What a finale! Joelle, almost a disembodied intellect fully integrated with a spaceship's computer and its instruments, expects to become one with the Others whereas Caitlin, an Irish bard who lives life to the full, expects the Others to be good and loving but no more than that. Yet it is Caitlin who is their avatar. They will know human life through her whereas Joelle will come to see her Noumenon as no more than a shadow.
There are six more chapters but no time to reread them tonight. I will be back here either late tomorrow or on Monday. Read Poul Anderson and learn about life!
As the Others will say to Joelle:
"- Farewell. Fare ever well." (XLVI, p. 381)
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
If my recollection is correct, Joelle was coming close to having a Manichaean/Albigensian disdain or contempt for the ordinary physical universe. Or coming close to having an extreme Platonic view that only the perfect, disembodied archetype of a pure Mind was what mattered.
Sean
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