"Change" is both a noun and a verb. Thus, we can write: "Change changes." And it does. In X, Tu Shan and his villagers knew cyclical seasonal changes but not unprecedented historical changes. In XII, the immortal shaman, Deathless, has known the births and deaths of generations who hunted buffalo that approached to within walking distance of their dwellings but now sees the greater kills and the consequent tribal expansion caused by young men who have learned to hunt on horseback.
Youthful Deathless tells his aged son:
"'Yes, my son, I have known change. I have felt time rush by like a river in flood, bearing the wreckage of hopes downstream out of sight'" (p. 250)
He has tried to protect his people from the flood but now cannot. An elder is appalled when Deathless tells him that he does not seek omens because:
"'The future has become too strange...'" (p. 253)
That is the message of science fiction. The future is unknowable but will be different.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Absolutely! We cannot know what will happen in the future, good, bad, or indifferent. We can only have hopes, fears, or guesses about the future.
Ad astra! Sean
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