Last modified: 2006-01-21 by marc pasquin
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In the 1966 science fiction novel the moon has been settled as a penal colony,
but by the 2070s most settlers are free yet they are still ruled by a tyrannical Lunar Authority which they overthrow, declaring independence as the 'Luna Free State'.
Roy Stilling, 16 November 1995
The LFS flag is described as (NEL paperback edition, p287):
"black field speckled with stars, bar sinister in blood [red], a proud and jaunty brass cannon over all, and below it our motto: TANSTAAFL!"The meaning of the black field and stars are obvious, the bar sinister represents the colonists 'ignoble' convict heritage and the blood red the 'martyrs' of the revolution. The other symbols are more tied up with the libertarian ideology of the novel - the brass cannon comes from a joke one character tells of a cleaner whose job it was to polish a brass cannon outside a courthouse, until eventually he saves enough money to by his own brass cannon and go into business for himself... TANSTAAFL! stands for "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch", a maxim frequently used in the book.