Saturday, 29 January 2022

Which Reality?

The moral of the episode summarized in the preceding post is that reality overwhelms fantasy. But it matters which reality we inhabit. When the scientist, Hess, is confronted by a powerful demon, the Sabbath Goat, that he has helped to conjure, he reverts to his former skepticism, denies that the Goat even exists and runs straight at it:

"The Sabbath Goat opened Its great mouth and gulped him down like a fly."
-James Blish, Black Easter IN Blish, After Such Knowledge (London, 1991), pp. 319-425 AT 17, p. 423.

I take that to mean that, in this (fictional) reality, the Goat does literally exist! He is not a psychological projection or "'...mushroom dream...'" (ibid.) etc.
 
The Goat swallowing Hess is the exact equivalent of the moment in "The Saturn Game" when:
 
"The ridge cracked asunder and fell in shards." (p. 37)
 
Someone denies reality. Reality intervenes.
at

3 comments:

  1. Sean M. Brooks29 January 2022 at 15:16

    Kaor, Paul!

    For anyone to deny any of the many ways in which they might be confronted by reality is to risk catastrophe.

    Ad astra! Sean

    ReplyDelete
  2. S.M. Stirling29 January 2022 at 17:51

    There's physical reality, and then there's the shared social reality we create by believing in it.

    Both can kill you, which makes both just about equally real.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sean M. Brooks29 January 2022 at 21:27

    Kaor, Mr. Stirling!

    And you expressed more clearly what I was trying to say. (Smiles)

    Ad astra! Sean

    ReplyDelete