A scene from 'The Golden Kite, The Silver Wind' from Ray Bradbury's collection of short stories from 'The Golden Apples of the Sun'. The Mandarin of two competing cities finally realize, through the wisdom of their daughters, that their prosperity is dependent on one another.
4 comments:
I have enjoyed these Chinese fable flavored tales from Ray Bradbury very much. It's a pleasant departure from the science fiction genre that he seems forced in to by the public.
The symbiotic message of this story is clear to me. What is not clear is the role of the daughter who shares her wisdom from behind the curtain. If she was wise enough to know the final solution to the problem of the competing cities, why didn't she just say so in the first place? Her advice in the early stages of the story just leads to more destructive competition between the cities. I don't get it.
Human understanding comes in a linear manner, unlike the understanding of God which encompasses all things at once.
So we must learn as from a book, page by page, step by step. Leaping to a conclusion will cause that conclusion to be rejected, no matter its truth. Or worse, cause panic and terror by the very appearance of this strange new "thing."
This was the real point of the Church's request to Galilo to hold back his discoveries. In truth this was better knowledge that would better enable the church and civic institutions to make calendars and plan events with greater accuracy, but to so radically change the "known universe" would lead to unsettleing of more than just theories. The Church preferred to introduce the new knowledge slowly, giving time for absorbtion and accomodation.
Great point about learning in a linear manner and not leaping to the conclusion. I assume you mean that with each step of learning, we build on an existing foundation or have become better in some way to be able to take on the next challenging step.
But I do not think that is the case here in this story. With each iteration of city wall building, the previous wall was torn down and vast amount of resource were spent in a building a new wall. This happens over and over to
the point where the health (physical, mental, spiritual) of both cities diminishes drastically. Bradbury never indicates that the cities gained,
prospered or developed in any way during these wall building competitions ... only that everybody suffered. I know there can be purpose to suffering,
but I think its missing from this story.
The girl in this story still remains a mystery to me.
I think you are applying the Christian worldview to a man who did not intellectually embrace that vision. Bradbury sees only the inability of the leaders to make the jump from the first challenge to the last, without the interval of pain and suffering.
This is the secular view of the world, that we will destroy the earth before we can come to care for it, only sheltering the remnants that are not ruined by our folly. The Christian view, even more than that of the Jews, with whom we share the creation myth, has a sense of the world being not just for domination but also as ours to steward.
This is also where so many even in their good intentions fall short. All of creation is precious (c.f. Matthew 6:28-29, Matthew 10:29) but at times, people forget the greatest creation of all: man. Even as we protect nature and the natural world, we should not forget that the world exists for the use and good of mankind.
I start to digress. My point is that the woman, Wisdom (c.f. Proverbs), bound in a secular and humanistic world, cannot bring anything but destruction as she leads the men to good. This is not to say that evil means ever justify a “good” end, but rather that God makes good out of all He is given with which to work (i.e., free will of man).
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