Red Mars - why the coyote? (minor spoilers)
art.m...@ualberta.ca
Hi,
I just finished "Red Mars" by Kim Stanley Robinson
this past weekend.
I am puzzled about the 'coyote' character -- he was
the stowaway on the original 100's colony ship.
I just don't quite understand what was the point of this character.
I never really comprehended why it was important to have a stowaway
on the ship (let alone how it was technically accomplished).
Yes, I know that Hiroko(sp?) helped him stow away on the ship, and
she obviously had her own ideas about a martian colony, but I still
found it non-intuitive as to why a stowaway was needed for the plot.
Your enlightened discussions would be most welcome.
--
..art mulder ( art.m...@ualberta.ca )( http://www.ualberta.ca/~amulder/ )
( Sys Admin / Support Analyst, Network Resources )
( Computing and Network Services, U of Alberta, Edmonton )
Dave Goldman
> I am puzzled about the 'coyote' character -- he was
> the stowaway on the original 100's colony ship.
He is a much more central character in "Green Mars".
-- Dave Goldman
Portland, OR
Alan Scott
art.m...@ualberta.ca wrote:
:
:
: Hi,
: I just finished "Red Mars" by Kim Stanley Robinson
: this past weekend.
: I am puzzled about the 'coyote' character -- he was
: the stowaway on the original 100's colony ship.
I recently saw Mr. Robinson speak at a bookstore here in Portland,
Oregon; he expressed among many other interesting opinions an interest in
Native American mythology (he read a fascinating folktale, part of _Blue
Mars_, as well) - and Coyote figures prominently in that mythos as a sort
of "trickster god," roughly analogous to the Norse god Loki or the Greek
Hermes. I suspect that he included the coyote character of which you
speak as a "joker in (between) the decks," a hint of necessary chaos, and
a reminder that even the most well-planned expedition is subject to the
unpredictable even from its outset.
But it's been a while since I read _Red Mars_ - I'm saving it until I
can afford _Blue_ and reread the trilogy. Others will no doubt have
different opinions.
--
Alan P. Scott..........................................ascott@pacifier.com
"[...] everyone is showing things up. Our parents are the first to
go back on themselves, and are ashamed of their old morals."
--Fyodor Dostoevsky, _The Idiot_
Glenn Grant
> this past weekend.
> I am puzzled about the 'coyote' character -- he was
> the stowaway on the original 100's colony ship.
Robinson is playing with mythic archetypes throughout the trilogy - most
obviously when he recounts the stories of the Little Red People, and the
meeting between Big Man and Paul Bunyan.
In a similar vein, many of the central characters represent mythic
archetypes. "Coyote", in North American Indian myth, is a Trickster deity
who is always trying to undermine the plans of men, often getting himself
into trouble in the process. He's the spirit of anarchy and chaos, which
goes wherever humans go, on Mars as on Earth. The Mars colony project
attempts to plan everything so as to maintain control of the situation on
Mars, but of course the Trickster has other ideas. You can't keep the
Trickster off of any colony ship.
Anybody want to hazard to pick out the other archetypes embodied by some
the central characters? Sax Russell, for instance, is a more modern
myth-figure, the Scientist As Hero, and thus also an incarnation of
Deadalus, perhaps.
--
Glenn Grant
<pa...@cam.org>
Web: <http://helios.physics.utoronto.ca:8080/ggrant.html>
Julian Flood
The best bit in RM was the perpetual motion machine - science, who needs it
when you can use magic. Very mythic.
--
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Edward Lopez
pa...@cam.org (Glenn Grant) writes:
>Anybody want to hazard to pick out the other archetypes embodied by some
>the central characters? Sax Russell, for instance, is a more modern
>myth-figure, the Scientist As Hero, and thus also an incarnation of
>Deadalus, perhaps.
It's central to Daedalus that he never examined the real world
consequences of his engineering. Sax pretty much played this role in
Red Mars, but he went beyond it in Green Mars.
--
z...@apricot.com http://www.apricot.com/~zed/
Edward Lopez PO Box 12546 Berkeley CA 94712
--
Zed http://www.apricot.com/~zed/
z...@apricot.com Edward Lopez PO Box 12546 Berkeley, CA 94712