Trump & K.J. Parker's Sashan Truth

The war between objective & subjective reality

Welcome to my final (for now) post about K.J. Parker and his brilliant novels, this time discussing his work's disturbing parallels with our current reality. If you missed my introductory post on Parker, you can find it here (the others will be linked below).

I touched on the nature and theme of 'truth' in Parker's work – especially this Siege trilogy – in my Thursday post, and particularly around the third quote it looked at. Ultimately, both Trump's tactics and those demonstrated by Parker are related to the adage "history is written by the victors" and the idea that if you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it.

Every time Trump lies, including (to use that foreshadowing classic) about the crowd at his inauguration, he is relying on his established authority and fervent supporters to overwrite objective reality with his subjective construction. In that quote from Thursday and throughout his writing, Parker is (cynically) fascinated by this transformation – especially in cases where objective reality was lost multiple re-writes ago, introducing powerful dramatic irony for his characters who care so much for that ideal of truth. A favourite example of mine is when a character accidentally invents god (The Invincible Sun) and questions him:

“Fine,” I said. “Then who created the world?” “I did. Retrospectively.” “You can’t—” “Of course I can. I can do anything. Once I exist.”

The world Parker depicts, both to entertain and to warn us, is a Trump's paradise where layer on layer of subjective reality perpetuate his corrupt authority, while science and education are mocked and defunded.

Absolute Authoritative Truth, Generated with AI

A version of this manifests as the Sashan Empire in K.J. Parker's Siege trilogy. As I mentioned two weeks ago, this is a society built on absolute belief in its Great King, his god-like strength and his authority – in spite of objective reality being a little different from the accepted version:

Slowly and painfully because he had that thing – the Echmen have a medical name for it which slips my mind – where your spine is bent like a pear sliced longways. He was about sixteen years old, skinny as a rake, with a pleasant, intelligent face apart from a lower lip that stuck out. I don’t know when I’ve ever been more shocked in all my life. (...) “The Great King.” “Exactly. The strongest man on earth. When I’m not tearing down city gates with my bare hands, I’m strangling lions. And that’s true. It’s true because people believe it.” “I suppose it depends on your definition of—” He shook his head. “No,” he said. “The truth’s the truth, that’s it’s defining quality. Either a thing’s true or it isn’t. But tell me this. If I don’t believe in a thing and everybody else in whole wide world does, what then?” He smiled. “A thing is true because we believe it. If we stop believing, it stops being true.” “We stop believing because new evidence comes along.” “You think that? How sweet. No, really it’s all about fashion, like hairdos and hemlines and tassels on cushions. We believe something because people we think are really cool tell us it’s true. Then we shape the evidence to fit, like a blacksmith bending iron. Or we just believe, because the truth is so self-evident it needs no proof, and no proof can shake our belief.”

In a way, I think Parker is actually commenting on (at least) two different things here. Obviously there's the Trump parallel, alongside the hundreds of historical examples of the same. But also the general trend of anti-intellectualism that seems to have been growing in our society for a long time; I think these ideas could easily be a gentle reference to anything from Astrology to the Myer's-Brigg's (a pseudoscientific corporate invention).

Of course both stem from the same place (perhaps alongside religion) of personal frustration and friction with science, education and objective reality in general. (That and our fascination with sorting ourselves into categories, whether Hufflepuffs, INTPs or Geminis; us vs. them? But that's a topic for another time.)

Covers of 'The Siege' Trilogy designed by Lauren Panepinto

Even before the Sashan become major players in A Practical Guide to Conquering the World, manipulating perceived reality was utterly central to The Siege trilogy. Engineer Colonel Orhan keeps many things close to his chest – sometimes even from the reader – lest a single question begin to unravel his illusory confidence and meagre odds of defending the City.

Actor/playwright Notker has the role of legendary Lysimachus thrust upon him, and before long the objective truth of his identity becomes a laughable suggestion. He likewise saves his people by orchestrating a massive hoax which required absolute belief until the last moment to succeed. Felix, ambassadorial translator for a nation that has ceased to exist turned great prophet of the Dejauzi, pulls successive illusory stunts until and after his conversation with the Great King above.

Ultimately, belief and influence are only tools. In the Enlightenment (as the fascinating Terra Ignota novels I'm currently listening to constantly remind me) these tools elevated science and reason, and they can do so again if that is how we choose to use them. I tend to think that living in objective reality is the most productive option even if it comes with truths such as climate change and the necessity of vaccines; but apparently vast swathes of America and beyond disagree.

Thanks for reading; until next week! <3