'Downward To The Earth' (DTTE) is an SF novel about post-colonial guilt, a tribute to Rudyard Kipling and Joseph Conrad. It is the third Robert Silverberg novel I have read, the others being 'The Book of Skulls' and 'Dying Inside'. Edmund Gunderson, a former colonial administrator, returns to the planet he once administered, seeking redemption for sins committed during the days of Earth's imperialism.
The title comes from the Bible: 'Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?' (Ecclesiastes 3:21). During his colonial days, Gunderson considered the planet's natives - the Nildoror, who look like green elephants with three tusks, and the Sulidoror, who look like tall furry humans with claws and snouts - mere beasts. Earth relinquished the planet after discovering that the natives were sentient. Because of the natives' appearance, many humans - including Gunderson - still struggle to overcome their prejudice. Gunderson wants to take part in the Nildoror's sacred religious ceremony of rebirth, hoping to gain forgiveness from them and from himself.
'Thus we refresh our souls by undertaking new lives... To undergo rebirth is to enter a new world, not merely a new life.'
DTTE is a gripping read. The travel across the alien world is engaging and convincingly detailed. There's a good bit of SF mysticism, which I'm very fond of: I have, in the past, found SF imagery conducive to transformative religious experiences. At times I was reminded of my own travels (on Earth, not an alien world); Silverberg got the idea for the novel while travelling in Tanzania. On my travels I was generally very lucky with the people I met. Only a few times did I meet the hideously vacuous tourists personified by Matt Lacey's Gap Yah character. I expect Silverberg met some on his travels:
'The tourists were, in fact, the last species whatever that Gunderson wanted to see at this point. He would have preferred locusts, scorpions, fanged serpents, tyrannosaurs, toads, anything at all. Here he was coming from some sort of mystical experience with the nildoror, the nature of which he barely understood; here, insulated from his own kind, he rode toward the land of rebirth struggling with basic questions of right and wrong, of the nature of intelligence, of the relationship of human to nonhuman and of himself to his own past; only a few moments before he had been forced into an uncomfortable, even painful confrontation with that past by Srin'gahar's casual, artful questions about the souls of elephants; and abruptly Gunderson found himself once more among these empty trivial human beings, these archetypes of the ignorant and the blind tourist, and whatever individuality he had earned in the eyes of his nildor companion vanished instantly as he dropped back into the undifferentiated class of Earthmen.'
I recommend 'Downward To The Earth'. It's a very good read, but it didn't blow my mind. Compared to the other Silverbergs I've read, this one is middling quality:
'The Book of Skulls' is the best of the three. Four American frat boys go on a road trip to find a weird skull-worshipping cult that may or may not exist, and who may or may not hold the secret to immortality. Silverberg manages to make this boring premise very gripping, as the four narrators explore their friendships and aspirations while pondering over mortality.
'Dying Inside' is the worst of the three, though still a very good book. It's the autobiography of David Sellig, a telepath who discovers that he is losing his powers. There's not much of a plot; Sellig tells his life story in a non-linear way, writing about whatever happens to be on his mind. It is a very emotional and intimate book about an alienated lonely loser who has not made much of his life, despite his powers, and realises that he is dying. The story is let down by chapters dedicated to Sellig's 'job': he ekes out a living writing essays for cheating university students. Some of these essays are recited word for word, and they are very boring.
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