What did you think of the title, "The Eighth Day"? It comes from Dr. Gillies' speech at the tavern on New Year's Eve 1899.
"Nature never sleeps. The process of life never stands still. The creation has not come to an end. The Bible says that God created man on the sixth day and rested, but each of those days was many millions of years long. That day of rest must have been a short one. Man is not an end but a beginning. We are at the beginning of the second week. We are children of the eighth day."
Man is still evolving, he says, and in the new century (the 20th) mankind will enter an enlightened stage of development focused on Mind and Spirit, moving from the "self-favoring life into a consciousness of the entire community of mankind."
But Dr. Gillies didn't believe any of that. He thought the 20th century would be as miserable and dark as all the previous ones. He lied because he saw Roger Ashley and George Lansing there and believed "it is the duty of old men to lie to the young."
Let these encounter their own disillusions. We strengthen our souls, when young, on hope; the strength we acquire enables us later to endure despair as a Roman should.
What do you think the story has to do with this concept of evolving humanity, or of strengthening yourself on youthful hope?
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2 comments:
I like the title. I like the idea, so far as it's implied, that God's job is essentially done after the initial week of setting things in motion! It reminds me of that Ani Di Franco lyric "God's work isn't done by God; it's done by people" — the notion that morality, for example, isn't a heavenly abstraction (dependent on rewards and punishments), but is actually innate in people.
I'm not so sure about this necessity of lying to the young. It seems as though youth has its own audacity (ignorance?) that propels itself deep into the future before it knows what it's gotten itself into! Looking back on a pack of lies would only seem to deepen the disillusionment.
I'm not sure how Dr. Gillies' lies really shaped Roger's and George's paths. They encountered despair and tragedy so early in life. But I guess I can see that if they didn't have certain qualities of hope and determination that they might have had different outcomes.
I thought the title was fitting as well. I think it fit with the idea of greater information and wealth and opportunity being distributed via the latter part of the Industrial Revolution (where go-getters like Lily or Roger could pursue their dreams) and where social reforms and working conditions improved by the likes of John Ashley. A new millennium and an Eighth Day.
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