milne@uci-icse (08/12/85)
From: Alastair Milne <milne@uci-icse>
Somebody asked whether Wyndham's REBIRTH had anything to do with another
story which he called something like "Flight from Rebirth" (don't have the
original posting available, sorry).
It does not.
1. REBIRTH is simply a renaming of the book originally called
THE CHRYSALIDS. For some reason, with which Jayembee would perhaps
oblige us, all Wyndham's books seem to acquire new titles when they
reach the US (It occurs to me that since Penguin books distributes
through all Commonwealth countries, Canada probably doesn't have this
problem).
2. THE CHRYSALIDS (as I will now refer to it) is a powerful and unsettling
story set in a time which the reader eventually realises is the far
future. It centres around certain younger members of a farming
community which appears to be in the Labrador area of Newfoundland
(the people just call it "Lab"). Their lives are dominated by religious
puritanism, in particular with such directives as "Blessed is the
Norm", and "In Purity our Salvation". The stories told which lead to
these morals speak of the Tribulation, a time who knows how long ago,
when God's anger with the world was manifested, and much was wiped
away, to cause new, simpler, cleaner lives to be started. The
protagonist has the misfortune to be the son of the very vocal leader
of the zealotes who most espouse the purity ethics, which he doesn't
properly understand, and whose consequences he only slowly discovers as
he is growing up (for instance: newborn farm animals with abnormalities
are called Abominations, and are ritually destroyed; children with
abnormalities are called Blasphemies; a woman who bears a Blasphemy
may [probably will] be whipped; if it happens twice, her husband may
throw her out and seek a new wife). But he has at least the luck and
the wit to say nothing when he discovers that he himself is not normal.
The story takes off from there, and it is one of Wyndham's finest. I
don't want to say what other currently popular category it also fits,
since that might tend to spoil it for those who haven't read it, but
it is the first and the best of that category I've ever read. A truly
powerful book.
Alastair Milne