Sign in or 
Share this
Book 8
In Kim Stanley Robinsons “The Years of Rice and Salt” book eight, “War of The Asuras” was about a war going on in Asia in which various groups desired power. Throughout the war there were three soldiers in which narrated the struggle of the war and how it devastated humankind. Parallel to the war which is the main idea in the book was a religious conflict which involved the main characters Bai, Iwa, and Kuo. All three soldiers are friends whom have endured the long war together. Kuo acts as the leader of three being the most intelligent about war plans, and diversions because he listens to the wireless on a regular basis to keep up to date on what is going on in the war. Kuo dies which upsets the harmony of the group and deeply saddens Bai. Bai sees Kuo after he dies and Kou guides him along the way throughout the remainder of the war. Kuo introduces the notion of the war as being a phase in the bardo to Bai and that they are all dead in saying, “You need to see you’re in the bardo to be able to understand what’s happening to you. It’s the war in the bardo that matters, after all. The battle for our souls” (Robinson 563-564). At first Bai ponders the thought but dispels the notion after talking to Iwa about it. As the story unravels Bai begins to feel as though some of the war tasks that he is performing, has already done before; in this case he begins to remember parts of his previous life’s. Later on in the story Bai sees Kuo again at the scene of the destroyed the Bodhi Tree and Kuo suggests to Bai that:
From what Kuo says, Bai realizes that man will continue to kill man until there is none left; and then mankind will have to be restored again. Bai takes what he has learned from Kuo to carry out the rest of his life, to perform his dharma as the other soldiers do. In the end they all share their religion as their destiny as all the armies sit amongst one another in peace, saying the Buddhists prayers.
“In any case we’re all in the bardo together now, and headed for the lower realms again, at best the realm of hum, but possibly spinning down the death spiral into the hell worlds always underfoot, we may have done it and are in the spin you can’t pull out of, humanity lost to us for a time even as a possibility, so much harm have we done.”
“But we failed! We killed reality itself, do you understand me!”
“So. Now we are in this lower realm. We must make do. Our dharma still commands action, even here. In the hope of small advances upward. Until reality itself be reestablished, by many millions of lives of effort. The whole world will have to be rebuilt. That’s where we are now,”… (Robinson 580).
From what Kuo says, Bai realizes that man will continue to kill man until there is none left; and then mankind will have to be restored again. Bai takes what he has learned from Kuo to carry out the rest of his life, to perform his dharma as the other soldiers do. In the end they all share their religion as their destiny as all the armies sit amongst one another in peace, saying the Buddhists prayers.
|
bboyd1 |
Latest page update: made by bboyd1
, Mar 20 2007, 11:33 AM EDT
(about this update
About This Update
Edited by bboyd1
view changes - complete history) |
|
Keyword tags:
None
More Info: links to this page
|
There are no threads for this page.
Be the first to start a new thread.
