HW: Space Poetry

[Jonathan Jarrett]

On Tue, Sep 06, 2005 at 03:11:06PM -0400, Stephan Forstner typed out:

        <snip>

> It still means though that the Starfarer is having carnal relations with
> something that has the physical appearance of being 'underage', whatever
> that is interpreted to mean, which could raise eyebrows.
>
> And it brings up a slight logical problem (maybe problem is too strong a
> word) that has always bugged me - even if she were underage at the time of
> the Starfarer's leavetaking, in a few years she would have reached the age
> of majority, or consent, or right-to-freezedry, or what-have-you, and get
> herself frozen then, assuming she really WANTED to wait for him, thus
> negating one problem ("you'd be about 60 now and long dead by the time I
> returned to earth") entirely.

        I don't think that latter has to be a problem. Remember that the
poem is written from the Starfarer's point of view, and so whatever the
girl did after he left Earth (or wherever) he doesn't necessarily know
about it. He is very much in a world of his own, and perhaps he's only
started thinking of here again now that the android substitute he's been
given instead, presumably by his supporting space agency or whatever, has
started malfunctioning.

        I think the sinister sound to the former point was quite
intentional on Calvert's part, too. Consider that we are dealing here with
a man sent into space by some body or other that is prepared to indulge an
obsession of the heart, and to do so with a robot replica, and that this
seems to be enough (he's having sex with it, anyway!) Hanging from this is
a vision of a dystopian society where identity is unimportant (ties up
nicely with the contrast of `Clone Song') which sends people into space
who are not just unstable, but encourages them in delusion. Society's
finest... Yours,
                 Jon

ObCD: Pressurehed - _Sudden Vertigo_
--
        Jonathan Jarrett                Birkbeck College, London
                 jjarrett at chiark.greenend.org.uk
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  "The large print giveth and the small print taketh away." (Tom Waits)