I noticed a headline on CNN's site a little while ago saying that the astronaut involved in the infamous NASA love triangle incident some months ago is back in court. When the story first appeared I naturally thought at once of Walker Percy's Lost in the Cosmos; specifically, the first of the two science fiction sketches, Space Odyssey I & II, with which Percy ends the book.
In Space Odyssey I, a starship from Earth carrying six men and six women has been sent out to search for intelligent life and has discovered it on the third planet of the star Proxima Centauri. Communication has been established and language worked out. For reasons which become apparent as the story progresses, the captain of the starship wishes very much to land, but discovers that the ship is being forcibly held in orbit by some unknown force. Someone on the planet explains that there are three types of consciousness and the earthlings' C-type must be determined before they can land. "C1s and C3s are benign. C2s are dangerous."
The following dialog ensues (PC3 is the spokesman for the planet):
Earthship: May we land?
PC3: Not yet. What is your C-type?
Earthship: What is a C2 consciousness?
PC3: A C2 consciousness is a consciousness which passes through a C1 stage and then for some reason falls into the pit of itself.
Earthship: The pit of itself?
PC3: In some evolving civilizations, for reasons which we don't entirely understand, the evolution of consciousness is attended by a disaster of some sort….It has something to do with the discovery of the self and the incapacity to deal with it, the consciousness becoming self-conscious but not knowing what to do with the self, not even knowing what its self is, and so ending by being that which it is not, saying that which is not, doing that which is not, and making others what they are not.
Earthship: What does that mean?
PC3: Playing roles, being phony, lying, cheating, stealing, and killing. To say nothing of exotic disordering of the reproductive apparatus…
Later, PC3 inquires about sexual relationships on board the starship, and has been assured by the captain that relationships are unencumbered by "the usual cultural and sexual hang-ups."
PC3: How has it worked?
Earthship: Among the nine survivors, very well until just recently.
PC3: Nine survivors? What happened to the other three?
Earthship (after a silence): They died.
PC3: Were they killed?
Earthship: Yes.
PC3: Were they men?
Earthship: Yes.
PC3: Were they killed in quarrels over the women?
Earthship: Yes. How did you know?
PC3: We've had some experience with C2s.
The switching of the gender roles in the real-life story may account for the fact that no one was actually killed, women being generally less given to physical murder.
Pre-TypePad
Light On Dark Water 
Leave a comment