Andrew Byers
January 17th, 2007, 06:58 PM
BTW, I ran across a review of The Wreck of The River of Stars a while back that speculated about who the narrator of the story was: namely: Rivvy, the ship's intelligence.
What would be the arguments supporting this view?
The arguments against?
My initial, gut reaction to the idea was that Rivvy couldn't possibly be the narrator -- some of the remarks are simply too insightful for such a limited, troubled A.I. Some of the narration would, seemingly, require a profound insight into human nature and quotes like the following solidify that feeling for me: "Ship had watched without understanding, for understanding was as far beyond Ship as it was for any of the other entities within it..." (p. 421 in the paperback edition). But maybe the quote just implies that Rivvy has as much understanding of human nature as any human would.
I think that one of the strongest arguments supporting the Rivvy as narrator idea is the fact that on the last page we see that Cutter downloads its last report to Ship just before it passes out of range, and (coincidentally?) we don't get any more narration on what happens in the Cutter after that. Rivvy doesn't know what happens to the Cutter after that, so we don't hear any more about it. Circumstantial, but it does tend to support the theory.
Personally, I like the idea of Rivvy as narrator, but I'm not 100% sold on it yet.
What would be the arguments supporting this view?
The arguments against?
My initial, gut reaction to the idea was that Rivvy couldn't possibly be the narrator -- some of the remarks are simply too insightful for such a limited, troubled A.I. Some of the narration would, seemingly, require a profound insight into human nature and quotes like the following solidify that feeling for me: "Ship had watched without understanding, for understanding was as far beyond Ship as it was for any of the other entities within it..." (p. 421 in the paperback edition). But maybe the quote just implies that Rivvy has as much understanding of human nature as any human would.
I think that one of the strongest arguments supporting the Rivvy as narrator idea is the fact that on the last page we see that Cutter downloads its last report to Ship just before it passes out of range, and (coincidentally?) we don't get any more narration on what happens in the Cutter after that. Rivvy doesn't know what happens to the Cutter after that, so we don't hear any more about it. Circumstantial, but it does tend to support the theory.
Personally, I like the idea of Rivvy as narrator, but I'm not 100% sold on it yet.