Subject: (urth) In Glory Like Their Star, initial reading

From: Joshua A. Solomon <j.a.solomon at city.ac.uk>
Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 10:04:41 +0000

'skun' This seems to be the only made-up word in the story. Why? I do not
know. 

'(The natives) speak for a long time when they have begun' and the narrator
is also 'unable to control (his own) loquacity.' This implies similarity on
another level. See below for my idea with respect to this other level.

Everything but the desert appeared to vanish as the narrator approached. On
one level, this merely implies that the narrator's journey took a long time.
On another level, it might mean that material things *effectively*
disappeared for the narrator. He clearly seems to be on some spiritual
quest. He says 'who would labor to gain knowledge [to build a ship]? It is
the interior change that suffices, the transformation that rewards.' He also
said 'Was it for truth's sake that I rode across the desert?...Inarguably.'

The narrator's quest is (at least to some extent) successful. He finds his
scout, becomes ecstatic and grows 'so much' (in his own estimation). Note
that the quest is a success only because of the desert man's sacrifice.
Obvious Christian symbolism here. Note the narrator actually takes the
desert man's 'body fluid,' a la Catholicism's drinking the blood of Christ.

OTOH, the narrator is not completely successful. He cannot reward the desert
man, who 'died swiftly and in glory like their star.' Note that, since
'their' world is called 'Earth,' their star must be the Sun. Sun = Son (of
God)? Perhaps. The implication is that the Sun is dead. This is consistent
with the sentence, 'They will be primitive, perhaps, when sunlight reaches
them on this place.' I guess a new Sun (Son?) must be on the way.

The narrator's incomplete success suggests to me that, like the natives, he
requires further spiritual development. Perhaps (just as in TBOTNS) a new
sun is required for this and that is why the (old) sun had to die.

bee
-- 
Joshua A. Solomon
Department of Optometry and Visual Science
City University
London EC1V 0HB
Voice: (44) 20 7040 0192
Fax: (44) 20 7040 0182
J.A.Solomon at city.ac.uk
http://www.staff.city.ac.uk/~solomon

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

---

From: James Jordan <jbjordan4 at home.com>
Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 10:00:58 +0000

This looks promising. Only two notes:

At 11:04 AM 9/19/2001 +0100, Joshua wrote:
>'skun' This seems to be the only made-up word in the story. Why?

         A variant of 'sun'? Somehow?

>another level. See below for my idea with respect to this other level.

         I took the loquacity of the natives to indicate ritual. They 
approach this "god" with a continual stream of repeated phrases. Also, from 
what I recall, their repeated phrases were requests for gifts, which 
resembles pagan religion: bring your gifts/bribes and feed your gods and 
ask them over and over for benefits. The Biblical or Judeo-Christian notion 
of sacrifice is rather different: self-killing by proxy as a confession of 
guilt and a plea for mercy. Requests for benefits come afterwards, and 
Jesus said not to be overly repetitious, and the psalms are quite 
unrepetitious in form. Thus, I took it that a kind of pagan religion was 
being pictured by Wolfe.

Nutria