These posts are written while reading or rereading. Thus, I missed a point. At the end of this story, Peter Berg explains that, according to the Ythrian New Faith, when a conscious being gives God the Hunter:
"'...a good chase, a good fight.
"'Then He wins honor....
"'That's why God created the universe.'" (pp. 133-134)
So God the Hunter is God the Creator. OK, this might be Berg reading his Biblical concept of creation onto the Ythrian ideas. Nevertheless, the word, "created," is used at this one point.
Meanwhile, the planet Gray, not yet given its final name of Avalon, acquires some of its local terminologies. Olga Berg has christened "atlantis weed." The tree whose waving thin branch slices off Enherrian's left wing is later called the surgeon tree. The bush whose vapours poison and kill Olga has already been named the hell shrub.
Misunderstandings continue. Peter Berg wonders whether God would really blame the crippled Enherrian if he committed suicide whereas Whell is horrified at the suggestion that her husband might rob God of honour.
That atlantis weed is a good adaptation of plants to life not in but on the ocean. Why has something like it not evolved on Earth? Could intelligent beings colonize the floating islands, living on platforms and fishing while cultivating smaller plants that grow on the weeds?
7 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
A barbaric and revolting notion, that Ythriam conception of why God created the universe and intelligent beings! I believe the Christian view, as expressed bu Dante in the DIVINE COMEDY, is what's true: God created other intelligent beings because He rejoices in how they are able to declare "I am," knowing they exist and can make choices.
Ad astra! Sean
Atlantis weed sounds like scaled up Sargassum Weed, scaled up to the size of the legend mentioned here.
"Although the seaweed acquired a legendary reputation for covering the entirety of the Sargasso Sea, making navigation impossible,[5] it has since been found to occur only in drifts."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sargassum
Kaor, Jim!
A bit like what readers see in C.S. Lewis' PERELANDRA, set on an oceanic Venus with floating plant islands so solid you could live on them.
Ad astra! Sean
See also "The Life of Pi".
If I recall correctly my reading of it a few decades ago, it included a floating island the title character spent some time on. Perhaps the author had read 'Perelandra'.
Kaor, Jim!
Ah, an oceanic Venus! Up till the late 1950's people were still hoping Venus would be a warm, tropical, very terrestroid planet. Anderson's contribution to that meme was "Sister Planet."
Fair warning, that story is quite grim!
Ad astra! Sean
I have read "Sister Planet"
"Life of Pi" was set on the Pacific Ocean.
The notion of such floating islands existing & not being common knowledge is *unlikely*. However there are other aspects of the story that also suggest 'unreliable narrator'.
Kaor, Jim!
Anderson wrote quite a fair share of grim, disturbing stories.
Many of the stories of the late Gene Wolfe also featured "unreliable narrators."
Ad astra! Sean
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