If there are many gods, then each needs a name but, if there is only one, then "God" becomes a name just as extraterrestrials might address the last surviving male human being indifferently either as "John" or as "Man." The need for a distinguishing name becomes redundant. The need to address an invoked entity by the correct name persists in demonology.
However, in Poul Anderson's Technic History, the monotheists of the Merseian Roidhunate refer not to "God" but to "the God," implying, I think, a lack of personal relationship to this single deity. We know that at least the Vach Urdiolch has "Secret Prayers" and we do not know what is said in them. (They are secret.)
The phrase, "...THE GOD..." occurs twice on p. 422 of James Blish's After Such Knowledge (London, 1991). A demon, speaking in capitals, refers contemptuously to "THE GOD" Who does not appear and Who, allegedly, is dead. Apparently, that being no longer warrant a Name...
There is no remotest connection between Blish's demon and Anderson's Roidhunate - except that at least one sf fan, reading of one, thinks of the other. Everything connects in our minds.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
We do see a last man in one of Anderson's grimmer pieces, "In Memoriam." And that man does not seem to ever have had a name.
Anderson can give us bracingly bleak visions as well as hopeful ones, such as "Welcome," "The Martyr," or "Murphy's Hall." Perhaps I should list "Sister Planet" as well.
Ad astra! Sean
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