JeffEngel wrote:Hauptman's pride - his sense of identity, really - is bound up in being a self-made man coming from a background without privilege. (His initial social status and just being Manticoran don't count, to his mind. Everyone wears some blinders.) If he's both serious and thoughtful about that, he's going to identify with genetic slaves much, much more than most people who can live their lives ignoring it. He can see himself as one of them (or at least believes he can), and every one of them as peers of his who've never had the least opportunity to make what he's made of himself. "There but for the grace of the Cherwell Convention go I." Stacey cannot even pretend to be self-made, but she does have her father's virtues and fewer of his vices, so she may be along for that ride.Hutch wrote:Debated if this should have gone here or in the 'rambling and musings' thread, but it seems to be a better fit here.
Two posers while re-reading Torch of Freedom:
1. Where did Klaus (and by osmosis, Stacey) Hauptman get their deep hatred of genetic slavery from? It's enough that Klaus built the frigates for the Anti-Slavery Society (which ended up being in the hands of the Audoubon Ballroom and then Torch) at cost (and maybe at a loss), but then for Stacey to will Hauptman Enterprises to Honor if both she and her father were killed? There has to be a story behind it (and not just Honor; while she is best buds with Stacey, her and Klaus do not have a warm relationship...a working one, yes, but I doubt it will ever be a close one.
So where did that hatred come from?
Also, slavery's tied in with the mess of Silesia and the arrogance and hypocricy of the Solarian League. He's got to deal with the results of that every day, and what it means to his people - his employees and shareholders. That's something that I'm sure has been making him angry for decades, and Stacey since birth. The common-man identification is also going to give them both short patience with all the hand-wringing about Ballroom tactics from people who've never so much as imagined the life of a slave.
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Don't forget, Hauptman had to work his way up in his Father's company and wasn't at a senior level yet when his father died. So while everyone knew he was the Boss's son, his father made sure he earned his future the hard way. If he was stationed in Silesia or elsewhere in his Father's empire as part of that grooming, he could have first hand experience with the horrors of slavery, in addition to have to cope with the experiences of his ship's crews.
It's been mentioned a few times that Marines and Spacers who boarded pirates and slavers came back profoundly changed with a complete hatred for the breed - A young, prideful Hauptman might have been maneuvered into such an experience by one of his crews and he walked away from it changed. If so, it would be an interesting story.