I picked up an old book of mine, <i>Deathbird Stories</i>, by Harlan Ellison. Rereading the shortstory of the same name of the book, I found several interesting thoughts.
As the introduction sums it up:
“Advancing the theory that the snake was the good guy and, since God wrote the PR release, Old Snake simply got a lot of bad press.”
It begins when two alien parties- whom you understand to be snake-beings (referred to as Coils and Fangs) and GOD (who is quite mad) contest leadership of Earth. Another group arbitrates, and gives control to GOD. The snake-beings are allowed to leave behind one of their kind as a caretaker; however, he is not allowed to defend himself against any slurs or legends, and could only take action if it became apparent that GOD had betrayed his trust. They choose one known as Dira.
Before they leave, they give Dira a message:
“<i>We have only one gift to leave them,</i> he said. <i>Wisdom. This mad one will come, and he will lie to them and will tell them: created he them. And we will be gone, and there will be nothing between them and the mad one but you. Only you can give them the wisdom to defeat him in their own good time.</i>”
As the story goes on, time passes. Dira takes the main character, a human named Nathan Stack, and buries him, in a sort of status, for a quarter of a million years, as the earth recovers from the ravages of humanity. Waking Nathan, Dira helps him journey to God, and to regain his memories, not of just his life as Nathan, but all his previous ones, all the way back to his first: when he lived as Adam.
Upon reaching God’s location, God inflicts derangements upon him, hoping to drive him away. Nathan endures, and, in the process of enduring the suffering, comes to realize, with the help of Dira, that mankind was for whom earth was meant to be for, that man was just as powerful as God. However, this happens too late, and the Earth dies.
I find this story to be eye-opening and freeing. To me, the message is: “Don’t believe all the hype: believe in yourself and what you learn and feel to be true.”
There are a handful of other interesting points this story makes.
At one point, Nathan is asking Dira who he is.
“But <i>am</i> I still Nathan Stack?”“You always were. You had many other names, many other bodies, but the spark was always yours… You were always on your way to being who you are.”
I love the idea of reincarnation; that there is something our lives are leading us to, that we are on a journey to… somewhere.
At several points the story asks “what is the best example of love?” Could it be helping another being to survive, to remember what they need to, to overcome adversary? Could it be that of a husband for a wife, or a mother for a child? In one flashback, Nathan administers, at her request, an overdose of painkiller to his mother, who is dying of cancer. Helping people you like, putting up with their flaws, those are fairly easy. Self-sacrifice- giving up what you want, your time, or even your life- can be difficult, but often gives us a feeling of superiority. Even the thought of killing to save loved ones is within comprehension. But taking the life of a loved one out of love- or merely letting them die- requires courage to take an action, letting go of one you love and need- is something most are incapable of.
There are also points in the book were Ellison inserts questions, as if a teacher were assigning paperwork to students reading the story. There are two that speak for thoughts I’ve had for awhile.
“If God created everything, why did he create problems for himself by creating a serpent who would lead his creations astray? Why did God create a tree he did not want Adam and Eve to know about, and then go out of his way to warn them against it?”
To me, it’s a cruel test, a taunt. It’s as if he set them up to fail, as if he wanted them to. Just think of what happens if you tell your young child “Don’t touch these cookies I’m going to leave on the counter within reach while I leave the room for awhile”.
“God grew angry when he found out he had been defied. If God is omnipotent and omniscient, didn’t he know? Why couldn’t he find Adam and Eve when they hid?”
I think this is a good point, and the only answer I can think of is that he was either playing out a script, a game; or that he must not be omnipotent or omniscient. Perhaps the <i>real</i> reason he got angry was because they weren’t playing the way he wanted to and he was unsure how to react, or perhaps he was afraid they would catch on to the fact that omni-potency/omniscience was just an act.
