By now, the even number of the chapter should alert regular readers that this is a "Mother of the Moon" historical flashback to the lifetime of Dagny Beynac. It is also a pivotal chapter although we have not yet reached the midpoint of the novel.
Anson Guthrie has died but he was downloaded. Downloading technology was merely speculative earlier in his lifetime. Technological progress is even faster in his period than in ours.
Lars Rydberg has detected a remote asteroid that might confirm Edmond Beynac's theory about the early Solar System. An expedition with Lars as captain and Edmond as geologist might be funded by one of the young Selenarchs, a son of the Beynacs, who has become wealthy. Edmond might not return: Dagny remembers Kipling's poem about "...the old grey Widow-maker.'" (p. 241) See here.
Chapter 19 returns us to the narrative present and, more specifically, to Ian Kenmuir's melodrama.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
If I recall correctly, one of the key points of THE STARS ARE ALSO FIRE occurred when the Beynac children and "embryonic" Selenarchs forced agents of the Governor General of Luna for the World Federation to recognize their authority on the Moon, to a degree. Iow, a crucial PRECEDENT. I don't know if this happened in of the odd or even numbered chapters.
Sean
Sean,
I will find out. I think that it must be in a flashback chapter.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
And this incident was crucial because it led to the rise of the Selenarchy and the independence of the Moon from the World Federation.
Sean
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