- Joined
- Dec 13, 2022
I reread Lord of Light a few days ago. Recommended for anyone who is interested in a religious SF novel which isn't about Christianity. The writing is very vivid. Here, the people who have assumed the roles of Kali and Kalkin/Siddhartha discuss their past:
I have also begun rereading The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. PKD's novels use Christian and Gnostic terminology sometimes but the religious worlds he conjures are far more eclectic. This novel does not have any passages as striking as the "cleaner, more durable place" solilloquy from Ubik, though there are parts that are provocative - in a good way!
Another book I've been trying to start is The Politics of Exile in Renaissance Italy. Anyone familiar with the Fourth Crusade knows how disruptive exiles could be, but the Italians didn't have long-term prisons, and execution was considered too extreme for political enemies who weren't in rebellion, so expulsion to other cities was the only acceptable solution. I found it at Goodwill of all places, tucked in between Danielle Steele novels and Minecraft guides.
They sat within black robes upon the dark seats, and his hand lay atop hers, there on the table that stood between them; and the horoscopes of all their days moved past them on the wall that separates Heaven from the heavens; and they were silent as they considered the pages of their centuries.
"Sam," she finally said, "were they not good?"
"Yes," he replied.
"And in those ancient days, before you left Heaven to dwell among men - did you love me then?"
"I do not really remember," he said. "It was so very long ago. We were both different people then - different minds, different bodies. Probably those two, whoever they were, loved one another. I cannot remember."
"But I recall the springtime of the world as though it were yesterday - those days we rode together to battle, and those nights when we shook the stars loose from the fresh-painted skies! The world was so new and different then, with a menace lurking within every flower and a bomb behind every sunrise. Together we beat a world, you and I, for nothing really wanted us here and everything disputed out coming. We cut and burnt our way across the land and over the seas, and we fought under the seas and in the skies, until there was nothing left to oppose us. Then cities were built, and kingdoms, and we raised up those whom we chose to rule over them, until they ceased to amuse us and then we cast them down again. What do the younger gods know of those days? How can they understand the power we knew, who were First?"
"They cannot," he replied.
"When we held court in our palace by the sea and I gave you many sons, and our fleets swept out to conquer the islands, were those days not fair and full of grace? And the nights things of fire and perfume and wine? . . . Did you not love me then?"
"I believe those two loved one another, yes."
"Those two? We are not that different. We are not that changed. Though ages slip away, there are some things within one's being which do not change, which do not alter, no matter how many bodies one puts upon oneself, no matter how many lovers one takes, no matter how many things of beauty and ugliness one looks upon or does, no matter how many thoughts one thinks or feelings one feels. One's self still stands at the center of all this and watches."
"Open a fruit and there is a seed within it. Is that the center? Open the seed and there is nothing within it. Is that the center? We are two different persons from the master and the mistress of battles. It was good to have known those two, but that is all."
"Sam," she finally said, "were they not good?"
"Yes," he replied.
"And in those ancient days, before you left Heaven to dwell among men - did you love me then?"
"I do not really remember," he said. "It was so very long ago. We were both different people then - different minds, different bodies. Probably those two, whoever they were, loved one another. I cannot remember."
"But I recall the springtime of the world as though it were yesterday - those days we rode together to battle, and those nights when we shook the stars loose from the fresh-painted skies! The world was so new and different then, with a menace lurking within every flower and a bomb behind every sunrise. Together we beat a world, you and I, for nothing really wanted us here and everything disputed out coming. We cut and burnt our way across the land and over the seas, and we fought under the seas and in the skies, until there was nothing left to oppose us. Then cities were built, and kingdoms, and we raised up those whom we chose to rule over them, until they ceased to amuse us and then we cast them down again. What do the younger gods know of those days? How can they understand the power we knew, who were First?"
"They cannot," he replied.
"When we held court in our palace by the sea and I gave you many sons, and our fleets swept out to conquer the islands, were those days not fair and full of grace? And the nights things of fire and perfume and wine? . . . Did you not love me then?"
"I believe those two loved one another, yes."
"Those two? We are not that different. We are not that changed. Though ages slip away, there are some things within one's being which do not change, which do not alter, no matter how many bodies one puts upon oneself, no matter how many lovers one takes, no matter how many things of beauty and ugliness one looks upon or does, no matter how many thoughts one thinks or feelings one feels. One's self still stands at the center of all this and watches."
"Open a fruit and there is a seed within it. Is that the center? Open the seed and there is nothing within it. Is that the center? We are two different persons from the master and the mistress of battles. It was good to have known those two, but that is all."
I have also begun rereading The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. PKD's novels use Christian and Gnostic terminology sometimes but the religious worlds he conjures are far more eclectic. This novel does not have any passages as striking as the "cleaner, more durable place" solilloquy from Ubik, though there are parts that are provocative - in a good way!
Another book I've been trying to start is The Politics of Exile in Renaissance Italy. Anyone familiar with the Fourth Crusade knows how disruptive exiles could be, but the Italians didn't have long-term prisons, and execution was considered too extreme for political enemies who weren't in rebellion, so expulsion to other cities was the only acceptable solution. I found it at Goodwill of all places, tucked in between Danielle Steele novels and Minecraft guides.
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