The Turquoise Serpent
Review
I’ve had my eye on The Turquoise Serpent for a while. Written by Alexander Palacio (@conan_esq), the story is a sword and sorcery tale in the same vein as Robert E. Howard but set in Pre-Columbian South America. If the premise intrigues you, I recommend going over to Amazon and reading the book immediately. This review will largely be an analysis of the themes of the story, and I want to articulate what we can draw from sword and sorcery as well this novel. But for those who still wish my opinion, the book is excellent, and I’m planning on purchasing the sequel.
Last chance to avoid spoilers.
The Turquoise Serpent begins with the captured warrior Cayucali being transported to the kingdom of Batun for execution. In the caravan includes a number of guards and a wizard of royal blood named Tezca. It was under his authority that Cayucali was taken as a prisoner, and in the exchange for his trouble, the warrior broke both his arms. However, a storm forces them off the mountain and into the cursed serpent kingdom of Kalak Mool. It is there they fall into clutches of the remnants of this ancient people. The rest of the novel follows Cayucali using his strength and wit to fight his way through ritualized combat, while Tezca is being maliciously groomed for the throne.
What immediately drew me into the story was the contrast between the two characters. Cayucali is a seasoned warrior. He is calm and confident in all things, and his presence alone demands respect. He is both a gentleman at the dinner table and a killer who could snap your neck. Tezca is the opposite. He’s a deeply insecure young man who only has his royal blood and some cheap tricks going for him. He’s still trying to find his place in the world, and that leads him to act arrogant and haughty to cover for his own weakness.
This plays perfectly into one of the long running themes in sword and sorcery: the difference between the warrior and the wizard.
The warrior is someone who has internalized his own strength. He relies on his body, and while usually quick-witted, prefers intuition and instinct over raw knowledge. These attributes are absolutely vital in battle and conquest, where there can be no hesitation or second guessing. In short, the warrior is an embodiment of the masculine ideal.
The wizard is someone has not internalized his strength. For whatever reason, be it physical weakness, social inadequacy, or any number of personality defects, the wizard has chosen to use external means to supplement himself. Preferring knowledge of the natural world—or worse, knowledge of the occult—the wizard uses these methods to make up for his natural shortfall.
Now, it’s not wrong to develop your intellect, but the wizard’s mistake is preferring intellect to the detriment of everything else. In this, he raises his own reasoning as a false idol, and believes that through his reason, nature is then subjugated to him. There are many great wonders that can be achieved with knowledge of the natural world, but therein lies the conceit of the wizard. He thinks he is above reality, when he is, in fact, borrowing that which does not belong to him.
Everyone in the story clearly sees Cayucali as the greater man than Tezca. Where Tezca thinks the world is beneath him, Cayucali sees truth with humility. Where Tezca uses magic as a crutch, Cayucali walks on his own two feet. Where Tezca can barely get the girl to notice him, Cayucali needs only be in the room.
This previous understanding of the warrior/wizard dynamic seems entirely lost in modern fiction and in the world. It is now the inverse. The wizard is given equal standing, or often worse, preferred than the warrior. Science is now the key to solving all the world’s problems, and soldiers are relegated to doing the dirty work behind the scenes. Yet increasingly, we seem to delving into madder and madder science, and good men are nowhere to be found.
What can we learn from this dynamic? There’s a reason why exercise has been highlighted as so important by the Right. It is from muscle and strength that a man gains self-confidence and presence among his peers. It is through competence in useful skill that a man develops himself. The wizard ponders abstract and near useless information, hoping that some arcane philosophy will grant him power. Yet, the way of the world forever eludes him. The wizard loses the blossoming of youth for decrepit old age, never once basking in the sunlight.
The modern iteration of the warrior vs. wizard was once the jock vs. nerd. It’s since moved onto the chad vs. the soyjack, but I want to explore both of these dynamics. The nerd is just a less palatable version of the wizard in the same way the soyjack is a less palatable version of the nerd. Often, the nerd could still prove himself in technical skill. Now, the soyjack lacks even this. Useful information of the natural world has been replaced with consumption product. Knowledge of mathematics, literature, and music is now an autistic focus on Marvel movies.
The West has been able to support this, because up until now, it has been tremendously wealthy. People could dedicate whole careers to what would’ve been completely useless endeavors even a hundred years ago. And this was to the great benefit of the elite, who needed to castrate their young for the sake of creating global markets and economic zones. Now, that world is crumbling because the glut of technical skill sapped the strength of the West until we cannot not even maintain the technical skill.
We live in a world where, for every fifty young Tezcas, there might be one Cayucali. And that’s a problem because that road is quickly leading to destruction. I understand and sympathize with the contempt of the Cayucali for Tezca. Here is a young man bereft, if not of breeding, then certainly of virtue. He is both arrogant and weak, the worst possible combination. Here is a young man who sits at the foot of a throne, and instead chooses to consort with the wicked, for he cannot bear the judgement of other men.
Perhaps Tezca deserves to be flung into the darkness, but we are at an unprecedented crossroads. To abandon Tezca would mean the annihilation of the next generation. To consign them to their fate is to consign the West itself. There is simply not enough of Cayucali left to uphold what’s left of civilization.
Alexander Palacio offers another solution. Near the end of the story, Cayucali makes an important concession to Tezca. At this point, all the young man can see is the illusory honor and power the serpent kingdom offers him, and the dishonor and betrayal he feels from his home. He does not realize he is selling his soul to be a slave.
It is at this moment, Cayucali apologizes to him for breaking his arms. From every point of view, he was more than justified in this act. However, Cayucali forgoes this justice for the sake of mercy. He humbles himself, not only for the sake of survival, but also for the sake that they are still countrymen. In this act of humility, he provides Tezca a way out of the walls rapidly closing in around him. There is now a future where Tezca can have respect and dignity, where he can be treated like a man and not an upstart boy.
It is this act which later allows Tezca to understand the deception and what he really wants out of life. In letting go of his justified grievance, Cayucali saves Tezca’s soul. It is then together the two conspire a way out of the serpent kingdom, saving a princess to boot. The story ends with the reconciliation of two former enemies as they set out to find a way home.
The Turquoise Serpent explores an issue that strikes at the heart of the West. Young men are not allowed to grow up, and thus sell themselves to every pleasure and whim that they find. How can they not? Which is better? To rule in Kalak Mool, or to be a whipped dog back home? You can understand why so many give themselves over to mindless entertainment. If a man cannot live with dignity, you’ll find that he would rather never grow up.
At the same time, you have old men scorning the young, seeing their behavior as disgusting. The Boomers are infamous for letting the youth sort themselves out, often proverbially and literally kicking their children to the curb. While some Boomers may be completely ignorant of the state of the West, I think there’s a significant cohort disgusted at the next generation, and so they’re prepared to let the world burn. After all, they won’t have to suffer the consequences.
I don’t know if this article will ever reach any Boomers. Probably not, but I can hope a few who have the means and the capacity to help will come by this piece. To them, I shall make a final desperate plea on behalf of the millions of young, lost men.
We are at least countrymen. And whatever grievances we have against each other, let them rest. If not for the sake of mercy, then for the sake of survival. And if not for the sake of survival, then for the sake of that we are still countrymen. I would rather see us build a better future together, than let what little we have left fall apart before us.