New Wolfe online

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes · 07 Feb 2003, 17:26 · from urth-v0302.mbox · original

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From: "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes" <ddanehy at siebel.com>
Subject: RE: (urth) New Wolfe online
Date: Fri, 7 Feb 2003 10:26:18 -0700
Message-ID: <urth-v0302-2891 at digest.urth.net>
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Okay, I was hoping people would wait a day or two and let
one-and-all get read "Castaway" before the spoilage should
begin ... but since it has, some thinks from the blattidaean
microcranium.

1. I think that, yes, there is a thematic link (but not "in=3D20
the same universe" or even "in an alternate version of the=3D20
same universe," except in the very broad sence that all
distant-future skiffy consitutes "alternate versions" of
_our_ universe) to the Lupiverse, the Briah cycle, etc.

Specifically: I perceive a resonance between the "woman"=3D20
and the Mother ... not necessarily that they are the same=3D20
kind or order of being, but the Mother's people (Scylla,=3D20
etc.) seem to be a kind of mockery (as in "trolls are a=3D20
mockery of the Ents") of the "woman" and her kind (if she=3D20
has one).

Thematically, then, it seems that this is about the=3D20
_right_ relationship to the Earth-goddess.

2. I have the distinct impression that the narrator's=3D20
people live (almost?) entirely on their ships, that one
of the things that puzzles or amazes him about the castaway=3D20
is that he actually _lived_ "dirtside" for twenty-seven=3D20
years or so. Consider, for example, the first two sentences:

     We picked him up on some dead world nobody ever=3D20
     goes to. We did it because we had a field problem=3D20
     that required a lot of tests, and that stuff is=3D20
     easier if you can just dodge in and out of the=3D20
     ship without worrying about the airlocks and how=3D20
     much air you're dumping every time you go outside.

This sounds to me like a ship that doesn't land very often;
and, of course, the narrator doesn't know what trees or
birds are. And common metaphors have been transmogrified
to speak of life on ships rather than worlds:

     I said was it as good for you as it was for her,=3D20
     and did you feel the ship jump?=3D20

3. Yes, the Earth (I'm reasonably certain she/it is the=3D20
Earth) is badly poisoned.=3D20

     "...There's still a few plants. They're not good,=3D20
     but you can eat them if you boil them long enough=3D20
     and keep changing the water."=3D20

So polluted, in fact, that evolution can't keep up:

     "She's old," he said. "Old and ugly, and she can't=3D20
     think any more. She tries to think of new things,=3D20
     but nothing comes. Nothing works now..."

So, yes, at one level at least it's an eco-fable.=3D20

     "We could have saved her..."

     "We never wanted to help her. We never wanted to=3D20
     save her, and now we couldn't if we wanted to..."

4. The big question in my mind is: to whom is the=3D20
castaway speaking when he says "I love you" again and=3D20
again? The woman (who is not present, and is dead in
any case)? The narrator? The entire human race? And ...
is it him speaking, or is it the woman, who put "part=3D20
of herself into [the castaway's] brain?=3D20

(Then, too, a "part" of her surviving in the castaway
would explain why the whiteness of the ship "never
sucked the color out of him.")

5. As to the "things inside her, eating the corpse"=3D20
that were "part of her..." notice that the castaway
_smiles_ as he talks about it. A very strange smile

     I never had seen a smile like that before,=3D20
     and I don't ever want to see another one.

Now, what kind of smile is that? Superior? No; the
narrator probably sees superior smiles a dozen times
a day from the officers. I think it's a smile of
radical love ... and if, as I suspect, a "part" of=3D20
the "woman" still lives in the castaway, then his(?)=3D20
"I love you" seems to me to represent a signal of an
extraordinary forgiveness, the mother forgiving the
child who has been the cause of her death.

Just my tuppence worth ...

--Blattid

--=20

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