Creatures of Light and Darkness
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| Author | Roger Zelazny |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Doubleday |
| Released | 1969 |
| Media Type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 187 pp |
| ISBN | NA |
Creatures of Light and Darkness is a science fiction novel by Roger Zelazny published in 1968, as well as a roman à clef about the Social Security Administration at Woodlawn, Maryland, where Zelazny worked.
It contains a somewhat famous, humorous passage describing the agnostic blessing of a dying person, which has almost legal-sounding disclaimers regarding the nature and desires of the Almighty.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
Creatures of Light and Darkness was originally conceived and written as nothing more than a writing exercise in perspective by Roger Zelazny, yet when published turned into one of Zelazny's more popular books.
The central characters of this novel are some of the main Egyptian Gods (Zelazny specialized in sweeping stories based on mythology of all kinds). Osiris, Horus, Isis, Thoth, Set, Typhon,The Thing That Cries In The Night, Madrak (The Angel Of The Seventh Station), and others appear. Things get a bit incestuous: Egyptian gods, like Egyptian royalty, think that an ideal marriage is between brother and sister. There is one character who is the father of his own father. Typhon is odd: he appears as a Black Horse, Shadow, without a horse to cast it. He contains within himself Skagganauk Abyss, which resembles a black hole. He bears a grudge against Anubis.
The evil characters are as evil as it gets, the good are truly good, and all show human qualities like weaknesses, character, and drives.
Even more important than Zelazny's depictions of the Gods are the jumps from character to character, perspective to perspective in his narrative.
[edit] Places
The geography of this universe contains curious places :
- The House of Life, ruled by Osiris, contains a room in which Osiris has reduced variuos peopple in his past into furnishings:
- a skull (with brain) for a paperweight
- an enemy whose nervous system is woven into a rug. Osiris enjoys jumping on the rug
These furnishings can speak (or scream) via wall-mounted speakers
- In the House of the dead, numerous dead people of the Six Intelligent Races lie on invisible catafalques until Asubis requires them togo through the motions of pleasure--eating, drinking, dancing, making love--without any real enjoyment.
- The planet Blis is filled to bursting with people who are inexhaustibly fertile and do not know death. Indeed, one man agrees to commit suicide in front of an audience, for money to be given to his family, because most people on Blis have never seen a death.
- on fog-shrouded D'donori, warlords raid each others solely to capture prisoners, who will be vivisected by the town scrier, or augur.
- on an unnamed planet, the sea is above the atmosphere. Here, the Prince Who Was a Thousand keeps Nephthys, his wife, who was disembodied and cannot survive on a normal planet. Another inhabitant of this world is an unnamed saurian who greatly resembles Puff the Magic Dragon.
- in a cave, a dog worries a glove that has seen better centuries. The three-headed canine is apparently Cerberus, aka Fluffy(in the Harry Potter universe.)
[edit] Curiosities
In one scene, a "scrier" (or augur) tries to read the future by disemboweling and examining the entrails of a professional rival. He misses an important detail, and his victim screams "I will not have my innards read by a poseur!" Wakim, aka Set the Destroyer, seeks the gear he lost a thousand years. One item (which has seen better centuries) is currently hidden in a cawve and guarded by a three-headed dog. (This creature is commonly known as Cerberus. Harry Potter readers will recognize Fluffy.) Osiris has reduced old enemies, lovers, and others to elementary forms. He holds the skull (and brain) of a former lover in his hands. She taunts him until he throws her skull against the wall, smashing it and giving his victim release from further torment. Osiris has captured another enemy and woven his nervous system into the fabric of a rug. He amuses himself by jumping up and down on it, listening to the screams of his victim via loudspeakers on the walls.
The blind Norns, the best smiths in the universe, await the arrival of Thoth, for whom they have built the Star Wand, a powerful weapon. Their fee: artificial eyes, which Thoth will install himself, because he is a skilled surgeon. He is also a skilled anesthetist. Unfortunately, the Norns are physiologically incapable of unconsciousness, so each begs to be operated on last. There is considerable screaming. After each has received his new eyes, he lovingly regards his tools, until his neighbors, envious of his advantage, blind him, as is their legal right.
The Steel General (like the Tin Woodman) has had his organic body replaced with stainless steel., but wears a ring made from his last coat of skin. He has alternated many times between flesh and metal: in flesh phases, he wears a steel ring, from his last metal skin; in flesh phases, he wears a ring made from his last organic skin. He rides an eight-legged mechanical horse with diamond hooves and plays a banjo labeled "This machine kills fascists, " as did the guitar of Woody Guthrie. He seems to be a distant reincarnation of Guthrie. He is the spirit of rebellion, which can never be killed.
The Steel General, Set, and some others practise a novel martial art called temporal fugue. A fighter, seeing that his enemy is ready to attack, projects himself behind his enemy--in space and in time--so as to strike him from behind. Of course, the enemy does the same thing. When both warriors use the technique, recursively, things get complicated. Each character is replicated over a hundredfold, at various times in the past and future, thus putting a strain on the space-time continuum. The poor planet they are fighting on is prone to earthquakes during a fugue battle.
[edit] The Agnostic's Prayer
Insofar as I may be heard by anything, which may or may not care what I say, I ask, if it matters, that you be forgiven for anything you may have done or failed to do which requires forgiveness. Conversely, if not forgiveness but something else may be required to ensure any possible benefit for which you may be eligible after the destruction of your body, I ask that this, whatever it may be, be granted or withheld, as the case may be, in such a manner as to insure your receiving said benefit. I ask this in my capacity as your elected intermediary between yourself and that which may not be yourself, but which may have an interest in the matter of your receiving as much as it is possible for you to receive of this thing, and which may in some way be influenced by this ceremony. Amen.
This prayer is uttered by one of the main characters, a god in disguise, to shrive a man about to commit suicide for money (given to his family).
