Ziggurat as Delusion or SF

Alex David Groce · 06 Feb 2000, 11:03 · from urth-v0028.mbox · original

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From: Alex David Groce <Alex_Groce at gs246.sp.cs.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: (urth) Ziggurat as Delusion or SF
Date: Sun, 06 Feb 2000 11:03:27
Message-ID: <urth-v0028-0778 at digest.urth.net>
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Dennis G. Berdanis asked some questions, I think I can answer a few:

>1.  What caused our future society to abandon men and only allow female
>births?  Would it be the traditional "Men destroyed the world and can't be
>allowed to do it again.  Women would never do that?"  That would explain t=
he
>women's fear of men.  I believe there was a new Outer Limits episode a few
>years back that dealt with women experimenting with allowing men back into
>society in the future and deciding against it.  The handful of men corrupt=
ed
>the women, so no more were cloned.

Hard to say what precisely caused it--however, the idea is not new to Wolfe=
--
"In Looking Glass Castle" and "Many Mansions" both involve future female-on=
ly
societies.  In general, I think Wolfe's take on such societies is that they
are indicative of a terrible failure of humanity to deal with its nature.

>2.  Why would this future society of women be so prone to violence?  I can
>understand them robbing the cabin and vehicles to repair their ship.  Why
>would they be so determined to shoot anything they didn't understand?  Why
>would they force the twin to go to their ship and strip down then return
>her?  For her eggs as other's have speculated?

I think part of this is Wolfe's sly way of pointing out that men and women
all _that_ different:  the "Brownies" aren't pacifistic or over-trusting, a=
nd
their behavior (intentionally I suspect) calls to mind the paranoid and pan=
ic
stricken behavior of a lot of crews of crashed spaceships in alien territory
over the history of sf.  Remember:  presumably at some point, their society
CHOSE to eliminate men, so Emory is an almost mythical monster from the past
in their eyes.

>1.  Why did Emery keep saying the coyote was killed with a cyanide gun.
>What is a cyanide gun exactly?  How would he know it was killed with this
>type of gun unless he did it?]

I finally looked this up on the web.  I'd heard the term before and knew it
was some kind of animal trap, but couldn't remember the specifics:
"Also introduced in the 1940s was a revolutionary, deadly new predator weap=
on.
The "coyote getter" is a pistol cartridge-powered cyanide gun that shoots a
puff of deadly sodium cyanide dust into the mouth of any carnivore, omnivor=
e,
or carrion-eater that tugs on its scented wick. On contact with the moistur=
e in
the animal's mouth (or eyes, or wherever it hits) gas is released and the=20
animal is gassed to death (or blinded). A highly effective killer, the coyo=
te=20
getter quickly gained widespread use. Eventually it was usurped by a newer=20
model, the spring loaded "M-44" coyote getter, which is still used today.=20
Over the years coyote getters have killed countless thousands of predators,=20
non-target animals, and even a few humans."
(http://http://arrs.envirolink.org/ar-voices/eyeeye.html)

Emory can tell because presumably the coyote is still beside the trap.  THIS
is, as far as I can tell, all that's involved in Emory's "killing" the coyo=
te.
He taught it not to fear human smell and so it took the bait.

>3.  What were Emery's plans for the coyote.  I never understood, other than
>Wolfe symbolism, what plans Emery could have for the frozen coyote body?

He wanted to give it a proper burial, as with his son.  He felt (rightly, b=
ut
in a limited sense) responsible for its death.

It's (in part) Emory's empathy for the coyote and his feeling of responsibi=
lity
at its death that makes it hard for me to swallow the "Emory is damned" (see
Nicholas Gevers' "Three readings") interpretations of this story.  "Follow =
the
Wolfe" for me does not lead to Emory as delusional or evil.

"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32
--
Alex David Groce (agroce+ at cs.cmu.edu)
Ph.D. Student, Carnegie Mellon University - Computer Science Department
8112 Wean Hall (412)-268-3066
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~agroce

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