The peasants of Earth are rich in:
folk art;
folk music;
ceremony;
religion;
family life, lost by the Galactics.
We are told nothing of their religion. Kormt refers to:
"'...life and finally death and the long sleep in the earth...'" (p. 205)
So maybe the Terrans do not believe in a hereafter? However, people are capable of inconsistency in this matter. See here. Some believe both that they will consciously enter a hereafter immediately after death and that they will remain unconscious until resurrected in a remote future.
In Poul Anderson's Technic History, resurrection is re-imagined on the planet Aeneas. See here.
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And sometimes we should not try to read too much into such lines as "...and finally death and the long slow sleep in the earth." E.g., to select an example from the Biblical books of Kings, we read in 3 Kings 15.24, "And he [Asa] slept with his fathers, and was buried with them in the city of David his father. And Josaphat his son reigned in his place." It's simply a metaphor in both instances meaning people died and were buried.
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Paul!
I had been looking at the illustration you chose, and I noted how "Security" is listed as among the Anderson stories in the collection shown by the image. One of the Andersonian curiosities I have is a hard covered reprint of that story by Aegypan Press (undated, but I got it in 2007). And "Security" was first printed in the Feb. 1953 issue of SPACE SCIENCE FICTION.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I think that "Security" is one that I do not have.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Far too many of Anderson's stories and essays were printed only once--and then never again collected and reprinted. They need to be tracked down and collected, else too many will be at risk of becoming permanently lost.
And I am still not sure of the provenance of "Notes on Gotterdamerung," allegedly written by Anderson.
Ad astra! Sean
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