Barbara Whitley's designations include "Maiden" and "novice in the Mysteries." (p. 9) OK: Mystery religion, been there, done that, the Mystery of Mithras in The King of Ys etc. However, an sf writer can give such terminology a material significance. Barbara will cease to be a Maiden and become an initiate when she goes to the Ship of Father where the Doctors will impregnate her. Initiation equals impregnation and thus an end of Maidenhood. Isolated colonists applying an inherited genetic technology that they do not understand enshroud it in mystical language.
Davis Bertram is a Man but does not appear in glory so is taken to be a Monster (alien). In religious terms, a prophesied divine incarnation is not recognized as such but instead is denounced as a demon.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
And I'm sure the otherwise clinical use of parthenogenesis was accompanied with prayers to
Father and invocations supplicating the aid of the holy Men.
Ad astra! Sea
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