Roger Zelazny on Guilt

by COMF 5 Replies latest jw friends

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  COMF

  I'm visiting my son and his wife for a week while on vacation. For the past few evenings, after we retire to our various sleeping quarters, I've been reading an old copy of Analog magazine which I found on his extensive bookshelf (their library fills two walls from floor to ceiling).

  Analog is, or was, anyway (this issue is dated November 1975) a science fiction/science fact magazine and served mainly to provide genre afficionados the latest offerings from both sci-fi luminaries and young up-and-comers. The story I've been reading is a novelette by Roger Zelazny, entitled "Home is the Hangman."

  I won't try to sum up the story line here. I just want to share the following quote from the story, spoken by one of the characters to another. These observations are the point--the moral, I suppose--of the story, and are much more sympathetic to the role of guilt in our lives than I have been inclined to be. Food for thought, in striving for a balanced and well-rounded position.

  COMF

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  Without guilt, man would be no better than the other inhabitants of this planet--excepting certain cetaceans. Look to instinct for a true assessment of the ferocity of life, for a view of the natural world before man came upon it. For instinct in its purest form, seek out the insects. There, you will see a state of warfare which has existed for millions of years with never a truce.

  Man, despite his enormuous shortcomings, is nevertheless possessed of a greater number of kindly impulses than all the other beings where instincts are the larger part of life. These impulses, I believe, are owed directly to this capacity for guilt. It is involved in both the worst and the best of man.

  http://www.itmm.com/scott/zelazny/zelazny_books.shtml
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  joelbear

  Hi Comf,

  I believe there are two kinds of guilt, Natural Guilt and Fiat or manmade guilt.

  Natural guilt is instilled in us by nature and keeps us from unnecessarily harming other living things or our or their environment.

  Manmade guilt was created to control and exploit people and has all but supplanted natural guilt.

  Natural guilt is what keeps the living universe moving and thriving.

  Joel
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  Mum

  Hi, COMF and joelbear! I just saw the play "Big River" the other evening. It was based on Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn." Huck went through the very thing you guys are talking about. Helping a slave to freedom was what he knew was right on the inside, but he still felt guilty because the "respectable" people of his day had taught him differently.

  Guilt is useful, but needs to be analyzed properly.

  Regards,
  Mum

  Seize the day, and put the least possible trust in tomorrow. - Horace

  I have learned to live each day as it comes and not to borrow trouble by dreading tomorrow. - Dorothy Dix
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  Bridgette

  I beleive guilt is a tool. If something you've thought, done or are thinking about doing is "pricking" you, then guilt is the "pricking" mechanism. All guilt does for me is cause something to be brought up before my "mental review board". I weigh the matter. I determine whether something is unethical, or I need to make apologies or ammends for something, or it is just a vestige of the cult think I was brought up with. More often than not lately, it's something I truly need to reevaluate (the cult think hardly plays into my consciousness anymore). I re-evaluate, make ammends if necessary or possible, and release.
  What guilt is NOT, is something to be carried around like a heavy piece of baggage. Once you've done what you can do, learned what you need to learn--let it go.
  IMO
  Bridgette
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  Mommie Dark

  Oh WOW COMF Zelazny is one of my minor heroes of SF. If you want to be totally blown away, find a copy of his novella 'A Rose For Ecclesiastes". It's jampacked with memorable bits, and the subject is iconoclasm.

  Finding the propinquity of you quoting Roger Z just too gorgeous,
  MD

  PS my copy of "Rose" is in The Arbor House Treasury of Modern SF if you want to try interlibrary loan
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  COMF

  Mommie,

  I read "A Rose for Ecclesiates" many years ago and was blown away by it. It was in a mixed collection of sci-fi stories and I didn't register the fact at the time, that it was written by RZ. I came to know the name later for its association with Bradbury, Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke and the other legends. Many times I have wished that I could read "Rose" again, but have not known where to look for it. It's a wonderfully moving story, one I'll be delighted to read afresh now as an adult, having had your help to locate it. Thanks so much!

  Fred