Overtones of the oppressions of Slavery: Emshwiller’s The Mount
The Mount is a 2002 science fantasy novel by Carol Emshwiller, a 70-something English teacher at who was teaching at the New School in New York City. In 2002, Emshwiller was interviewed by Robert Freeman Wexler, a fellow American science fiction writer. During the interview, the discussion drifted to the possibility that the underlying theme of the novel was feminist in nature. Emshwiller stated this was not the intent of the story. She did express worry that that people would take The Mount to be about race relations and mounts would be thought of as blacks. She went on the tell Wexler that she wanted to try to undercut that idea as she wanted the mounts to stand for any oppressed group and for readers to look at oppression as broader that. As a reader of The Mount, I was unaware of these feeling she had about this perception. But, as I read the book, I repeatedly felt that the author had used the reflection of the period in United States history when the institution of slavery was a dominate part of life.
Emshwiller's novel is fairly straightforward science fiction. In simplest terms, it tells of a revolution against alien invaders. These invaders, called "Hoots", are physically weak and small, but over generations they have bred humans to serve them as "Mounts". The humans, then, become essentially pets to the aliens, treated a great deal like horses are treated by present-day humans. Even though the novel appears to explore human/pet relationship, the master/slave relationships and the question of freedom versus comfort is very evident.
As the novel opens, we are introduced to our protagonist, Charley, a runner for the aliens. Not a runner as in messenger, a runner as in a “Mount”. The aliens crashed, they conquered, and now they ride humans as show horses and as transportation. Humans