Sometimes it seems more than fortuitous that a particular paragraph falls right at the end of a right-hand page so that it is necessary to turn the page in order to continue reading. Although there is no pause in the text, the reader experiences the very slight pause of a page-turning immediately before a dramatic development in the narrative. Thus, He'o, an intelligent seal, reflecting on humanity and expressing his own experience, tells Fenn and Stellarosa:
"'Yes, you are a peculiar race... I will never fully understand you. Do you understand yourselves?' His whiskers quivered. 'I, though, I am going home to my sea.'" (p. 159)
He'o is going home.
Turning the page, we read:
"Thunder smote. His skull exploded. Blood and brains fountained. The missile whanged off two walls before it dropped." (p. 160)
His last conscious thought before his instantaneous death was of the sea. Some would say that that was the best way to die although I disagree. He'o's best death would have been at the end of a very long old age while experiencing his sea.
Do we imagine that He'o does go home, i.e., that he enters a hereafter corresponding to his memory of the sea? We can imagine this and write fiction about it but consciousness must end when the brain that generates it explodes.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
While I remain skeptical about "uplifting" animals, the question as regards their spiritual/eternal fate is an interesting speculation. At what point might they gain immortal souls?
Ad astra! Sean
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