A masterpiece written by Arthur C. Clarke in 1973 – And still going strong. Clarke has managed to include something of almost everything in this book: Politics, religion, science, technology and bigamy(?).
“Rendezvous with Rama” is a science fiction novel about a gigantic alien spaceship which is explored by Commander Norton and his crew in the year of 2130. Commander Norton is the main character of the book and is described as a level-headed person with great experience and knowledge. He always seems to handle things the right way and I guess that the readers are suppose to sympathize with him. But I don’t.
Norton’s personal life is revealed early in the book, with the chapter: “Two wives”. It’s clearly explained here that his two wives, Caroline on Earth and Myrna on Mars, are aware of each other’s existence. I think bigamy is all right, as long as everyone involved are OK with it, but personally, I would certainly not accept sharing a husband.
Now to the part that makes me a bit upset. When Norton creates video messages to his two wives, he creates only one message of which he makes two copies. Then he changes the copies with personal additions to suit each of his wives. That’s just so lousy. If a man decides to marry two women, he should also take time to send them true and original personal messages when he’s gone, especially when he’s away for months in outer space.
It’s furthermore expressed that Commander Norton finds it a bit amusing to think about what would happen if his wives ever would compare their video messages. How mean isn’t that? He even uses the word “darling” in his messages to include both his wives. Well it may be effective, but not very nice. Taking shortcuts is not accepted in love.
I hope the author gave Norton a touch of male chauvinistic pig character intentionally, to make him more interesting. But it might also be the qualities of a normal man in his eyes, and that worries me. I think I have to read another of Arthur C. Clarke’s books to answer that question. Hopefully the crew in the follow-up “Rama II” doesn’t include another insensitive husband.
//Maria
A masterpiece written by Arthur C. Clarke in 1973 – And still going strong. Clarke has managed to include something of almost everything in this book: Politics, religion, science, technology and bigamy(?).
1 comment:
Maria,
Thanks for another well-written and structured text. A part of this entry that I really liked was the last sentence of the second paragraph: "But I don't." We should all embrace short, to-the-point sentences. After long and sometimes tedious sentences, a three-word sentence is like a slap in the face, waking the reader up.
Cheers,
Andreas
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