Wednesday 26 April 2017

Stories About The Eternal

Before human beings can respond to the world, it must be processed through their brains. Before a brain can process the world, it must receive words and concepts from society.

Edh tells stories about the goddess and sits by the sea. See here. Just as a Hebrew prophet sees God in nature and history, Edh sees her goddess in the sky and the sea. The eternal is always present now but sometimes is conceived as a transcendent future. Edh preaches:

"...a day would yet dawn. Abide it, and be ready when that red sun rose."
-Poul Anderson, "Star Of The Sea" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006), pp. 467-640 AT I. 10. A.D. 60, p. 556.

The day is always dawning but prophets and sibyls say that it will dawn...

Floris says that Edh has "'Total conviction...'" (p. 556) Everard replies that it is more:

a gift;
a power;
real leadership;
a touch of mystery;
something transhuman;
maybe "'...the timestream...bearing her along.'" (p. 557)

Powerful words from a Time Patrolman, taking everything that has been written about time travel and adding something more.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

While I don't think we ever see Manse Everard subscribing to any particular religious beliefs, it's plain he was not in the least hostile to religious believers, per se. The mere fact he did not claim to understand the universe, only that he worked there, is more evidence of that.

Sean