root@idmi-cc.UUCP (Admin) (01/31/85)
One of my all time favorite sience fiction works was the DEATHBIRD by Harlain "the little monster" Ellison. The story left me speachless for days. (People thought I'd caught some disease, my parrents called a shrink, the dog hid all its toys...) My only problem with it was the 'dedication' at the end, (for those of you who haven't read it I won't ?spoil? it for you by printing it here) I can't figure it out. Nothing in that story happened without a reason! Having little knowlege of the person refered to, and little more of his works, I have never been able to understand the significance of the last line... the 'dedication'. Anyone out there know what I'm talking about and have an answer? Please mail it to me ASAP!!!! Much thanks in advance. ARS. ----- "This message will self destruct in 5 seconds" The views expressed herein are probably not worth much to anyone and therefore should not be mistaken to represent I.D.M.I, it's officers or any other people heretofore or hereafter associated with said company. Andrew R. Scholnick Information Design and Management Inc., Alexandria, Va. ...seismo!rlgvax!idmi-cc!andrew
@RUTGERS.ARPA:donn@utah-cs (02/07/85)
From: donn@utah-cs (Donn Seeley) From Andrew R. Scholnick (idmi-cc!andrew): One of my all time favorite science fiction works was the DEATHBIRD by Harlan "the little monster" Ellison. ... My only problem with it was the 'dedication' at the end ... I can't figure it out. ... Anyone out there know what I'm talking about and have an answer? ... <A bit of a spoiler for 'The Deathbird' follows...> For me the dedication explained the whole story. If it wasn't for the dedication the story wouldn't have had the impact it did on me; I shed a few tears the first time I read it, and a few more re-reading it just now... You'll never understand without going to the source: I suggest A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT for the snake's point of view, and NO. 44, THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER for the human's. I've just recently been reading MARK TWAIN'S MYSTERIOUS STRANGER MANUSCRIPTS (edited from the Mark Twain Papers at Berkeley by William Gibson) and if you're lucky enough to track this volume down in a library somewhere, you'll have an amazing time. Ellison's 'The Deathbird' is a very nice story, but for me it simply doesn't compare to STRANGER... If you ever wonder what made Twain the way he was, I suggest you read THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARK TWAIN, a document that is surprisingly entertaining and surprisingly touching as well. As long as I'm here, I though I might share a fragment from the Papers that is included in STRANGER MANUSCRIPTS. In ragged manuscript form it reads a bit like verse, so I'll present it as a kind of 'found poetry': The rain continued to beat softly on the panes, & the wind to sigh & wail about the eaves. In the room there was no sound; both of us remained buried in thought. After a long time I roused myself & took up the thread where it had been broken off: 'My perhaps over-warm eulogy of the character of my race, & my praise of its noble struggle against heavy odds toward higher & ever higher moral & spiritual summits, 'have not won from you even the slender kindness of a comment.' The Prince of Darkness answered gravely -- 'Is not silence a comment?' I had invited that thrust, & was ashamed. A Twain fan, Donn Seeley University of Utah CS Dept donn@utah-cs.arpa 40 46' 6"N 111 50' 34"W (801) 581-5668 decvax!utah-cs!donn