{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/6585", "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it. Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.", "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'" }, "archive": "urth", "thread": { "id": 6585, "subject": "Short Story 71: Silhouette", "messages": 10, "voices": 5, "first": "2014-07-29T04:50:33+00:00", "last": "2014-07-29T23:08:12+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Marc Aramini", "address": "marcaramini at gmail.com" }, "date": "2014-07-29T04:50:33+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Short Story 71: Silhouette", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Silhouette\n\n\n *Silhouette* was published in *The New Atlantis* in 1975. It is collected\nin *Endangered Species*.\n\n\n SUMMARY:\n\n\n The story opens with a quote from Ambrose Bierce's “A Psychological\nShipwreck”:\n\n\n To sundry it is given to be drawn away, and to be apart from this body for\na season, for, as concerning rills which would flow across each other the\nweaker is borne along by the stronger, so there be certain of kin whose\npaths intersecting, their souls do bear company, the while their bodies go\nfore-appointed ways, unknowing.\n\n\n In the far future, set in a constantly shifting low gravity space ship in\nsearch of new planets to inhabit after the Earth has been ecologically\ndamaged, it seems that a recent war has placed German culture at the\nforefront and that a rigid class caste system is in place in which those of\nhigher class can periodically request even sexual favors from those of the\nlower classes, which cannot be refused except for medical reasons. The ship\nwas originally controlled by a computerized God-like overmonitor which has\nbecome something of a useless, seldom consulted oddity, scrapped by its\nfemale Captain.\n\n\n The ship has reached the double star system of Algol, the winking demon,\nand is exploring a planet with a supposedly breathable atmosphere. The\nthick foliage on the planet fights to get underneath and escape the harsh\nultraviolet rays of Algol, fleeing the sun rather than seeking it out. The\nCaptain wants them to make a landing on the planet to populate it for 2\nyears so they can then return to Earth, but different and mutinous groups\nare vying for control of the ship. Johann, a senior officer, notes that the\nlights in his chamber are failing, but maintenance can find nothing wrong.\n\n\n He requests the presence of a lower class crew member named Grit, who is\nreluctant to accede but must. Johann, off duty, goes to speak to Grit on\nthe bridge but is kicked off by the Captain — it is clear that he wanted to\nbe a part of the expedition.\n\n\n A male crew member named Emil comes with words of endearment for Johann,\nwho treats him coldly. He calls Johann “O betrothed of fortune.” He\nindicates that Johann wants to be a captain, unlikely now that the war is\nover, and the reason that Johann joined this expedition. Johann was\npromoted to Lieutenant sometime during the journey, and his leg has also\nbeen smashed. Emil asks to be called Grit, so that he can hear affection in\nJohann's voice, but Johann refuses.\n\n\n Johann naps then goes into the three sided corridors where crewmen walk on\nall the sides — gravity is only maintained by the sandals they wear. He\ngoes to the old library table to gamble with books. The books mentioned are\na Dore engraved *New Testament*, Thornton Wilder's *The Eighth Day*,\nDineson's *Seven Gothic Tales*, Chesterton's *The Wild Knight*, a guide to\nthe wild birds in Texas, a manual of letter writing, a historical almanac,\nand a handbook on power tools. When Johann goes to eat it is revealed a new\ngirl, plump Gretchen is the undercook, since the old one, Anna, killed\nherself. Much of the crew and the marines who serve as the main fighting\nforce have been asleep for the 17 year duration of the trip. Ottilie the\nmain cook, puts an arm around Gretchen and gives her food in another\nsexually suggestive moment.\n\n\n Johann returns to his room and “reads” *The Wild Knight*, then hears a\nwhispering in his room, and he feels “for an instant the icefoam wall panel\nwith its single light seemed very far away — as far as Algol itself,\nmillions of kilometers down a tunnel in space. It throbbed like a heart.”\n\n\n Grit awakens him floating in his chamber and refuses to serve him now,\nbelieving he is ill or on some drug. Johann's forehead is cut, and she\nwashes it as he touches her breasts, which she objects to. When she leaves,\nhe finds that his shadow is immensely dark and no detail can be found where\nit falls. It whispers to him. When he closes his eyes, he hears “the soft\nsound of air-blown sand, dry and insistent, and the scuttling of a small\nanimal” and a sighing wind he knows to be unreal. A voice ask, “Friend?” to\nwhich he replies affirmatively.\n\n\n He visits the doctor, Karl, who diagnoses a concussion and suggests he has\nnice legs and shoulders. Here Johann reveals that while he was asleep he\ndreamed he was on the planet below, following it to a chasm full of\nwaterfalls and giant ferns and orchids. He will mention this visit later\nwhen he fights Helmut, the man whom Johann believes both the Captain and\nGrit prefer.\n\n\n Johann knows that the Captain wants to convince the government humanity\ncan settle on the planet Neuerddraht, but Johann believes living on planets\nis a mistake. Johann questions the breathable nature of the air since\nbreathing devices are being used, and the Captain chastises him. (In this\nscene, Grit is filling in for Gerta, showing something of their\ninterchangeability, though clearly Grit is a less refined, chubbier female\n— see the refinement of Sap discussion below).\n\n\n When Johann returns to his chambers, Heinz and Emil are waiting for him\nwith incense burning. The cabal of mystics, Heinz, Emil, Gerhart, and Elsa,\nall had some form of vision of Johann's name, and Heinz discusses the\nsignification of each of the letters, saying that in times of crisis a\npriest will appear, and that they believe Johann will be that priest.\nJohann asserts that Earth must be dead by now and laments the loss of\ntraditional values. Heinz and Emil want to go to the planet, and Johann\nsays he has no power to influence events or he would be down on the planet\nhimself.\n\n\n Almost immediately after they leave, he does find himself walking on the\nplanet, smelling something like a fire in a flower garden or myrrh. He sees\ntrees black against Algol's light, and walks towards them, at which point\nthe voice implores him not to turn around. The voice says it did not bring\nJohann, and promises to tell only the truth. Johann says, “Promises no\nlonger hold. There is nothing left to swear by. No honor. No God.” To this\nthe voice replies that “You still have the word. I found it in your mind.”\n(Note that in *Faust*, for comfort, Johann Faust looks in the gospel of\nJohn, which begins with the rather famous “In the beginning was the Word\n...”).\n\n\n The voice thanks Johann for returning him to the planet and says that\nJohann sleeps but is not dreaming. He turns around to see his shadow in\nAlgol's rays. When his hands touch the cruel spines of the first tree, the\nvoice speaks to him again, saying, “I did not leave. But because you had\nseen me, you could not hear me. Now you cannot see, and so I can speak to\nyou again. I can guide you through this, though it must be slowly.” His\nbody is moved and protected from harm.\n\n\n Gerta, the yeoman of his watch, wakes him, and at this point his room is\nbright again. Gerta says that “hell is going to pop on the bridge.” When\nJohann arrives, he is in time to see Helmut tell the Captain a man has been\nseen on the planet, dressed like them.\n\n\n Johann goes to talk to the overmonitor, which is called “God” by the crew.\nIt had been fused to junk by the Captain but survived in fragments. He\nthinks of Neptune and the last message he sent to Marcella, then visualizes\na frieze of the god Neptune. He asks why breathing apparatus must be worn\non Neuerdrahht and gets no real answer from the monitor save that they have\nbeen ordered to do so. The overmonitor does not clear channels\nautomatically as it should, claiming that it doesn't as a matter of ship\nsurvival. The clerks explanation is that it wants someone to talk to it so\nit keeps requesting questions. He thinks of the overmonitor as “the little\nman in Dostoevksi's *Notes from the Underground,* hunched beneath the floor\nof some neglected storeroom in the remote module.” The clerk claims the\novermonitor is insane, but it estimates only a 0.237 probability of ship\nsurvival over five years for poor ship operation, low efficiency, and a\nfailure to consult the overmonitor.\n\n\n Johann returns to his bunk and looks up astral projection, directly\nmentioning Padre Pio and Goethe and revealing the date to be 2214 as he\nspeaks into his voisriit. He notes that modern men are perhaps less honest,\nand speculates that the projection may involve the soul, then thinks of the\nbody as a giant community of microorganisms, cousin to the microbes. A red\nhaired woman named Uschi (a diminutive of Ursula, which means “little\nbear”) comes to tell him the captain wants him.\n\n\n The Captain is listening to music that suggests a storm. She speaks of\nPleasureworld as the inspiration for the music, the first leisure\nsatellite, where soil was made from guests excrement and the trees without\ngravity grew like giant tangles of yarn. She reveals that the composer went\ninto an arctic labor camp and never got to see the satellite. Her orderly\nbrings in drug bugs, fancy and genetically modified crab lice that serve to\nexpand the consciousness during sexual encounters. Johann reveals he hasn't\nbeen there since the first year of the journey and his leg was crushed.\nHere it is revealed that the captain has had cosmetic surgery to make her\neyes the green color of algae.\n\n\n He hallucinates of an encounter with his old Earth girlfriend Marcella, in\nthe wild wind and flowers of nature, vowing never to return to the\nartificial city. He comes to his senses with an orderly cleaning him, and\nthen returns to his compartment to be met with Heinz, a woman, two other\nmen, and an androgynous figure. They claim to be a coven of spiritualists\nwho acknowledge that the physical world is an illusion (perhaps echoing the\nWalpurgis scenes in *Faust*). The believe that the void is people by beings\nof great power who can traverse space instantaneously without ships. His\nshadow is identified as a familiar.\n\n\n Here the voice begins adding its words to Johann, asking what they want.\nHe remembers an old jealous run in with Grit on Helmut's lap, snorting in\npowdery drugs and happy in her excess. He helps Helmut put her to bed, and\nshe reveals that her birth name was Joan, though psychologists don't\nencourage mothers to select old fashioned names such as that one. His\nreverie over, Johann turns his attention back to his present situation.\n\n\n Here, Heinz quotes, “Lying spirits all, whose rancor runs blacker than\ntheir reach.” They reveal they will take the ship and rule as a group with\nvoting power. Johann says there can only be one Captain. Johann says it\nwould be more dangerous to be a part of that group than to fight against\nthem openly. The shadow neutralizes them easily and cows them into retreat,\nthough one throws a pick as he runs out. Johann signals the bridge and\ntells Horst that the five were planning a mutiny.\n\n\n He tries to ask his shadow what it is. Then he admits, “I know I'm not\nright. My mind has been slipping for some time — I know that. But you're\nreal. — they were afraid of you.” The shadow says, “By instinct I follow\nyour will, to better remain in your shadow. If you disbelieve — I am\ninhibited from speech.” Grit arrives to see if he is all right, and is\nsurprised this is the first time he has been asked to take part in a\nmutiny. She indicates the Captain knows and that the bald man in the group\nwas named Rudi, saying she is sorry he is mixed up with him. (Rudi means\nfamed wolf).\n\n\n Grit is bothered by the lights in his chamber. Johann shows some jealousy\nover Helmut and Grit and she says, “He's nice; he's fun to be with\nsometimes, and he's generous. — But he's not as handsome as you are, and\nnot as strong, and he can be very silly at times.” Here Grit says she is\nbothered by Johann's treatment of people he touches — thinking something\nwhich is perhaps implied to be possessive (or perhaps implying that it\nmeans something to him). She undresses. She reveals Rudi sells drugs and\nthought the cult only a sideline for the drug business. There is another\ndangerous group, those who want the overmonitor reinstated.\n\n\n Johann is upset the Captain hasn't told him of all these groups\nthreatening the ship. He pushes her away and she angers, saying “You're\njust the type, just the kind that does it. Alone all the time and so very,\nvery intellectual. When was the last time you talked to the overmonitor?”\n\n\n Grit says the overmonitor is the same thinking that ruined Earth, and\nJohann sees his shadow reach out and infect Grit's in an inversion of the\nMichelangelo's *The Creation of Adam*.\n\n\n Later on the bridge, he watches the ship change, to which the yeoman of\nthe watch, Gerta (taller and thinner than Grit) remarks how ugly it is,\nlike a bacterial nucleus. Gerta says that the Captain is going to go down\nto the planet so that when she returns to Earth she can speak as a witness\nat hearings and interviews. Johann reveals he wants to see the planet as\nwell, but that it already seems ruined by a race older than humanity.\n\n\n The captain has woken up the marines who will defend the ship in case of a\nmutiny. Johann thinks that a yeoman is like a wife, and wonders why he has\nnever been one of Gerta's lovers — she is tall and slender like the\nCaptain. Johann kisses her neck as he starts to leave, but Erik, Helmut's\nsecond in command, interrupts his egress, saying that they found a city on\nthe planet, with piers for the ships that the sand surges against. He shows\na photo of three strange structures, and Johann goes to ask the overmonitor\nif he has left the ship, to which it replies that he has been absent or\ndead on several occasons.\n\n\n The monitor says, ?temporal quanta are not emitted at a uniform rate, but\nat a rate dependent upon the velocity of the body experiencing the time in\nquestion. Since time is composed of quanta, the reduction in the rate of\npassage of time must be explained as a reduction in the rate of emission of\nthese quanta. This reduction implies the existence of hyper-time, by which\nthe rate of emission is measured, and this in turn implies the existence of\nhyper-time intervals of some duration between the emission of the time\nquanta applicable to a rapidly moving body. If motion were continuous, it\nwould cease with a consequent release of energy during these hyper-time\nintervals, since motion without time is motion at infinite velocity No such\nreleases of energy have been observed, from which it follows that motion is\ndiscontinuous — consisting of translations of the moving body from point to\npoint, corresponding to the time quanta emitted. I will attempt to talk\nabout this in the section labeled Quanta of Time below, but I think roughly\nthe idea is that objects are discontinuous, and translations of the moving\nbody from point to point need not be uniform in nature and can conceivably\ninvolve large jumps.\n\n\n Johann believes Erik has been hallucinating, and requests to go down to\nthe planet with Helmut and the marines. The Captain refuses. She says she\nhas revived the marines because they have not been changed over the 17 year\nlong journey and have their original patriotism.\n\n\n Johann remembers leaving and writing Marcella why he must go, but\nremembers few details of the briefing before they left on the mission. He\nthinks that she is long dead.\n\n\n Johann goes to the landing boats and inquires which brought Helmut back to\nthe ship. He prepares a life boat with food, water, and survival gear for\nlater escape. The shadow urges him to go, but he wants to take Grit and his\nbooks.\n\n\n Helmut appears and asks if progress has been made studying the\nmicroorganisms from the planet. Helmut remarks the amount of them is\nastonishing considering how dry the planet is, and Johann reveals that\nthere are water in the crevasses, with thicker air, and Helmut realizes\nJohann has been down on the planet and was the man his group saw. Helmut\nbelieves Johann is working for the Captain and immediately attacks, but his\nshadow prevents the blow like “black tissue” and also covers Helmut's\nmouth, killing him.\n\n\n On his way out Johann sees a dead marine sentry and realizes the mutiny\nhas begun, thinking Helmut might have been part of the occultists. The\nfighting has begun, and Johann ditches his blouse. His shadow succeeds in\nopening the Captain's compartment and he joins the Captain, Elis, Gerta,\nand Grit. She calls the mutinous group the C.O.C. and are trying to cut\ntheir way through to the bridge. On the screen, they see the dead Helmut,\nan illusion of the monitor, enter the lab where a laser is being built to\ncut through to the bridge. Johann reveals he has an escape pod and tells\nthem they can escape to the watery crevasses of Neuerddraht. The Captain\nflirts with Grit on the way. Johann realizes that the overmonitor has begun\nto fight, too, and is interfering with the boards that would show the\nCaptain which way to go and might be able to cut off and sever parts of the\nship.\n\n\n Johann knows that it cannot cut off the bridge so he encourages them to\nhead back. Grit disappears after saying that she can smell the plants of\nthe hydroponics module, which is now connected to the bridge. They run\nthrough the foliage of the hydroponics module (where Rudi was a technician)\nto the hatch of Johann's escape pod. The Captain indicates Johann should\nenter last, deferring to his rank as “the leader of the escape”. He does\nnot enter the pod and lets Gerta close the hatch, then apports back to the\nbridge as the tender is shot into space, his shadow standing before him on\nthe hatch.\n\n\n The fake Helmut tells the marines to surrender on his broadcast, but it is\nsimply the overmonitor's bluff. Johann tears apart the connections allowing\nthe fake broadcast and announces to all screens that the mutiny is over. He\nsays he will pardon the mutineers and that loyal crew members are expected\nto help wipe out insurgents, identifying himself as Captain. The\novermonitor indicates that five year survival is 0.383 probable and rising.\nJohann says he will not consult the overmonitor.\n\n\n “In a storm, land as the enemy He kicked off his sandals and floated over\nto the navigation panel to begin the laborious business of setting a new\ncourse.”\n\n\n DISCUSSION:\n\n\nCompared to Wolfe's other novellas of the 1970s, there is practically no\ncritical discourse or extended discussion on “Silhouette.” Ironically,\nthough I find many of Borski's conclusions to be a step too far, his post\non “Silhouette” is actually a good starting point, especially for\nrecognizing its deliberate and intentional Faust allusions (his Faustian\nanalysis of Peace has far less overt textual support). The play Faust\nitself rambles quite a bit, so perhaps Borski's identification of the story\nas a mystery play goes too far. Those wishing to review his entire argument\nmay do so here: http://www.urth.net/urth/archives/v0017/0072.shtml\n\n\n Are Johann's final actions good or selfish? It seems that the Captain and\nGerta have been jettisoned to the planet despite his promise to return (or\nwas that spoken to his shadow?). Grit simply vanishes, perhaps returning to\nthe crevasses below, and those final moments certainly make us consider\nboth the Faustian allusions and the storm motif that haunts the text.\n\n\n LITERARY ALLUSIONS:\n\n\n JOHANN WOLFGANG GOETHE OR JOHANN FAUST?:\n\n\n Unlike many of the supposed references to Goethe in some other Wolfe, this\none is exceedingly clear in referring to Johann Wolfgang Goethe, and\nbesides being a man of many hats (artistic, political, and scientific),\nGoethe has that wolf like middle name to attract Gene's attention. The text\neven explicitly mentions “Goethe's friend” in regards to apportation\n(though there are two apportation stories in Goethe's life). The three\nfemales whose names begin with G (Grit, Gretchen, and Girta) can all be\nderived from Margeret, and his lost earth girl Marcella, has a name that\nbegins with M.\n\n\n Johann is the first name of both Goethe and his character Faust, but\nluckily the character in “Silhouette” is called “betrothed of fortune” by\nEmil — after a quick perusal of names meaning fortunate or lucky, I was\nastonished and edified to find Faust means exactly that: Fortunate or\nLucky. So Johann is Faust. However, the actual mapping of the story of\nFaust onto Johann's struggle on ship is not so easy. Perhaps the despair\nand his unhealthy and ill-fated desire for Grit and the sad fate of his\nrelationship with Gretchen forms one link, and we know that Mephistopheles\nserves as Faust's double at times in Goethe's version, but several key\nthemes are ambiguous: the over-monitor indicates that Johann in charge of\nthe ship greatly increases the chances of survival, and the shadow colony\nthat follows him around always helps him in defeating the diabolists and\nfollowers of the over-monitor who threaten him.\n\n\n Johann abstains from the drugged excesses of his peers, though the drug\nbug culled from a crab lice with the Captain does echo the scene in Faust\nwhen he deals with witches in a hallucinogenic kind of fairy story. It is\nalmost impossible to identify the true devil in “Silhouette” - the\nover-monitor, the Captain who destroys it, Johann, his shadow, and the\ndiabolists all seem to desire their own form of control over the formless\nship, with Johann and his shadow emerging victorious (though the shadow is\nnot explicitly mentioned again after he observes it on the escape pod).\n\n\n Goethe's *Faust* begins with a Job-like deal between Mephistopheles and\nGod, but the second part culminates in Faust's redemption, beginning with\nhis journey into the womb or “realm of the mothers” to bring back ideal\nbeauties. Perhaps the amniotic atmosphere of the ship and Johann's lament\nfor the lost values of life resonate with the second part of *Faust* rather\nthan the more readily apparent and well known first part. However, in the\nfirst part, Faust signs a contract in blood with Mephistopheles which will\ngrant Faust's desires but cost him his soul at the moment of his greatest\ncontentment. Johann receives some bloody wounds on the planet when he first\ncomes into contact with his shadow familiar, and it does serve him as\nMephistopheles serves Faust. Grit's disappearance in the final scenes\nbefore Johann steers the ship away from the planet also seem to resonate\nwith the fate of Gretchen in the Faust play: in jail for killing her child,\nshe refuses to escape while Faust and Mephistopheles flee. Johann finally\nhas his captaincy and the ship may survive, but is his partial betrayal of\nGerta and the Captain amoral and damning?\n\n\n OTHER LITERARY ALLUSIONS: STORMS, SHADOWS, DROWNING, AND DELUGES:\n\n\n I feel that, much like *The Fifth Head of Cerberus*, the literary\nallusions throughout “Silhouette” contribute to its thematic conclusion.\nThe opening quote, from Bierce's “A Psychological Shipwreck”, is important\nfor several reasons.\n\n\n It deals with a supernatural affinity that, at least in the quote, if not\nin the story, sounds like apportation, the transportation of consciousness\nacross vast distances and time, and references a disastrous sea voyage that\nresults in destruction. Its narrator is on ship with a young adopted girl\nand looks into her eyes as the ship sinks, then wakes up on the same day on\na very different ship with a roommate who claims that they have been on\nthat ship since its debarkation, and that his fiance, the young girl who\ndrowned in our narrator's visions, took a different ship to rendezvous\nlater because of the displeasure of her adopted parents over the\nrelationship. It seems that the lost, probably drowned, girl is the\ndaughter of a man of the same name as our narrator from a branch of his\nfamily that settled in the South of the United States, unknown to him.\nThus, their familial kinship created the “Psychic Shipwreck” that allowed\nhim to experience her final voyage in his visions. Whether or not he was\never there is unclear, though the made up quote from Denneker's meditation\nwould seem to indicate it is a drawing together of the “soul” rather than\nthe body.\n\n\n In the trading book game in “Silhouette”, in which the books are contained\nunder small covers and seem to be palm sized storage devices (like an\nextremely limited flash drive), several other works are mentioned,\nincluding Isak Dineson's *Seven Gothic Tales* and Thornton Wilder's *The\nEighth Day* as well as GK Chesterton's collection of poems, *The Wild\nKnight*.\n\n\n The portions of *The Wild Knight* quoted are:\n\n\n My eyes are full of lonely mirth:\n\nReeling with want and worn with scars,\n\nFor pride of every stone on Earth,\n\nI shake my spear at all the stars.\n\n\n In a science fictional way, this indicates that though damaged and broken,\nhumanity has turned its derision and angst towards the heavens and the\ngalaxies outside its origin point. However, settling on the planet in the\nAlgol system would almost certainly be a mistake, though the Captain wants\nto settle there so they can then return to Earth, which has been damaged\nprobably beyond repair.\n\n\n A live bat beats my crest above,\n\nLean foxes nose where I have trod,\n\nAnd on my naked face the love\n\nWhich is the loneliness of God.\n\n\n The figure which accompanies these verses is characterized by anger and\nrestrained power. Here, love involves loneliness, and Johann turns the ship\naway from the planet, distancing humanity from a landlocked planetary\nexistence but dooming it to the loneliness of space.\n\n\n These verses are from the poem “The World's Lover”, the speaker a supposed\nsorcerer who is cursed for mentioning that the leaves are green (reveling\nin the natural world), and is then scourged by thorns and whipped, and the\npeople call to crucify him, praising the Lord — he is killed and becomes\nfood for the vultures. (Soon Johann is cut along his arms and legs and his\nhead bruised from his apportation to the planet right after reading the\npoem). Note that the final action of Johann is to turn away from the world,\nand he seems to believe that living on planets is an anomaly.\n\n\n The storm motif is present in a few scenes. When Johann is with the\nCaptain and discussing the constructed Pleasureworld, actually made from\nexcrement, he thinks of a storm attacking a jetty, and in the very end he\nknows that land is the enemy during a storm. The other texts mentioned deal\nwith storms and ships quite directly, and Erik's report deals with a rather\ndisturbing implication to the seas of Neuerddraht:\n\n“There are piers jutting out into the sea — piers for the ships, that the\nsand surges against. I went out onto one of them — the stones are still\nsolid enough, though they're not really stones, and stood at the end, and I\nswear to you, Lieutenant the ocean that isn't within a thousand kilometers\nof here washed over my feet and the sand blew and sang so I my ears that I\nnearly fell, almost fell off the end of it as I stood there looking out\ninto the ocean with the unwalled houses all behind me and the ships beating\ntheir gongs in the rain out there in the whirling bay.”\n\n\n Where is Erik experiencing this? What has happened to the creatures that\nlived in these houses?\n\n\n Thornton Wilder's *The Eighth Day*, which is, according to the author,\nabout “evolution — Man evolving and individuals evolving (and back\nsliding!)?, is clearly relevant — the novel was originally designed around\nGoethe's poem ?Tyche” and still quotes Goethe several times “Beware what\nyou long for in youth, for you will get it in your middle age.” In\naddition, we have a murder where the suspect, though innocent, is forced to\nrelocate his entire existence in escaping “justice” — eventually, he will\ndrown at sea. In addition, one of the character's joins a church combining\nspiritism, Indian philosophy, and healing that “seemed to her to reflect\nmany ideas, many affirmations, that she had acquired from her lifelong\nreading in Goethe.”\n\n\n In *Seven Gothic Tales*, it is quite clear what appeals to Wolfe:\ncharacters in costume and in disguise, telling stories within stories, but\nthere are a few specific references that directly tie the work to the\nGerman future of “Silhouette”. The first story involves rising waters and\nflooding threatening to drown a group of people from a variety of classes\nstuck together, including a supposed Cardinal. The cardinal speaks of\nsanctity and how only in context with everything else does any particular\nthing become sacred, before this quote:\n\n\n “All their shadows, thrown away in the circle from the center of the\nstable lamp, reached up to the rafters under the roof. In the course of the\nnight it often seemed as if it were these long shadows which were really\nalive, and which kept up the spirit and the talk of the gathering, behind\nthe exhausted people” (Dinesen). After this point they share a meal much\nlike the last supper and the cardinal faints, and when he awakens he is far\nweaker, but it seems that leadership and strength transfers somehow to\nanother character almost symbiotically. In addition these characters are\nnot who they seem — the bishop is merely someone who pretends to be him and\nwho in fact murdered the original bishop, and is actually illegitimate\nroyalty. They will all drown in the terrible deluge brought on by the\nstorm, regardless.\n\n\n The second story bears two portions that would be irresistible to Wolfe,\nconcerning a married couple and their extra-marital explorations “Before I\nhad ever met her I had read about her family, whose name ran down for\ncenturies through the history of France, and learned that there used to be\nwerewolves amongst them, and I sometimes thought that I should have been\nhappier to see her really go down on all four and snarl at me, for then I\nshould have known where I was.”\n\n\n An even more explicit reference to Faust may be found: “And in the air\nthere was a theory, which caught hold of them there, that the jealousy of\nlovers was an ignoble affair, and that no woman should allow herself to be\npossessed by any male but the devil. On their way to him they were proud of\nbeing, according to Doctor Faust, always a hundred steps ahead of man. But\nthe jealousy of competition was, as between Adam and Lilith, a noble\nstriving.”\n\n\n No doubt this idea of male and female relationships plays out with Johann\nand Grit, with a very similar interplay, though the coupling with the\nCaptain seems to mirror this competition between Adam and Lilith. The *Seven\nGothic Stories* mention Goethe several times. The final story, “The Poet”,\ninvolves a story of a man obsessed with poetry and mentions Goethe at least\nfour or five times as an ideal.\n\n\n Here is a brief analysis of the names in the text.\n\n\n Johann: while it means “God is merciful” and the last name Faust means\n“fortunate”, its meaning connotes less than the story Wolfe references.\n\n\n Grit - the short underclass girl in whom Johann seems most interested, is\na name clearly derived from Margeret (child of light). Her birth name was\nJoan, “gift from God.”\n\n\n Gretchen- the name means pearl, but it is a pet form of the name Margaret.\n\n\n Gerta- (an alternate spelling could be Gerda) could mean protection. Of\nspecial note is that this name sounds almost exactly like the proper\nphonetic pronunciation of the word Goethe to an English speaker. While the\ngoddess Gerda might be invoked, it is also conceivable that Girta is a\nderivative of Margaret.\n\n\n Marcella- Johann imagines Marcella when the “drug bug” is employed in his\nmandatory tryst with the captain. (Marcella implies strong and war-like,\nand at the beginning of the text Emil mentioned that Johann wanted to be a\ncaptain but “with the war over it wasn't likely ever to happen” so Johann\njoined the expedition.)\n\n\n Emil — the male shipmate who begs Johann to call him Grit in one of the\nmost unique scenes in Wolfe, could be named after Emil Ludwig, who is\nresponsible for recovering Goethe's remains and also wrote lengthy\nbiographies of both Goethe — and Napoleon, which Wolfe references in Peace\nas the source of Weer's off color comments about Napoleon's hand.\n\n\n Helmut — Johann envies him for the affection he believes Grit harbors for\nhim, though she later claims Johann is more handsome. His name means\n“Brave”, and he has been on the planet, but returns to the ship. Johann\nkills him and he is then used by the overmonitor as an image to keep hope\namong its followers alive.\n\n\n Horst — his name means wood or thicket, man of the forest.\n\n\n Rudi — one of the mutinous spiritual conspirators who Grit is sorry to see\nJohann mixed up with, he is bald and his name means “famed wolf”. His day\njob involves the hydroponic plants (plant engineering?) Hmmm.\n\n\n QUANTA OF TIME:\n\n\n Forgive me in advance — my scientific training is in biological sciences,\nnot truly in physics.\n\n\n The overmonitors discussion as time consisting of quanta, or units, seems\nto deal with Planck and his observations of black body radiation which lead\nhim to posit that light and other electromagnetic energy are emitted in\ndiscrete packets of energy. Planck showed that nature is discontinuous and\ndiscrete, made up of small units. Here, the relationship between velocity\nand time is being explored as an aspect of those quanta or units and their\nspeeds. I am not certain that time is actually composed of quanta, though\nwe can measure its passage relativistically.\n\n\n In physics everything can display a wavelength, and here the wavelength of\nJohann and other individuals is manifesting a discontinuous presence,\nperhaps manifesting as real from that wavelength. I am not entirely certain\nhow sound the physics of this section is, especially when the monitor\nbegins talking about hyper-time, but interestingly enough the characters do\nseem to have an energy valence in the story (Grit and Gerta are similar in\nJohann's attraction to them and interchangeable as yeoman of the watch, but\nit is clear that Gerta is higher in valence, both derived from Faust's\nMargaret) and I feel that Planck's work with black body radiation is\nsomehow important to the science behind these Silhouettes, given the light\nfrom Algol and its unusual ultraviolet rays, coupled to its dark twin. I\nfeel that the shadows are composed of cellular quanta which might even\nconglomerate into a colony, leading us to our next section, where I feel\nmuch more comfortable.\n\n\n COLONIES OF CELLS\n\n\n In addition to the ships rearrangement being amorphous, it is directly\ncompared to a bacterial structure: Gerta says, “Ugly, isn't it — With all\nthose loops and ravels” I think this ship out to be long and slender and\ngraceful — like the Captain, if you know what I mean. This one looks like a\nbacterial nucleus under a microscope. The idea of the ship itself as an\namorphous nucleus gives the metaphor at work in the novella a large frame\nof reference. Algol compared to a distant beating heart could be another\nsuch huge multi-celled organ system.\n\n\n Helmut also reveals why the breathing apparatuses are necessary on the\nplanet: it is clear that Karl has been doing studies on the bacteria on the\nplanet: “The airborne bacteria. If they can show they don't infect human\nbeings, or cook up a vaccine, we won't have to wear the things. You\nwouldn't think there would be such a stew of single-celled organisms\nfloating around in a place that's as dry as that one, but there are.” These\norganisms flourished in the water garden Johann visited during one of his\napportations.\n\n\n In regards to the thought of apportation, Johann records into his\nvoisriit: ?Offhand, it would seem impossible that the living body could be\ndissolved in one place and recondensed in another without a fatal\ndisruption of its functions; but the body is only an immense community of\nmicroorganisms, each, as has been known for hundreds of years, capable of\nexisting and reproducing, in a satisfactory environment, without reference\nto the rest. The personality, which conceives of itself as existing without\ninterruption from birth to death, has no physical reality, since no cell of\nthe body endures for more than half a dozen years. Rather it is like the\nspirit of some long continued enterprise, which survives the extinction of\ngenerations ... Thus, apportation, the constantly shifting ship, and the\nshadow cells that can flee from one shadow to another but maintain a\npersonality, which might conceivably have the demon star Algol as their\nheart and command center (or even Algol's dark shadow companion, if they\nflee the light of Algol), show organisms as amorphous collections of\nsmaller cells.\n\n\n METAMORPHOSIS OF PLANTS\n\n\n In addition to the Faustian echoes in “Silhouette”, I believe the story\nexplicitly references Goethe's scientific treatise on plants, which dealt\nwith three basic principles.\n\n\n\n 1.\n\n unity of form in diverse structures, such that every aspect of the plant\n was simply a metamorphosis of the leaf. Goethe called the leaf “The true\n Proteus who can hide or reveal himself in all vegetal forms.”\n 2.\n\n refinement of sap: the idea that the movement of sap from low to high\n places was almost an act of purification, such that lowly tubers were mired\n in filth and the flowers of the plant pointed ever heavenward.\n 3.\n\n Expansion and contraction in cycles: Goethe posited that plants\n developed in 3 basic cycles of contraction, visible in meristem ontogeny.\n\n\n “Silhouette” is in many ways symbolically related to the early Wolfe story\n“Morning Glory”, in which the mutated plant seeks to find the true light\noutside its petty container, mocking the artificial university knowledge as\nalmost an institution devoid of true light. Here, the plants on Neuerddraht\nflee the light of their sun (note that this resonates with the refinement\nof sap: struggling to reach further into the earth, the true light of the\nwinking demon binary system is too damaging). There is no refinement of\nsap: they struggle to go ever lower, like mankind, grounding itself and\nfleeing the celestial, as the captain wants them to set down on a planet\nill suited to their survival.\n\n\n The ship also seems to have the unlimited metamorphic quality of a leaf:\nit changes positions and expands and contracts almost randomly, according\nto some unknown purpose, made of ice foam that seems like the cell walls\nfound in plants. The shadows colonies which communicate with Johann are\nequally amorphous.\n\n\n At the end of the novella, Johann, who finally achieves the captaincy he\nwas reputed to covet, turns the ship into space and away from the grounding\nof Neuerddraht, or “New earth wire” - which could be taken electrically as\nwell as a ground wire.\n\n\n In addition, the formlessness of the ship, with no gravity, also seems to\nbe a symbol of aimlessness. No sexual identity, no gravity, and no\nauthority. Johann gives voice to these modernist fears directly: “Look back\nfive hundred years [note that Goethe would have lived about 450 years\nbefore the time Johann is subjectively speaking in]. Everything valued then\nis dead now beauty in architecture and language — freedom — the family,\nkinship, the tribe — all the relationships of blood, all dead. Religion,\nthe dream of objective justice, the very ideas of a garden and a forest —\nall dead.” To which his visitor, Heinz, replies, “Religion isn't dead — I\nwas a diabolist back on earth.”\n\n\n If mysticism survives, it is corrupt, as are all the institutions.\nIronically, man has left a destitute earth and, seeking a new world, has\nfound the Algol system. Pleasureworld, a false paradise, is actually made\nfrom excrement, and in space the urine of the passengers is recycled as\nwater — the entire ship is infested with flabby rats. The drug bugs that\nincrease sexual pleasure are nothing but modified crab lice, an\ninfestation. Humanity seems to have lost its way.\n\n\n ALGOL:\n\n\n The star has a bad reputation. “It causes misfortune, violence,\ndecapitation, hanging, electrocution and mob violence, and gives a dogged\nand violent nature that causes death to the native or others. It is the\nmost evil star in the heavens.” (Robson). If this is the beating heart of\nthe shadowy cellular conglomeration organism in contact with Johann, then\nthe alliance between man and silhouette might be more diabolic than it\nfirst appeared.\n\n\n Algol, the winking demon, is a binary star composed of two stars that were\nlong considered to be one, a light and dark binary unit, with a prominent\nplace in astrology as an “evil” constellation, it does seem that nothing\ngood can come of man stopping here. Traditionally, Algol is part of the\nGorgon's head held by Perseus in the constellation. Since the gorgon could\nnot be looked upon without the observer turning to stone, it is interesting\nthat “vision” plays such a part in the ability of the silhouette following\nJohann to speak only when he is not being looked at directly.\n\n\n Indeed, there is a scene in which Johann is on the planet and sees Algol\nin the sky. Only some time after the sun sets and complete darkness returns\ndoes he begin to hear his Silhouette speaking again. For this reason, and\nwith the image of Algol with its dark shadow sun throbbing like a heart in\nspace, there is at least a chance that the being which has been summoned\ninto collective existence might even be the demon star itself — a colony of\ncells that maintain separate existence but group consciousness. Johann's\nthoughts on apportation presage this (though it is of course possible that\nthe cells making up his Silhouette are not actually connected to Algol).\n\n\n Additionally, the name of our main character, Johann, with even explicit\nmention of “Goethe's friend” and apportation must also make us consider the\nconnotation of the *Faust* story (the historical story referenced runs that\nGoethe and his friend saw a man named Frederick in his nightgown on the\nstreet in Weimar, who was actually asleep at the time in Goethe's house,\nvisiting from Frankfurt and as yet unknown to Goethe. Frederick also\nclaimed to have had a dream of Goethe in Weimar). Goethe also claims to\nhave seen a vision of his future self riding in the woods on horseback only\nto realize eight years later that he was riding in the same suit of clothes\nas he saw himself those many years ago.\n\n\n THE SHADOW:\n\n\n It is likely that Johann's shadow colony appears from the very first page,\nthe reason for the failing light in his chamber, which no diagnostic test\nseems to be able to detect. These are probably the bacteria and organisms\nKarl is testing on, running free, unsure that they will ever be able to\nreturn to their home until Johann takes them with him in his apportation.\nThe shadow spreads from one wall to cover another, and eventually it joins\nJohann's shadow, making its pact with him. It saves his life several times,\nand he also spreads something of its aegis to Grit. I believe it is related\nto the bacteria being studied by Karl from the planet - they share the\nphotophobic nature of the rest of life on the planet, hiding in the\nshadows. Algol and its dark twin might mirror Johann and his Silhouette and\ntheir connection, but it is conceivable that the binary star also has\nsomething to do with the consciousness of the shadow. Eventually the light\nin Johann's chamber will begin working of its own accord, after the entity\nor shadow colony has taken up full residence in Johann's own shadow. It is\nunclear whether Johann leaves his shadow behind in the hydroponics plant or\nnot, and if it leaves with the escape tender holding the Captain and Gerta.\n\n\n SETTING AND SEXUALITY:\n\n\n The action occurs on June 5th, 2214, according to the relative flow of\ntime on the ship, which has been on its mission for 17 years, though it\nseems that relativistic speeds would make the actual date on earth about\n2500 or even later. Johann wonders why there has been no apportation since\n2150. The only relevance to the date June 5th that I could find is that it\nis the feast day of St. Boniface, who is the patron saint of Germany and\nthe “Apostle of the Germans” (and was credited with the first Christmas\nTree in some stories). There is every indication that there was a war, and\nthat birth names like “Joan” are old fashioned and unused, but German names\nare in vogue.\n\n\n Class identities are extremely stratified and reinforced by nutrition and\neven height — the female Captain is taller than Johann and towers over\nGrit. Johann requests Grit's sexual presence as often as he is permitted,\nand the female Captain seems to be able to call upon lower class males as\nwell. However, there is no indication that males can call other males of\nlower class to serve their sexual desires (or it could be that Emil is in a\nlower caste than Johann, or he might) in this class set up, though bisexual\nencounters are quite common.\n\n\n Wolfe has of course examined class relationships and even prostitution\nbefore, but it this is the first truly foreign system we see in his\nfiction, where every six weeks you can “force” someone from a lower caste\nto serve you sexually, which they can only refuse in light of some form of\nillness.\n\n\n UNANSWERED QUESTIONS: With the planet's photophobic plants and the ominous\n“winking demon” double star, shadowy twins, does the alliance between\nJohann and his silhouette represent a Faustian bargain? Johann is not a\ndiabolist as several of the other crew members are (it seems the last\nvestige of religious sentiment lies in “perversions” of religion) but he\ndoes seize power at the end and Grit simply vanishes, as Gretchen refuses\nto leave her prison in *Faust*.\n\n\n Even though the overmonitor is called God at one point, does it\nnecessarily imply that it is a false one to be avoided, especially\nconsidering it is complicit in the rebellion against the captain and the\ncreating the image of Helmut after he is dead?\n\n\n When Johann says that he will not consult the over-monitor, is this hubris\nor a return to genuine human capability without reliance on the artificial?\nIs he just “the right man for the job” - a war-time/stormy weather captain?\n(Note that his ideal woman, whom he left behind, Marcella, has a name which\nmeans martial or warlike).\n\n\n Is Johann's seizing of power a moment of salvation or damnation for him?\nClearly it will save the ship.\n\n\n Regarding the ancient civilization on the planet with houses and an\nominous stormy sea in Erik's description — are the shadows a remnant of\nthat civilization or responsible for its disappearance? The name of Algol\nwith all its negative connotations might have some impact on our answer.\n\n\n SETTING AND CONNECTIONS WITH OTHER WORKS:\n\n Johann uses the voisriit transcriber explicitly mentioned in “The Blue\nMouse” and “Monster” (in this work its black boxy description also seems to\nmatch the description of the black box Cutthroat speaks into in “Tracking\nSong”)? but there is one other thing I wanted to mention. For an author\naccused of sexist caricatures of women all the time, there is a brief\nlittle section in Wolfe's career where it looks like his future world is\nrun by women in what could almost be a dialogue with James Tiptree, Jr.\n\n\n These include “In Looking Glass Castle” (men are pretty much outlawed),\n“Many Mansions” (the female being spoken to is a clone grown in a test\ntube, as it is hinted all of her sisters are, but there is no mention of\nbrothers or men at all in the “victorious” faction of humanity), “The\nEyeflash Miracles” (the security guards who kick them off the train are\nwomen, and I believe there is a female authority figure referenced in the\nwork), and in “Silhouette” the height and power of the captain, as well as\nthe statement that Johann was unlikely to ever be promoted to Captain after\nthe war ended, at least hints that gender relationships in this caste\nsystem are very complicated (However, it may very well be that it is purely\ncaste in nature and does not recognize any kind of gender distinction [the\nubiquitous bisexuality on board might also hint at this attitude]). This\nalso occurs in *There Are Doors,* but that is closer to fantasy than SF and\nhas a different kind of biological explanation. The most dystopian of these\nfor sympathetic characters is probably “The Eyeflash Miracles”.\n\n\n The overmonitor and a long ship life of course remind us of the\nfragmentation of Pas on the Whorl as well as the ship in “The Other Dead\nMan”. Johann has the infamous crushed leg so prevalent in Wolfe's long\nfiction, but here there is a slight echo of Marlowe's Faustus, where\nsomeone pulls on Faustus' leg to wake him and it comes off in their hands.\n\n\n The strange shadows and plants on the planet in “Silhouette” definitely\nremind us of the trees and Shadow Children in *The Fifth Head of Cerberus*,\nand perhaps even the Vanished People of Short Sun, yet I feel that these\nplants are slightly different. They flee the light, and in that regard I am\nreminded of the wonderful modernist work “Morning Glory”, in which the\ndream plant scours endless corridors to seek out true light. In the short\nstory “The Blue Mouse”, there is some mention of dark strangers hungry for\nblood, but the time line would not seem to allow those visitors to be from\nNeuerddraht. Here, the true light of Algol is damaging, and the plants\ninstinctively hide from it. Even the Silhouette which speaks to Johann can\nonly do so when he is hidden from sight. This concealment from visibility\nis a very interesting motif, and I am still wondering if the consciousness\nis entirely colonial in nature, with Algol as its heart, or if the cells\nnecessarily flee Algol's light and are actually antithetical to it.\n\n\nSources\n\n\n Borski, Robert. “Silhouette”. Urth List.\nhttp://www.urth.net/urth/archives/v0017/0072.shtml\n\n\n Chesteron, G.K. *The Wild Knight*.\n\n\n Dinesen, Isak. *Seven Gothic Tales.*\n\n\n Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. *Faust.*\n\n\n Robson, Vivian E. *Fixed Stars and Constellations in Astrology.*\n\n\n Wilder, Thornton. *The Eighth Day.*" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Marc Aramini", "address": "marcaramini at gmail.com" }, "date": "2014-07-29T06:25:31+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Short Story 71: Silhouette", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "As I said, if there is any physicist who can help with the time quanta\nparagraph, that would be great. It seems that the overmonitor is saying\nexistence is dependent on the emission of time quanta, and as such that\ndiscontinuous but \"real\" existence can spring up wherever the wave function\nof a body travels as long as a time quanta is emitted at that point.\nRight?\n\nThe relationship between Algol's light wavelength on other quanta might\nalso prove interesting to think about, or, conversely, a waste of time ...\nI'm really not sure." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Marc Aramini", "address": "marcaramini at gmail.com" }, "date": "2014-07-29T11:57:48+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Short Story 71: Silhouette", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "The rather hallucinatory scene where Erik believes he has come to the\nmiddle of the Ocean standing on a pier seems to me one of the most\nimportant thematic repetitions in the story, for the referenced works\ninvolve memorable drowning and storms: A Psychological Shipwreck, The\nEighth Day, and Seven Gothic Tales all have very prominent flooding storm\nscenes, and at the conclusion Johann's belief that land is the enemy\nduring a storm gives us some metaphor for this ... however, when he sits\nwith the Captain, he remembers several things: writing Marcella as he\npasses Neptune, then an actual representation of the sea god, and then a\nstrange italicized stormy moment involving a jetty that has very little\ncontext.\n\nAre we to believe that the microorganisms rife in the watery crevasses are\na part of this storm, or, because he thinks of last writing Marcella near\nNeptune, should we consider this somehow indicative of the fate of earth,\nwhich somehow manifests itself around Erik as well (experiencing the\npsychological shipwreck/drowning of his friends long gone on earth)? Given\nthe apportation that has begun, I don't see why Erik couldn't be standing\nin the ocean on Neuerddraht - thought the talk of time and hyper-time\nquanta by the overmonitor is confusing." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Marc Aramini", "address": "marcaramini at gmail.com" }, "date": "2014-07-29T12:14:40+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Short Story 71: Silhouette", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "On looking at Grit's disappearance again, it seems that she actually has\ngone to get the escape tender and bring it to the hydroponic jungle for the\nCaptain and Johann so that the overmonitor cannot stop their escape.\nHowever, there is no mention of her in the escape pod when they open it,\nand this is a bit disorienting. Is she there at all when it is jettisoned?" } ] }, { "message_id": "<53D7E135.6000401@bindweed.com>", "from": { "name": "Gerry Quinn", "address": "gerry at bindweed.com" }, "date": "2014-07-29T18:00:21+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Short Story 71: Silhouette", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On 29/07/2014 07:25, Marc Aramini wrote:\nAs I said, if there is any physicist who can help with the time quanta \nparagraph, that would be great. It seems that the overmonitor is \nsaying existence is dependent on the emission of time quanta, and as \nsuch that discontinuous but \"real\" existence can spring up wherever \nthe wave function of a body travels as long as a time quanta is \nemitted at that point. Right?" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "My impression is that Wolfe is just putting in a bit of sciency \njustification for teleportation." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On looking at Grit's disappearance again, it seems that she actually \nhas gone\n to get the escape tender and bring it to the hydroponic jungle for \nthe Captain\n and Johann so that the overmonitor cannot stop their escape. However,\n there is no mention of her in the escape pod when they open it, and \nthis is a\n bit disorienting. Is she there at all when it is jettisoned?" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "She teleported away (with the help of her shadow, obviously) as they \nwere walking to the escape pod. Only Johann and Gerta noticed. They \nsend the Captain and Elis off to NeuerDraht; presumably Grit is \nsomewhere on the ship, or on the planet but with the ability to teleport \nback.\n\n- Gerry Quinn" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Marc Aramini", "address": "marcaramini at gmail.com" }, "date": "2014-07-29T19:59:46+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Short Story 71: Silhouette", "in_reply_to": "<53D7E135.6000401@bindweed.com>", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Yes I realized grit went to bring the escape pod to the hydroponic module,\nbut it isn't clear if she is in it at the end.\n\nDo time quanta exist? Light certainly emits photons, and the history of\nblack body radiation made me wonder if the shadow and Algol were being\nbrought into this discussion of time and velocity thematically. Perhaps in\na pseudoscientific and impossible reversal, when the shadow is seen it must\nemit a wavelength at the speed of light, because the observer sees it. At\nthose speeds it cannot act inside time. when unseen, sublight speed quanta\ncan be emitted in time to allow communication, but that's all pseudoscience\ntrying to explain why they can't talk when seen, and assuming that\nobservation actually prompts a waveform emission at the speed of light\nrather than simply existing In the first place (almost like the observer\nfixes them in place). The Gorgon's head of Algol might be just as useful an\nexplanation." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On Tuesday, July 29, 2014, Gerry Quinn > wrote:\n\nOn 29/07/2014 07:25, Marc Aramini wrote:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "As I said, if there is any physicist who can help with the time quanta\nparagraph, that would be great. It seems that the overmonitor is saying\nexistence is dependent on the emission of time quanta, and as such that\ndiscontinuous but \"real\" existence can spring up wherever the wave function\nof a body travels as long as a time quanta is emitted at that point. Right?" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "My impression is that Wolfe is just putting in a bit of sciency\njustification for teleportation." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "On looking at Grit's disappearance again, it seems that she actually has\ngone\n to get the escape tender and bring it to the hydroponic jungle for the\nCaptain\n and Johann so that the overmonitor cannot stop their escape. However,\n there is no mention of her in the escape pod when they open it, and\nthis is a\n bit disorienting. Is she there at all when it is jettisoned?" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "She teleported away (with the help of her shadow, obviously) as they were\nwalking to the escape pod. Only Johann and Gerta noticed. They send the\nCaptain and Elis off to NeuerDraht; presumably Grit is somewhere on the\nship, or on the planet but with the ability to teleport back.\n\n- Gerry Quinn\n_______________________________________________" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes", "address": "danldo at gmail.com" }, "date": "2014-07-29T20:03:19+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Short Story 71: Silhouette", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "\"Do time quanta exist?\"\n\nWhether spacetime is quantified is a gritty problem. Superstring theory\nseems to say yes, but superstring theory is, shall we say, far from proven." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On Tue, Jul 29, 2014 at 12:59 PM, Marc Aramini \nwrote:\nYes I realized grit went to bring the escape pod to the hydroponic module,\nbut it isn't clear if she is in it at the end.\n\nDo time quanta exist? Light certainly emits photons, and the history of\nblack body radiation made me wonder if the shadow and Algol were being\nbrought into this discussion of time and velocity thematically. Perhaps in\na pseudoscientific and impossible reversal, when the shadow is seen it must\nemit a wavelength at the speed of light, because the observer sees it. At\nthose speeds it cannot act inside time. when unseen, sublight speed\nquanta can be emitted in time to allow communication, but that's all\npseudoscience trying to explain why they can't talk when seen, and assuming\nthat observation actually prompts a waveform emission at the speed of light\nrather than simply existing In the first place (almost like the observer\nfixes them in place). The Gorgon's head of Algol might be just as useful an\nexplanation.\n\n\nOn Tuesday, July 29, 2014, Gerry Quinn wrote:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "On 29/07/2014 07:25, Marc Aramini wrote:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 3, "text": "As I said, if there is any physicist who can help with the time quanta\nparagraph, that would be great. It seems that the overmonitor is saying\nexistence is dependent on the emission of time quanta, and as such that\ndiscontinuous but \"real\" existence can spring up wherever the wave function\nof a body travels as long as a time quanta is emitted at that point. Right?" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "My impression is that Wolfe is just putting in a bit of sciency\njustification for teleportation." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 3, "text": "On looking at Grit's disappearance again, it seems that she actually\nhas gone\n to get the escape tender and bring it to the hydroponic jungle for the\nCaptain\n and Johann so that the overmonitor cannot stop their escape. However,\n there is no mention of her in the escape pod when they open it, and\nthis is a\n bit disorienting. Is she there at all when it is jettisoned?" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "She teleported away (with the help of her shadow, obviously) as they were\nwalking to the escape pod. Only Johann and Gerta noticed. They send the\nCaptain and Elis off to NeuerDraht; presumably Grit is somewhere on the\nship, or on the planet but with the ability to teleport back.\n\n- Gerry Quinn\n_______________________________________________" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Paul Zinn-Justin", "address": "pzinnjustin at gmail.com" }, "date": "2014-07-29T20:47:27+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Short Story 71: Silhouette", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On Tue, Jul 29, 2014 at 10:03 PM, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes \nwrote:\n\"Do time quanta exist?\"\n\nWhether spacetime is quantified is a gritty problem. Superstring theory\nseems to say yes, but superstring theory is, shall we say, far from proven.\n\nI think the word you're looking for is \"quantized\". according to quantum\nmechanics, everything should be quantized, but the theory that describes\nspacetime on all scales (Einstein's theory of general relativity) doesn't\nget along very well with quantum mechanics, hence various speculative\ntheories (such as superstrings) to reconcile them. It doesn't mean that the\ngeometry of spacetime should be thought of as discrete in nature (as\nopposite to continuous), but rather that its geometry at short distances\nbecomes a bit fuzzy, essentially quantum in nature." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "that being said, I haven't read the short story, so I'll stop my digression\nhere." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes", "address": "danldo at gmail.com" }, "date": "2014-07-29T20:52:28+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Short Story 71: Silhouette", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Paul - you are, of course, correct about \"quantized.\" My bad. And the rest\nis well said." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On Tue, Jul 29, 2014 at 1:47 PM, Paul Zinn-Justin \nwrote:\n\n\n\nOn Tue, Jul 29, 2014 at 10:03 PM, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes \nwrote:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "\"Do time quanta exist?\"\n\nWhether spacetime is quantified is a gritty problem. Superstring theory\nseems to say yes, but superstring theory is, shall we say, far from proven.\n\nI think the word you're looking for is \"quantized\". according to quantum\nmechanics, everything should be quantized, but the theory that describes\nspacetime on all scales (Einstein's theory of general relativity) doesn't\nget along very well with quantum mechanics, hence various speculative\ntheories (such as superstrings) to reconcile them. It doesn't mean that the\ngeometry of spacetime should be thought of as discrete in nature (as\nopposite to continuous), but rather that its geometry at short distances\nbecomes a bit fuzzy, essentially quantum in nature." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "that being said, I haven't read the short story, so I'll stop my\ndigression here.\n\n\n_______________________________________________" } ] }, { "message_id": "<53D8295C.2080506@hyraxes.com>", "from": { "name": "Dave Lebling", "address": "dlebling at hyraxes.com" }, "date": "2014-07-29T23:08:12+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Short Story 71: Silhouette", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": " From my viewpoint, I would say that the idea that time is quantized is \na perfectly reasonable SF supposition, given that it has been a \npostulated theory of physics for quite a long time. In fact, lots of \nideas that were current in physics when the story was written are now \npretty much dead parrots, but this parrot is still more or less alive. \n(At least until you look at it and determine whether it's alive or dead.)\n\nDave Lebling" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On 7/29/2014 4:52 PM, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes wrote:\nPaul - you are, of course, correct about \"quantized.\" My bad. And the \nrest is well said." } ] } ] }