So far this week, this has been by far my most difficult read. It's not that Im not understanding what Im reading, but that I'm having problems in distinguishing how it all fits together to form a story. A story that I understand anyway.
Im trying though .. What I've gotten out of it is that it begins on Luna (The moon), Eloise Waggoner being a Special communications technician on the Supernova Sagitarri expedition. As I continued on with the story, I did get a sense of what goes on as they carry out their expedition, but I have yet to derive a point or theme. I mean it's obvious that Eloise is a very boring, monotone typish person who has embarked on this journey in the hopes of finding some excitement. But beyond that .. I don't see how everything fits.
Im assuming, though, that Poul Anderson wrote the story with some sort of intention. He must have been trying to convey SOMETHING. I have to say Poul, I don't think you did a very good job ....
3 comments:
I have to agree, I'm pretty sure Poul was operating on a slightly different level than most of us. Maybe if his parents had given him a normal name, like "Tom" or "Frederick", he wouldn't have written such weird weird stories.
Hear hear...I'm with you. Icky and frustrating.
The story is an emotional fist in the solar plexus. The alien's self-sacrifice by itself offers a modest bittersweet payoff, but the real point is Eloise's tragic fate: for the rest of her life she'll (mentally) hear her lost love dying. It's an instant for him, but a lifetime for her.
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