Belle and Simon, an illegally married couple, are reunited after his year and a half long stay at a rehabilitation camp. With the illegality of their marriage stemming from the fact that they are both rebels in their own respects, their chance for a "normal" life is dismal. Belle, an artist, and Simon, a mathematician are far from your typical couple of the day.
During the twelve days that the two were reunited, they spent time trying to devise a way of preserving the sun's energy. The thing that really grabbed me from the beginning of this story is its preoccupation with earth preservation. As someone who is very environmentally conscious, the mere mention of the rising polar melt was enough to interest me. I have never considered the possibility of a science fiction story from the 70's incorporating something like this into its core. For me, it represents hope. Even today, with the vast amounts of information that are available at the touch of a button, we see sky-high pollution rates, littering and fast depletion of resources. It's encouraging to know that at least somebody, ie. Ursula Leguin recognized this early on.
Anyway, great story. Unfortunately Simon gets taken away again and Ursula gives up on life. It seems that she decided that a life without her husband wasn't a life at all. Although it is dismal, at least it paints a picture of true love!
5 comments:
I was equally surprised, upon reading the story, to see the whole environmental slant. I didn't even know that people were thinking of that back in the
70's...
it's especially scary for us to read today, given the big environmental hooplah over the past few years.
I think a lot of us were surprised by the apparent foresight of LeGuin regarding the environmental issues. There were certainly environmentally aware people back in the 70s and environmental issues but I guess we just think of it as something that's been big in "our time."
I really liked this one too, Holly...I loved that they were fighting back against the system they felt was wrong and even though it didn't end all roses, it surely was about true love.
This story was prescient in the 70's and just proves itself as truth today. Forty years ago we were very worried about the direction we were going. Jimmy Carter tried to make some moves toward energy independence, but was taken out and silenced.
So here we are again.
If you read into the history of environmental science and research, it's really not surprising at all that a short story such as this appeared in 1975. During the 70s, an impeccable amount of research was conducted (by governments, schools, and private institutions) and published by a wide variety of news resources, including very accessible and public resources. Although many of the predictions were wrong, the topic was widely discussed among the public. So, many people besides Ursula LeGuin recognized these issues "early on".
You say you feel hope because she is drawing attention to this particular issue. I think that, in this case, LeGuin is really not trying to instil hope to her writers. She's pointing out that, at this rate, it's too late. Despite the use of coal for transportation and the control of limited use of energy by the government in the story, the world is undergoing a dramatic environmental change. I think that the impending catastrophe epitomizes her belief that only a catastrophe can save us.
I agree that the story is somewhat dismal, but the conclusion that "at least it paints a picture of true love," is somewhat naive. Love is by no means the focal point of the story. I think that hope is presented in the idea that humans, no matter the limitations imposed by governance or otherwise, will always seek knowledge. The freedom of knowledge and information, therefore, will aid in resolving our environmental issues.
I disagree about the ending. The emerging continents of the new Atlantis/Pacificus, combined with the 'night visions' and the new found personal power of Sun storage, provoked an exodus from society as Bell knew it. In many ways its a new retelling of the story, 'Go West!' A place on the planet, that isn't under the control of the powers that be; and an opportunity to leave a controlling (east coast) society to head West to start anew! It a modern wild west story; complete with the loss of roots, a nest egg. and a vision!
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