Tuesday, March 24, 2009

“Not With a Bang”: A Writer’s Look at Greg Bear’s 1987 novel Forge of God

"This is the way the world ends

This is the way the world ends

This is the way the world ends

Not with a bang but a whimper"

  • T.S. Eliot "The Hollow Men"

One lovely July evening, a scientist named Arthur sets up the telescope for his son Marty to view the stars. Before he has the chance to take a look, he gets a call from an astronomer friend, Chris Riley, who says Jupiter is missing a moon. His son tells him the same thing. He looks for himself, sees the hole where Europa belongs, unmistakable. Later that evening, Arthur's wife Francine asks him if the disappearance of Europa frightens him. He says it doesn't, though he is sympathetic about Francine's obvious fear. She compares it to a mountain suddenly missing, which Arthur says would scare him (because it is close to home).

That is the opening of Bear's apocalyptic story of alien judgment and subsequent destruction of Planet Earth. Arthur Gordon, the main protagonist, is the President's Science Advisor, but that is not his primary role. He is first and foremost a family man. His friend Henry, another renowned scientist, is a cancer patient who loves his wife and is heartbroken that she must watch him die. The geologist who finds the desert cone is with friends; they spend their time together, from initial adventure to forced confinement by government agents to staying with Stella when they could have gone their separate ways. Trevor Hicks, a former science writer turned novelist, starts his journey alone, but becomes involved with groups of scientists and government officials when he learns about the Guest (dying alien construct). Reuben, the 'spider aliens' representative, is also alone, but has strong ties to his family (he is grieving for his dead mother).

The only loner is the 'mad' President of the United States, who loses his advisors, his friends, and his wife when he succumbs to despair far too soon. In fact, it plays out like ritual shunning, in that he is only left alone after interventions by the people who leave him.

There are no riots, no screaming to the Heavens, no global anarchy. People try to figure out what it means that two alien objects, each containing a communicating life form, land less than three months after Europa disappears; they do this by talking it out with each other.

There are no right or wrong answers. Some people accept their fate with dignity, while others seek revenge. Both reactions are human.

We never find out why aliens who had no difficulties destroying a planet-sized moon in less than one week draw out Earth's destruction. The reader can only speculate as to the motives for designing biological machines to create a diversion while the planet-destroying fuse burns. Bear creates a mystery without solving it.

Yet, when I finished reading, I did not care about unanswered questions. I cared about the pacifists facing their doom in Yosemite. I cared about Marty's helpless rage, when he vowed to give Earth's destroyers a reason to fear humanity's children. The story starts with a father and son looking at the stars with unaccustomed fear and ends with a boy looking closer at the stars with a familiar fear. The world has ended, not with a bang but a whimper. Earth is gone, but humanity will never forget.

Bear jumps from viewpoint character to viewpoint character, yet he forges a strong emotional connection with each one. This way, he creates a global story that is also personal. I will remember this when I write.

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