{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/6725",
    "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'"
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  "archive": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 6725,
    "subject": "Short Story 191*: Comber",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "2015-04-22T14:44:25+00:00",
    "last": "2015-04-22T14:44:25+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<CAF1072z7QD6Sf0sFwEusJQpagmX=UZKHHR0b_3sVuSvPFskwCQ@mail.gmail.com>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Marc Aramini",
        "address": "marcaramini at gmail.com"
      },
      "date": "2015-04-22T14:44:25+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth)  Short Story 191*: Comber",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
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          "kind": "text",
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          "text": "COMBER\n\n“Comber” was published in *Postscripts *Spring 2005 issue and has never\nbeen collected.\n\n\n SUMMARY:\n\nA nameless point of view character wakes up to the same news he heard the\nprevious night: the floating fragment of a continental plate upon which he\nlives with his pregnant wife Mona has topped the crest of the wave upon\nwhich it floats and is temporarily flat. He looks at his wife's peaceful\nface and quietly prepares for work. Driving his car to the tall buildings\nat city center, he passes through a tollway. He thinks that the last crest\nhad been before he was born, on a different wave, and thinks of the\npossible damage falling from the top of the wave might wreck on the city\nand its spumecathers. At work, probably at an architectural firm, he sees\nthat the inclinometer he once bought is exactly at zero and notes a memo\nthat the new angle will soon grow steep, the opposite of the accustomed\nangle (since they have spent his lifetime moving up the wave, and are about\nto crash down). Everything is to be reinforced with the new angle of\ndescent in mind.\n\nHe activates his work device, and instead of getting to work opens the\ndesigns for his dream house for Mona, “waiting there to be tinkered with,\nas it would not have been if anyone in authority had found it.” His friend\nPhil interrupts him, asking to look at his inclinometer and commenting that\nit is the first time in his life the plate has been flat. Phil asks if he\nwants to go up to the roof and look, and our main character declines the\noffer, wondering what would happen if the plate actually overturned during\nits descent:\n\nIf the building did not break up when it hit the water, it would point down\nand would be submerged. Water would short out the electrical equipment,\nprobably at once — rooms and corridors might (or might not) hold some air\nfor a few hours — most [of] it down on what were now the lower floors. He\nmight, perhaps, break a window and so escape;if he lived long enough to\nrise to street level, the end of the plate, and air, would be what? Thirty\nmiles away? Forty?\n\n He thinks it would be better to die at home with his wife and their unborn\nchild. As the week passes, he sees that the inclinometer becomes much more\nextreme in its reading, but on Friday his next door neighbor Edith Benson\ncalls to tell him that she has driven his wife to the hospital — her labor\nhas begun. By the time he returns to work after a brief vacation, the\ninclinometer is but a pencil's breadth from the extreme end of its reading\n— a reading which, according to the man who sold it to our protagonist,\nneed not go further, for there will be no one to read it if it does.\n\nThat night they discuss college and a career for their son Adrian, and,\nlooking in on him, kiss several times as they exchange endearments,\nclaiming that Adrian's future would be his own to choose (“But would not\ntheir own attitudes, the training they gave him, and their very table-talk,\ninfluence Adrian's choices?”).\n\nThe next day he combs his hair and thinks only of Adrian and the plate,\npondering that the taller buildings his firm was planning could only be\nbuilt if there was someone alive to build them. At work, a group of\ncoworkers are “marveling at the vastness of the tossing green waters that\nstretched to the horizon in every direction”. The CEO's secretary remarks\nthat they will never be able to see so far again, and never be so high. An\nexecutive vice president tells him to look on and let it inspire him to\n“think big”. “Yet he found himself looking at the people who looked, and\nnot at the boundless ocean.”\n\nAn elderly man named Parsons lets him peer through his telescope, and he is\nable to make out another floating city far away, for an instant even\ncatching a glimpse of a cross atop a spire amidst pigeons and gulls. In\nalarm, our protagonist considers that certainly the city, which Parsons\nspeculates might be *Les Sables-D'Olonne *from research done on his\ncomputer, must move before they crash into it. Parsons knows that it takes\na long time to climb a wave, but that falling down was an extremely rapid\nprocess.\n\nThey discuss the possibility that a collision will break up their own\nplate, and the certainty that even a small bump would flatten all of the\nlarge buildings of their home city. The geologist Parsons consulted, Dr.\nLantz, instructed him to refrain from speaking of it. Parsons says that to\nhim it doesn't matter, as his life is over, but it will matter to our main\ncharacter, still young.\n\nHe phones a geologist who lives nearby named Martin Sutton to ask a few\nquestions about the threat of the city in their path. Sutton, after a\nreluctance to speak, reveals that it has been kept off of the TV and news\nvenues, and that the chances of missing the city are only one in ten, but\nthat yesterday they were calling it one in five. Sutton also confides that\nthey are considering breaking up the other plate in advance, though he\nimplores the main character to keep quiet about it. The protagonist\nrealizes that the reinforcement crews have been acting at his office to\nprepare for just such a collision.\n\nSutton reveals that the plan is to attack with a strike force of about a\nthousand men and drill explosives a hundred feet into the other floating\ncity, though it will clearly take them years to get there with their\ncurrent level of working technology. Sutton also says that there won't be\nany young geologists for the task, as the university has shut down the\ngeology program entirely.\n\nLater the nameless main character confides to his wife Mona, indicating\nthat there will be ten or fifteen years for each side to prepare and\nexpressing a lack of confidence in the plan. Mona offers that the city in\ntheir path could break up their own plate, but the main character indicates\nthat their own government could also break up the plate they live upon, and\nMona responds, “How horrible! No, of course they won't.”\n\nHere he decides that someone must act to sunder their own plate and avoid\nwar and disaster, using the force of an explosion to move their piece out\nof the path of the other city:\n\n“Adrian would have a future. Don't you see, Mona” We wouldn't take just\nthis residential neighborhood, but a piece of the infrastructure big enough\nto be economically viable. We could make things for ourselves then, make\nthings to trade, grow gardens, and fish. That town the city's going to hit\n— people survive there. They even prosper. I've bounced this off of a man\nover on the next street, a geologist. He agrees it might be possible, and\nhe's coming over to talk about it.\n\nMona thinks bumpers or bags of air might work instead. He says that nothing\ncould stop the mass of the plate, and even if it could, the resulting wave\nwould drown everyone. Mona's voice is barely audible when he tells her that\nSutton is coming over at eight that night.\n\nAn hour later Mona tells him to stop combing his hair with his fingers and\npacing up and down. She begs him to go outside so he can see Sutton coming,\nand he agrees not to come back in until he his friend arrives. He thinks of\nthe details of the plan, and whether or not they will need to employ a\nchemist, sitting on the stoop of his house. Sutton arrives, claiming that\nthe new angle has disoriented him. The wind snatches his baseball cap, and\nhe asks the main character to help him find it. As they search, he believes\nhe hears sirens traveling from the east to the north.\n\n“One by one, the sirens grew louder — and abruptly fell silent. For almost\nthe last time, he ran nervous fingers through his hair.” He sprints towards\nhis house to find that it is locked and dead-bolted against him. “Once\nonly, his shoulder struck the unyielding wood. By that time the first\npolice car had turned the corner on two screaming wheels, and it was too\nlate to hide.”\n\n\n COMMENTARY:\n\nIn the introductory material to the story, Wolfe claims, “This story grew\nfrom the realization that the continents are islands of granite floating\nupon a sea of molten basalt- they drift and tend to break up — that gave me\nthe image of a city on a floating chip of stone.” The title, “Comber”,\ndenotes a long sea wave which curls, generally considered to be synonymous\nwith a breaker. (The main character also keeps combing his hair, sometimes\nwith his hands, in his nervousness and in his thoughts for the future.\nClearly this character trait should serve as our mental designation for\nthis otherwise nameless character — one who is always considering the small\ndetails of his dreams and goals.)\n\nOne of Wolfe's simpler tales, the gimmick of the floating cities and a\nsociety based upon them with limited resources is perhaps the most\ninteresting concept on display here. There is definitely a libertarian\nstrain in some of Wolfe's later fiction, and while this may or may not\nreflect his personal attitude, “Comber” shows a notable paranoia towards\nboth authority figures and even family members. Those in power do not have\nthe best interests of the people at heart, and would definitely destroy\nothers and start a war rather than think of creative solutions or try to\nfind a way to work with anyone else. While the situation they are in\ncertainly seems to be a catastrophic one, with radio news and other\nartifacts of technology, certainly it seems that open communication might\nbe possible — yet instead, the government favors concealment and covert\nhostility. Like many citizens of society, Mona thinks that it is the other\ncity which should necessarily be broken up, but reacts in horror at the\nidea of breaking up their own plate.\n\nThe authoritarian presence looming in the background, while ostensibly\nhaving the best interests of its island city at heart, is clearly set on a\ncourse which discourages both inquiry and any innovative solutions besides\nthe obvious destructive one. This is not the first time that the university\nhas been the target of some satirical commentary from Wolfe — discontinuing\nan entire branch of a practical science like geology, perhaps in fear,\ncertainly reeks of an agenda-driven education which is controlled by\nexternal forces. It is clear from the second page of the story that our\nmain character already understands that those in authority are in the habit\nof suppressing personal dreams and goals from the care he takes to conceal\nhis plans for a dream-house.\n\nThis dream house is associated with the most powerful imagery of the story\n- the way the protagonist views his wife, Mona. All of his dreams are\ngeared towards their future happiness, and his pet project at work is\nspecifically for her and their children. One gets the impression that his\nrevolutionary actions are motivated primarily for her continued safety and\ntheir child, and even when he leaves for work at the start, his thoughts\nare on a way to get past her without waking her from her happy slumber.\nWolfe's love of irony is here on full display: motivated by love of his\nwife, letting her in on his plans has cost him his freedom and probably his\nlife, judging from the authoritarian attitude of their city. (Also, the\nstatement that he is combing his hands through his hair for almost the last\ntime bodes particularly ill for his immediate future). Mona has both\nbetrayed him and locked him out, perhaps indirectly guaranteeing a long and\nprotracted struggle that might doom both their home and the city in their\npath. Just as with the design of his dream house, he must surely realize\nthat his plans will not come to fruition and vanish if anyone in authority\nlearns of them - and almost as tragic as the realization that they are\nheaded for another city is no doubt his personal realization that the\nperson he loves most has destroyed his dreams of a better tomorrow for her\nand their child. Certainly the observation our point of view character\nabout the vegetation applies to his own ignorance: “Those trees were\nwrongly slanted now. Come morning, they would find themselves pointed away\nfrom the sun. He chuckled softly. It could not be often that smug suburban\ntrees received such an unpleasant surprise.” His own compass and goal has\nshifted, and no longer points in the same direction as that of his wife.\nMuch like the trees, he is in for an unpleasant surprise.\n\nMona is one of the female characters which gives some credence to the idea\nthat Wolfe's portrayal of women can be problematic, as clearly the dominant\nand controlling motivation for her betrayal is fear. Given the\nself-sacrificing motives of the protagonist, her betrayal is especially\nunsympathetic.\n\n\n NAMES\n\n\n Interestingly, the main character, who decides on rebellion by breaking up\nhis own city and returning to a more simple manner of living, is never\ngiven a name. He is referred to as “Honey”, “Darling”, or “young man” by\nothers.\n\nHis wife Mona's name has multiple possible meanings. Perhaps the most\napposite is that of the Greek word for monad, meaning “singular” or ?one?.\nMona can also be a female derivative of Simon, which can mean “God has\nheard.”\n\nAdrian can imply “dark” or, in its Latin origin, “of the Adriatic” -\ncertainly appropriate given both the baby's fate and the watery setting.\n\nThe opposing city, *Les Sables-D'Olonne*, is a real seaside town in Western\nFrance on the Atlantic, and its meaning is “the sands of Olonne”. This\nclearly sets the world as “ours”. It does not seem possible to identify\nwhich (probably coastal) town our point of view characters live upon, as it\nseems the portions of the continent which have been broken apart and stayed\nafloat have been doing so for generations.\n\nA man named Parsons shows him the city in their path — and this\noccupational surname indicates someone in a parson's household or a close\nfamily member of a parson. The geologist he phoned, Dr. Lantz, has a name\nwhich implies “land” or “territory”.\n\nThe friend of our narrator who also works as a geologist is identified as\nMartin Sutton. Martin means “warring” or “warrior of Mars” and Sutton can\nimply “southern town” or someone from that town.\n\nThe woman who drives his wife to the hospital, Edith Benson, has a first\nname which is derived from an Old English name meaning “wealth” and ?war?.\nHer last name can imply the son of Ben (which in turns means “son of the\nsouth” or “son of the right hand”). Thus we have two names meaning the same\nthing: war and the south. Clearly this future is headed for a destructive\nwar even if the two land masses eventually collide.\n\n UNANSWERED QUESTIONS:\n\n Why have the continents been sundered, with small portions still adrift?\nAre there any larger land masses? While it is clearly our future, has a\ntrue catastrophe like nuclear war served to break apart the continents into\nsmall, porous sections? Judging from the thematic undercurrent of the story\n(that those in power would rather risk absolute destruction than\nvoluntarily give up an iota of control or allow a concession) a\ntechnological weapon employed during war might be a viable reason for the\ncurrent state of the world.\n\n\n UNANSWERED QUESTIONS:\n\n\n Is there any way to determine which city our characters live upon? They\neat wieners and sauerkraut, but there is little reason to believe that it\nis necessarily German or even European, though it was perhaps originally a\ncoastal city.\n\n\n CONNECTION WITH OTHER WORKS\n\n\n Certainly this bears a superficial resemblance to Wolfe's other “floating\ncity” story: “Civis Laputus Sum”. However, this has more in common with the\nslightly more libertarian themes of his later fiction, such as “Viewpoint”\nand even, more subtly, “Bloodsport”. The infinite vastness of the ocean is\non display in many of Wolfe's important works. His treatment of the abyss\nof space seems inimically more “parasitic” and transformative to humans but\nhas the same feel of isolation. Looking at parallels such as “Silhouette”,\n“Alien Stones”, or “Leif in the Wind” might be interesting."
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