3 ms·

Grinch take: I hated the ending. (I get the feeling that that's the part everyone else loves.) It's clever in the way that puns are clever, which provokes a fla

Grinch take: I hated the ending. (I get the feeling that that's the part everyone else loves.) It's clever in the way that puns are clever, which provokes a flash of intellectual recognition ("I see what you did there") but kills any emotional response -- in me, at least. I think a better way to end it would have been for Dr. Chandler or one of the other non-believers, moved by the scale of the event, to have a change of heart about religion. Perhaps not all the way. Perhaps he comes to the protagonist on the observation deck, his face now uncertain, and with difficulty asks what made the protagonist start to believe. The protag is faced with trying to console this man plainly in need of spiritual support -- perhaps while at the same time feeling his own religious conviction slip away.

tralarpa 3y ago
I was expecting that at the end it would turn out that the records of the lost civilization are full of symbols of a certain religion, let's say the "Om" sign or whatever, and that the priest would then realize: "Oh shit, religion XYZ was right all the time" or something like that. Actually, I like my ending better :) I guess we had to wait till Douglas Adams for such absurdities.
Aeglaecia 3y ago
each to their own , to me this exemplifies the twist ending , positioning audiences to expect the opposite , clarke did brilliantly to trigger both aha and emotional response , such creativity wow
signal11 3y ago
In a lot of “twist ending” short stories (a lot of good SF stories fall into this bucket) the key is to leave things unsaid and let the reader wrestle with the ending and its implications, which is what this is doing. It’s a “less is more” strategy that works for many people, but of course every reader is unique and it might not work for you :)
throwaway8877 3y ago
Sorry, but I don't think Clark was into creating warm feelings in people who are into nonsense. "He who built the Universe can destroy it when He chooses. It is arrogance—it is perilously near blasphemy—for us to say what He may or may not."
- akoboldfrying 3y ago
  >creating warm feelings If you think my proposed ending creates "warm feelings" in anyone, then I didn't communicate clearly. In my ending, two people have spiritual crises, which propel them in opposite directions, and both are left unresolved. >people who are into nonsense I can't tell if you mean me, or religious people, or someone else.
  - throwaway8877 3y ago
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke#Religion https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke#Religion Clark was against religion. Idea that there still should be some kind of universal religion is the opposite to this.
gedy 3y ago
You remind me a bit of the boy (Cory Fieldman) asking "And then what happens?" in the movie "Stand By Me"
mannykannot 3y ago
The thing that gives this story a gravitas beyond that of others in a similar vein - such as ‘The Nine Billion Names of God’ - is that it brings to the fore an important theological/philosophical issue: the ‘problem of evil’. A great deal has been said and written about it over the millennia, often in abstract, abstruse and sometimes tendentious terms, but this story cuts to the heart of the matter. If it makes some readers uncomfortable, it is working.
paulddraper 3y ago
It was a good twist. I also think yours would have been a good twist.
hakdbha 3y ago
[dead]

tralarpa 3y ago

I was expecting that at the end it would turn out that the records of the lost civilization are full of symbols of a certain religion, let's say the "Om" sign or whatever, and that the priest would then realize: "Oh shit, religion XYZ was right all the time" or something like that. Actually, I like my ending better :) I guess we had to wait till Douglas Adams for such absurdities.

Aeglaecia 3y ago

each to their own , to me this exemplifies the twist ending , positioning audiences to expect the opposite , clarke did brilliantly to trigger both aha and emotional response , such creativity wow

signal11 3y ago

In a lot of “twist ending” short stories (a lot of good SF stories fall into this bucket) the key is to leave things unsaid and let the reader wrestle with the ending and its implications, which is what this is doing. It’s a “less is more” strategy that works for many people, but of course every reader is unique and it might not work for you :)

throwaway8877 3y ago

Sorry, but I don't think Clark was into creating warm feelings in people who are into nonsense. "He who built the Universe can destroy it when He chooses. It is arrogance—it is perilously near blasphemy—for us to say what He may or may not."

akoboldfrying 3y ago
>creating warm feelings If you think my proposed ending creates "warm feelings" in anyone, then I didn't communicate clearly. In my ending, two people have spiritual crises, which propel them in opposite directions, and both are left unresolved. >people who are into nonsense I can't tell if you mean me, or religious people, or someone else.
- throwaway8877 3y ago
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke#Religion https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke#Religion Clark was against religion. Idea that there still should be some kind of universal religion is the opposite to this.

gedy 3y ago

You remind me a bit of the boy (Cory Fieldman) asking "And then what happens?" in the movie "Stand By Me"

mannykannot 3y ago

The thing that gives this story a gravitas beyond that of others in a similar vein - such as ‘The Nine Billion Names of God’ - is that it brings to the fore an important theological/philosophical issue: the ‘problem of evil’. A great deal has been said and written about it over the millennia, often in abstract, abstruse and sometimes tendentious terms, but this story cuts to the heart of the matter. If it makes some readers uncomfortable, it is working.

paulddraper 3y ago

It was a good twist. I also think yours would have been a good twist.

hakdbha 3y ago

[dead]