Monday, 6 February 2023

Meaning And Stars

What do the stars mean? My response to that question is a second one: Why should they mean anything? But let's stay with the first question for a short while:

lights in the night sky
the unknown
the transcendent (see Rites And Synbols)
signifiers (I had lunch today with an astrologer)

In Virgin Planet, Davis Bertram on Atlantis sees the stars as:

"Civilized, urbane, pleasant..." (CHAPTER VII, p. 48)

- because his civilization is out there whereas, in Anderson's Genesis, Naia knows that there is meaning among the stars but that it is not a human meaning.

In the world of Narnia, stars are persons. An English boy is told that, even in his world, balls of gas in space are how stars appear but not what they are. I accept a philosophical difference between reality and appearance but not that big a difference.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

To Me what the stars MEAN is that they are giant balls of flaming gas, many of which have planets orbiting them. And some of those planets may have intelligent races inhabiting them.

And I hope we soon find out that is the case!

Ad astra! Sean