<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;"><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3><FONT face=Calibri>Thou Spark of Blood<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3><FONT face=Calibri>This was first published in If in 1970.<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3><FONT face=Calibri>SUMMARY:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Gibson, Cappio, and Lorenz are ostensibly in flight to Mars from Moonbase, and Gibson awakes to find Cappio dead, his throat cut.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>“It was the easiest murder mystery in the universe to solve”.<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3><FONT face=Calibri>He thinks of killing Lorenz, but Lorenz awakes and they accuse each other.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>They have all come to hate each other, and Lorenz says that Gibson “stinks” – morally.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>They both have clean knives. Lorenz asserts that Gibson has been cracking up.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The radio has not been working, and the deodorizer has gone out.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>They resolve to get rid of the body.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Gibson asks if Mars made Lorenz kill because it breeds strife and quotes “Thou spark of blood, thou eye of death look’d down, thou wanderer image of a burning town” (which, despite the common rumors on the internet, I sure can’t find anywhere!)<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3><FONT face=Calibri>They try to throw Cappio’s body out but the hatch is stuck.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Gibson instructs Lorenz to cut apart the body and put it in the disposer.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As Lorenz starts, Gibson kills him with a knife in the neck.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The disposer breaks from Cappio’s femur.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>He puts the bodies in the suits, but they wind up leaking anyway, and the stench begins.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>He discovers that Lorenz’ and his suits had been punctured by Cappio, and finds the knife Cappio used to kill himself – he would have taken everyone with him.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>He lands on Mars (according to his view port) without detecting any change in gravity and gets out in Cappio’s
suit.<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3><FONT face=Calibri>The moonbase psychologist Dr. Mann approaches him. “ ‘When I clap you will remember that this is only a simulation.’ Then he smelled Gibson”<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><o:p><FONT size=3 face=Calibri> </FONT></o:p></DIV>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3><FONT face=Calibri>COMMENTARY: A lonely man will become full of hate.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is the flip side of the rat overpopulation experiments – too many people in a closed space and man becomes murderous … trapped in isolation with a small sample group, it seems that man will also become unhinged.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Isolation and static stimuli are going to have a deleterious effect whether it is simulated or real, and this inability to distinguish imitation from reality is pretty much all we need to say about this work.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3><FONT face=Calibri>All three men were coming unhinged, though perhaps Lorenz displayed a bit more sanity than Gibson.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The story speaks for itself in its brutal detail and the nasty scents of decomposition.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The fact that it is only a simulation does not change the psychological strain and animosity these men develop for each other.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There is very little to say about this, save a pretty negative view of mankind, and I do have a desire to clear up the oft said but hard for me to verify idea that the quote describing Mars is actually from Macbeth.</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3><FONT face=Calibri><o:p>NAMES: A Cappio is a noose, so this fits in with the murder/suicide aspect. Lorenz is derived from a laurel, Gibson is indeterminately the son of Gilbert. I think only the Cappio name is telling.</o:p></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3><FONT face=Calibri>ALLUSIONS: Well, the clearest allusion is actually to one of the first Twilight Zone episodes, in which a test astronaut cracks up in solitary and hallucinates that he is alone in the world “where is everybody?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Where is everybody?” only to be in a small test ship alone in practice for a manned mission in space.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is the same set up here.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3><FONT face=Calibri>As far as Mars goes, Lorenz quotes that it causes blood lust: “Thou spark of blood, thou eye of death look’d down, thou wanderer image of a burning town.” <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Here’s my problem – everybody says this is from Macbeth.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I’ll be darned if I can find that quote, summoning the destruction of Mars, the influence of War in the sky.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Blood is a huge symbol in Macbeth from honor to betrayal throughout, but<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I can’t find that particular quote, and it seems like everyone just says this references Macbeth, but I can’t find it.<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3><FONT face=Calibri>FUTURE ECHOES:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Lots of lonely and isolated crazy people in Wolfe.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The Island stories confront this, often in tandem with mental illness.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is probably Wolfe’s most graphic story besides The Hero as Werewolf and some of the torture descriptions or cannibalism in New Sun.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Once again, imitation can have the same result as reality.<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3><FONT face=Calibri>Next up is Slaves of Silver in Stories from the Old Hotel.<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></DIV></td></tr></table>