things to say and lost the will to create.  At first he tried to resist what he saw as laziness.  He had continued to attempt to create.  In his own little private world he had set himself huge tasks and projects to complete.  After each project was complete there was always another one, grander, more adventurous than the last.  Then came the realisation that this phase of his life, the fruition of the earlier experiences of his working life was ending.  He had already said in his work a large part of what he needed to say.  An individual writer or artist has only so much to say at any one time.  Too many such people are forced to create more than they actually feel.  There are a limited number of stories and important ideals in each person’s brain.  Janus would need further life experience before he would do any substantial work again, except so much as was necessary for his own relaxation.

He had begun to wander more in the outside world and spent more time absorbing Vidscreen than doing his own work.  He had decide to present the writings he had already done to publishers.  For some weeks he had been editing his own work, rewriting certain sections into more readable form, filling in the gaps, cutting repetitious paragraphs.  Some of his histories had been published some months before.  Much to his surprise they had been accepted by a small publishing firm with licences to “bank” their output on Vidbase.  They had been anxious for more books to publish because their income relied upon continual output.  Too few of the books they had published over the years had been remembered as classics or discovered in the recesses of Vidbase by many consumers after the initial period of advertising.  It was rarely cost effective to drag up old works from the Vidbase and advertise them through the main Vidscreen channels.  The publishers would have to pay many credits for that.  The public were not generally imaginative in their choice of entertainment, the working life left little time for the growth of the individual’s artistic interests.  They liked their entertainment fast and fun without too much detail.  Most of them appeared not to be interested in history.  As Janus’s histories were not thoroughly researched and he was not a paid academic it was unlikely that many people would wish to read them.

His first work to be published was his “History of the Creadds”, which he had been working on for some time before he freed himself from the shackles of work.  He had finished this off quite easily during the first couple of months of his new life.  An area of history he thought long neglected by historians, most recent historians had viewed it merely as a postscript to the original Unification of Gallanol and the Classical Age.  Some had seen it as the beginning of Gallanol’s decline into disunity, civil war and domination by the rising star of Marta. 

Janus had written a history sympathetic to the viewpoint of the Creadds, which included the knowledge of their place in the long contest between humanistic development and exploitative progress.  The Creadds had inspired him as a possible model for the future.  They had been a movement of artists and lovers of life who sought to make their society a human centred paradise at a time when Gallanolian society was settled, successful and not unduly progress orientated.  Although ninth century Gallanolians seemed to have everything society had ever wished for by comparison with most other periods the Creadds were not entirely contented with Classical Age life.  The movement began as a young people’s movement, a form of rebellion and change which many generations have attempted in their own ways.  The Creadds were not content with the organised economic and social system they lived in.  They saw their parents who had accepted the traditional rules of society as unimaginative workers in an over-organised and ultimately limited system.  To counter the mundane routines and limitations of society the Creadds emphasised three aspects of human life and sought to promote them, to improve the quality of people’s lives:

1. Art and literature would entertain and give purpose and satisfaction to people’s lives.  Many Creadds took up painting and drawing.  The untrained were encouraged to go out and create whatever they felt like.  The Kings and High Kings who sponsored Creaddism created now public buildings in the architectural styles popularised by the Creadds – symmetry, layered buildings, the fashion for pyramids.  Nature was reflected strongly in much of the art because of its role in the Creaddic viewpoint.  The Creadds aspired to beauty, but they were not selfish in their praise of it.  It was to be created and enjoyed by all.  Literature also was encouraged as a form of self expression.  The old classical tales of traditional romance and self sacrifice in war became less fashionable and new ideas ranging from the realism of everyday life to fantasies about worlds of magic or predictions of the future became popular.

2. Nature was viewed with reverence.  Whereas classical culture had been obsessed with human relations, legal and technical progresses and classical building, Creaddism identified mankind as a part of the natural world, living in a balance with nature, not dominating it.  In practice this meant caring for the ancient forests and preserving the beauty of nature and the habitats of animals, even though in those days Classical Gallanol was efficient in its production of food and not wasteful of land and resources, stable in its population growth.  Nonetheless Creaddism reinforced the existing care.  People visited the countryside to enjoy it.  Walking and travel became more popular pastimes. This was a symptom also of the greater leisure time which the Creadds encouraged.

3. Sexual liberty became popular.  Living in a plentiful society without the blight of war or poverty but which clung to traditions from ages past when life was shorter and harder, the Creadds demanded more personal freedoms than their predecessors.  They had wider horizons.  Their classical predecessors preached against selfishness and taught the importance of social cooperation and stability.  The Creadds espoused a greater quality of life which included demands for more sexual freedom.  Promiscuity and alternative sexual tendencies became acceptable.  Accused of selfishness and antisocial behaviour by their detractors the Creadds were actually being honest about human nature and included caring for people and society in the centre of their philosophies.

The Creadd Revolution was a repudiation of the stifling social restrictions of Classical Gallanol.  It burst onto the scene at a time of change for Gallanol after the Cinder Folk had settled inside Gallanol and Norenician groups in large numbers began to become more important in the north.  Maybe it was a reaction to the observation of new cultures or maybe a natural reaction of a society long at a military peace with itself and finding no more need for the restrictions kept alive from a harsher but distant past.

The Creadds began as a young generation.  The offspring of the wealthy, and the educated, the intelligent and the free thinking.  They observed the idyll within which they lived and wished to make it more perfect.  They saw the gifts the world had to offer and were determined to take them fully, without compromise or shame.  They saw no reason to avoid pleasure.  Pleasure they believed was their right and the proliferation of pleasure was their duty.  It was selfish but it was changed also with the ardent desire that everyone should make a full use of their own potential and of their lives.  The pleasure satisfied personal demands but it was never meant to be in conflict with the needs of others.  It always attempted to give to others unselfishly.

The sexual revolution involved the discarding of rules which had limited people in the past.  Many of the youth began to take many partners.  The possession of traditional marriage was delayed until later in life or avoided altogether.  Partnerships were often semi permanent but flexible.  They might end forever or they might reform periodically.  They could be accompanied by series of affairs or sexual adventures which may or may not threaten the main partnership.

The movement represented a form of “back to nature”.  The old martial and Kingdom loyalties were derided.  Wars of the past, dim and distant as they were, were to be forgotten completely.  Power and competition in politics and business greed were sidelined and made unfashionable.  Work was necessary but it was not to rule life.  Experience and real life became more important than wealth and accumulation.  People were to love and care for one another.  The false creations of human economy and bureaucracy were to be minimised so that people could get on with the joy of living.  Enjoyment of simple pleasures, the countryside, art, music, and love were raised in status.  Because the movement’s values were those which most Gallanolians wanted they spread widely and affected society deeply.

Some say that the Creadd values contained the seeds of a rot and that it was the later arrival of the Martan peoples from the north, with their warlike habits and their hunger for land which knocked the Creadd Revolution off course and -evented the creation of a perfect society.  The demands of military protection required discipline and efficiency, control and regimentation and stimulated technological and economic progress which militated against the “natural” order of the Creadds.  Business men began to see ways of becoming important by business expansion and they began to try to provide new things to the people which they began to demand now, although they had not needed them before.

To find the publishers of those histories Janus had used the Vidbase Database.  Out of a long list of publishing houses he had selected some in Marta City.  This enabled him to visit them in person if any were interested in publication.  To “post” the books to potential publishers he only needed to key in their vidscreen network address code and all of those words which had taken so long to write would be instantaneously  collected in the publishers’  databanks through the Vidnetwork.  Notice that it had been received was given to the publishers on screen.  He sent the Creadds “script” to ten publishers in Marta City.  He selected them also because he had heard of them and liked the kind of books they had published before.  He felt these would be most likely to publish him.  He received nine rejections – by Vidpost, all within five days.  All Houses in Marta and Gallanol were efficient.  They must receive many scripts per day but they all managed to process them within five days – except for the final House.  Within eight days they replied affirmatively that they would like to publish and requested him to decide whether he wished to enter negotiations for an agreement or not.  If so he had the option of making the agreement over the Vidnetwork or attending the office.  Janus had been tempted to stay in his own comfortable world, afraid of venturing outside to meet people.  But Janus realised it was important to make the effort.to make personal contacts with these people because it may help him to gain further publication of his works.  Also he wished to discuss any way of increasing his readership and they might wish to discuss editing or changes to the book.