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Forum in English / Re: Fiasco
« dnia: Lipca 05, 2006, 10:07:50 pm »
Greetings,
I have been intrigued by your discussion of Fiasco, having just finished the book (in English translation) today. Pardon me for arriving at this discussion a little late.
I agree that Father Arago is the conscience of the book and was quite moved, as a Catholic, at the way Lem included his perspective in the book though his own world view was atheistic.
I have three questions about the book. (WARNING: For those who are still reading it for the first time, there are plot spoilers ahead):
1) Given how Lem, both in Fiasco and especially in Solaris, expounds repeatedly on the difficulty, if not the impossibility, of contact between two biologically different intelligent species, I was more than a little surprised to discover that suddenly, in the late chapters of Fiasco, the Quintans are able to send messages to the Hermes that can translate into lines of computerized text.
I thought at first this was Deus translating the Quintans' equivalent of the Hermes' "Cartoon," but this seems implausible. How do you explain this sudden unexplained breakthrough in communication?
2) Tempe's death at the end clearly mirrors his misadventure in Birnam Wood: he was excessively adventurous and wandered a little too far. However:
a) Could not his spacesuit have been equipped with some sort of device allowing for emergency communication outside the vehicle?
b) Would not the Quintans have fired back a message at the Hermes warning them that their emissary had literally "crossed the line" and they are no longer responsible for his fate?
Minor quibbles, perhaps, in an otherwise superb novel.
Cheers,
Ronald Zajac,
Canada
I have been intrigued by your discussion of Fiasco, having just finished the book (in English translation) today. Pardon me for arriving at this discussion a little late.
I agree that Father Arago is the conscience of the book and was quite moved, as a Catholic, at the way Lem included his perspective in the book though his own world view was atheistic.
I have three questions about the book. (WARNING: For those who are still reading it for the first time, there are plot spoilers ahead):
1) Given how Lem, both in Fiasco and especially in Solaris, expounds repeatedly on the difficulty, if not the impossibility, of contact between two biologically different intelligent species, I was more than a little surprised to discover that suddenly, in the late chapters of Fiasco, the Quintans are able to send messages to the Hermes that can translate into lines of computerized text.
I thought at first this was Deus translating the Quintans' equivalent of the Hermes' "Cartoon," but this seems implausible. How do you explain this sudden unexplained breakthrough in communication?
2) Tempe's death at the end clearly mirrors his misadventure in Birnam Wood: he was excessively adventurous and wandered a little too far. However:
a) Could not his spacesuit have been equipped with some sort of device allowing for emergency communication outside the vehicle?
b) Would not the Quintans have fired back a message at the Hermes warning them that their emissary had literally "crossed the line" and they are no longer responsible for his fate?
Minor quibbles, perhaps, in an otherwise superb novel.
Cheers,
Ronald Zajac,
Canada