Genesis is the second of Frederick Turner's two science fiction epic poems. First published in 1988, it was re-issued earlier this year. (The
New World (1985) was reissued last year.) Turner is an able formalist and a Blakean mythmaker. In his collection
The Garden, he creates his own pantheon that provides the underpinning for
The New World, which takes place in the 24th century when the "Uess" has dissolved into warring counties and formerly urban "riots."
In
Genesis, he comes back to the near future, the later 21st century, in which his scientist/entrepreneur hero has undertaken the terraforming of Mars, outraging the Eco-Theists (led by his ex-wife) who dominate the world government. Mars breaks away, and after a costly civil war, the colonists start a new civilization, on a new soil, with a new politics, economy, and language.
When Amit Majmudar reviewed a recent book by George Steiner, he called him the Last European and asked who aims to synthesize science and religion in poetry, as Dante did. Turner does, and unlike Steiner, his effort is global. (For a very different ride, try his earlier sci-fi novel
A Double Shadow -- Mars in the 28th century!) Turner makes a strong statement about where we are, and where we could go, and he does so more comprehensively and accessibly than any other long-poem writer of the 20th century.
I've selected a sample from near the end, where the Sybil develops her theology of beauty for the settlers:
“How do we know the truth,” the Sibyl said,
“Between two explanations, or a thousand,
Each with an equal claim to evidence,
Each with an equal logical coherence?
It is the beauty of that one which marks it
So that the scientist-philosopher
Is in no doubt where our allegiance lies.
And if we would extract the seed, the essence
Of the truth, we must know the ways of beauty.
For beauty is the oneness of the tree
Of life with and within the tree of knowledge,
Its oversapience that makes it spring
To further budding as it mates itself;
And if that branchingness is all that is,
Then beauty is the secret name of being.
Consider how the plants and animals
Blaze to their loveliest expressiveness,
The flower, the paroxysm of their song,
The ritual dance, the flash of scale or feather,
Just at the moment when they pass their being
Over to the following generation;
Thus beauty is continuance of time.
But sex does not produce a printed copy;
The being that is reproduced is neither
Copy nor monster, and the space between
Is what we mean by beauty, beautiful.
Survival thus is nothing but transcendence."
Turner was closely associated with the Expansionist Poetry movement; Dick Allen considers him one of the founders. He is the author of several books of poetry as well as books on aesthetics, culture, economics, and most recently, the epic poem.
Genesis is available here:
http://www.amazon.com/Genesis-Epic-P...turner+genesis
71. Guillaume Apollinaire - Alcools
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