BETA-2
The Whorl list — 1 messages, 1 voices, 29 Apr 1999
https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/600

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Michael Andre-Driussi — 29 Apr 1999, 12:58

> Don't forget
> 
> Samuel R. Delany: THE BALLAD OF BETA 2
> 
> This would fall sorta into the "Colonies from " category, though like Long
> Sun, the colonists still live in the ship.

Good call, Robert Patterson! Refresh my memory further: IIRC, BB2 is about
an anthropologist (from Terra or the civilized sphere) who is examining the
hulk of the colony ship in orbit--I remember he translated one doorway
label as "sacrifice to the water gods" or something like that, a literal
take on "navigation."  His primary clues are contained within the epic poem
of the colonists (I thought they were on the ground by then).  So it is a
"discovery of Troy" type of deal, in the sense of using garbled heroic
poetry to figure out what happened on the long voyage.

So spill it: what happened to the colonists (I remember something about
some unexpected radiation washing over the ship out in the void)?  And any
other details you can recollect (how long was the voyage, what target star,
etc.).

=mantis=



*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.

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