"Things, in the words of G. K. Chesterton, were to grow incalculable by being calculated. Man’s powers were finite; the forces he had released in nature recognized no such limitations. They were the irrevocable monsters conjured up by a completely amateur sorcerer."
Loren Eiseley, The Star Thrower.
A quote from Chesterton, who, I think, would have (and probably did) find C.S. Lewis's efforts to re-enchant the world quite congenial. But Eiseley doesn't seek to flee the bleakness of the scientific worldview - he accepts it, saying that while there is no escaping the apparent insignificance of the scale at which human beings must dwell, human morality must be exercised in spite of this.
Would you include Gaea, the sentient world depicted by John Varley in his trilogy Titan, Wizard, and Demon? And if you haven't read those novels, please do so now. I'll wait. (I'll lend you my copies if nec.)
I do wonder why we don’t see hyperbolic worlds (we used to call them Big Dumb Objects) in sci-fi anymore. The last ones I can think of are the Orbitals from the Culture novels and the eponymous Halos
It’s quite understandable that you use the example of the Grand Canyon, but it’s perhaps worth remembering that there are gorges on Earth which are several times deeper, though perhaps not its equal in purity of form. One which I have seen is the Indus Gorge in Pakistan, which left me with the indelible memory of Nanga Parbat in the moonlight, its summit more than five thousand metres above us.
"Things, in the words of G. K. Chesterton, were to grow incalculable by being calculated. Man’s powers were finite; the forces he had released in nature recognized no such limitations. They were the irrevocable monsters conjured up by a completely amateur sorcerer."
Loren Eiseley, The Star Thrower.
A quote from Chesterton, who, I think, would have (and probably did) find C.S. Lewis's efforts to re-enchant the world quite congenial. But Eiseley doesn't seek to flee the bleakness of the scientific worldview - he accepts it, saying that while there is no escaping the apparent insignificance of the scale at which human beings must dwell, human morality must be exercised in spite of this.
Would you include Gaea, the sentient world depicted by John Varley in his trilogy Titan, Wizard, and Demon? And if you haven't read those novels, please do so now. I'll wait. (I'll lend you my copies if nec.)
I do wonder why we don’t see hyperbolic worlds (we used to call them Big Dumb Objects) in sci-fi anymore. The last ones I can think of are the Orbitals from the Culture novels and the eponymous Halos
Thanks for this, which I’ve saved to read again.
It’s quite understandable that you use the example of the Grand Canyon, but it’s perhaps worth remembering that there are gorges on Earth which are several times deeper, though perhaps not its equal in purity of form. One which I have seen is the Indus Gorge in Pakistan, which left me with the indelible memory of Nanga Parbat in the moonlight, its summit more than five thousand metres above us.