Samael has no viewpoint chapter. His concluding manifestation to Haverner is quite horrible.
There is a testing to destruction. Or two such testings? I do not believe that any of the contestants is worthless although apparently Haverner wanted to prove that they were. Who is the "Devil" of the title? How many madmen are there at the end of the narrative?
James Blish wrote about experiments performed without any moral constraints. See here.
Another book tomorrow.
Addendum: CS Lewis' That Hideous Strength is another fictional account of morally unconstrained experiments. Both That Hideous Strength and Blish's Black Easter/The Day After Judgment involve literal demons, believed in by Lewis, hypothesized by Blish. Read Anderson, Blish and Lewis.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I too have finished rereading THE DEVIL'S GAME. Which I had done precisely because of your commentaries.
Yes, I think the story is about both the testing of the seven contestants AND of Haverner himself. Nor do I think that the story ends well for him.
One point I would put some stress on is this bit from page 254, in the final Sunderland Haverner chapter: "But what can I do to forget this man here beside me, who was broken not by weakness but by a buried honor?" This thought by Haverner about Ellis has puzzled me. What made Haverner think Nordberg's bad LSD trip broke not because of a weakness with him but by "buried honor"? And in what did this "honor" of Nordberg's consist?
There seems to be no end to the questions obscure details in Anderson's works can bring up when attention is paid to them!
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment