"The Bitter Bread" presents yet another example of something seen against the background of the Milky Way:
"When the two counterinertial fields, extending a few kilometers beyond either hull, began to mesh, I saw ghostlike waverings across the Milky Way." (pp. 106-107)
I have reread "The Bitter Bread" to the end and cannot find much more to say about it. In any sane civilisation, Daphne would have been able to join her husband without any problem but she has to practice an elaborate deception because of civilizational uptightness.
9 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Your first paragraph: because not all science fiction writers took as much care and thought as did Anderson to make their stories as scientifically plausible as possible.
I only partly agree with your last paragraph. First, Daphne was not officially a member of the Protectorate's astronautic service. But I agree that would only be a legal and administrative problem. Second, I'm not absolutely sure she was technically qualified, her previous career not being space oriented. But I might be wrong.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
But her husband was leaving forever so that was reason enough for her to join him.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
And her own husband tried to discourage her from that. Because that would be a huge sacrifice for a young woman with no children to make. He wanted Daphne to stay on Earth, accept dissolution of their marriage, and remarry.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
But it should have been a matter just between them.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
No, the crew of the "Uriel" were in the astronautic corps of the Protectorate and crewing a ship belonging to the State, so the Protectorate had a rightful say in the matter.
Ad astra! Sean
But not when the ship was going away forever! He wanted her to remain on Earth and be happy because he accepted that the state could rule that she couldn't go.
Kaor, Paul!
I think if Daphne had openly declared her intention of making it impossible for her to leave the "Uriel," she would not have been allowed to even go there. But she fooled everybody, the narrator of "The Bitter Bread," the Protectorate authorities, even her husband--she would not go to the ship simply to help prepare the crew for lifelong exile, or to say farewell to her husband. So I would agree more with her husband's wishes.
Ad astra! Sean
Any set of rules is going to grind people up in the gears occasionally.
You can make exceptions to the rules in a worthy cause... but if you start doing that openly, there will be a lot of pressure to make exceptions in -less- worthy cases.
Hence many systems allow discretionary exceptions... but deny that they do so.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
That's an interesting take on "The Bitter Bread," one I never thought of before. Meaning everyone involved pretended to have been deceived by Daphne? I thought the narrator, at least, was surprised!
Ad astra! Sean
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