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theesotericcamel's review
5.0
I first encountered this book back in my first year of High School. It was a treasured book of a friend of mine, and she was generous enough to lend it to me. I was entranced by the art and the poetic story from the start. But perhaps I was a bit too young to take it all in.
Coincidentially, a few years later, our Highschool Music department took a trip to Switzerland, where we visited the town of Gruyere. At the Castle, there happened to be a Patrick Woodruffe exhibit. As soon as we got off the bus, we were greeted by a metal cast of "War is a Vicious Cirle" by Patrick Woodruffe. I recognized it immediatly...
And we were treated to a multi-media feast for the eyes.
At the gift shop I found a copy of the book "The Second Earth" for sale and it came signed by the artist. I was over the moon to finally have my own copy. But alas, that copy was damaged many years later when a friend spilled liquid laundry detergent all over it.
Now close to 2 decades later, I have managed to track down another copy of it, here in Japan no less. Reading it was like encountering an old friend. Entering the world it conjures was all very familiar to me.
The story is that in the 24th century, we discover a floating ship within the orbit of Jupiter. This ship, known as Hermes, proves to be a floating library. Within it is the so-called Pentateuch of presumably our ancestors from a very very long time ago. It tells of their original planet and how it came to be. And how humankind corrupted it, and forced itself to flee in search of a new home. They eventually find Earth, the current planet we all live on... This is all horribly simplified, because the creation stories contained definitely follow in the vein of mythology, full of miracles and gods. Especially being an alien planet, we encounter beings and settings that would defy our currently known ideas of reality.
With more years of life experience between the last time I actually sat down to read the book, the story's nuances came into sharper relief. Perhaps I had never read it as completely as I have now? The subtitle of the book is "The Pentateuch Re-told," and indeed, the style of the prose is bliblically bombastic indeed. It also includes its own Genesis and Exodus like stories. It also seems to teach the tenants of living a good life. However, Patrick Woodruffe's religion is decidedly more ecologically driven and passifist than those of "The people of the book." The book even self-consciously lays out it's own themes in the final "Appendix C: The Pentatauch Today by Sir George Francis, Director of Public Relations Services, U.N.T.W. and editor of the Second Edition." But this is really a fictional character, acting as the Artist/Author's mouth piece for his own analysis of his work. I think that the book seeks to teach us that we are guests of the planet Earth, we should not be ruling the planet, we should be taking care of it. This is also reflected in the way Ildrinn treats us humans as well. Where first she caused us to fight and exploit each other and the planet, but once both are brought to the brink of ruination, she realizes that even she has need of us. And that is really what life is like as well. We often hardly appreciate the things around us until they are gone. And that goes for our planet as well.
Coincidentially, a few years later, our Highschool Music department took a trip to Switzerland, where we visited the town of Gruyere. At the Castle, there happened to be a Patrick Woodruffe exhibit. As soon as we got off the bus, we were greeted by a metal cast of "War is a Vicious Cirle" by Patrick Woodruffe. I recognized it immediatly...
And we were treated to a multi-media feast for the eyes.
At the gift shop I found a copy of the book "The Second Earth" for sale and it came signed by the artist. I was over the moon to finally have my own copy. But alas, that copy was damaged many years later when a friend spilled liquid laundry detergent all over it.
Now close to 2 decades later, I have managed to track down another copy of it, here in Japan no less. Reading it was like encountering an old friend. Entering the world it conjures was all very familiar to me.
The story is that in the 24th century, we discover a floating ship within the orbit of Jupiter. This ship, known as Hermes, proves to be a floating library. Within it is the so-called Pentateuch of presumably our ancestors from a very very long time ago. It tells of their original planet and how it came to be. And how humankind corrupted it, and forced itself to flee in search of a new home. They eventually find Earth, the current planet we all live on... This is all horribly simplified, because the creation stories contained definitely follow in the vein of mythology, full of miracles and gods. Especially being an alien planet, we encounter beings and settings that would defy our currently known ideas of reality.
With more years of life experience between the last time I actually sat down to read the book, the story's nuances came into sharper relief. Perhaps I had never read it as completely as I have now? The subtitle of the book is "The Pentateuch Re-told," and indeed, the style of the prose is bliblically bombastic indeed. It also includes its own Genesis and Exodus like stories. It also seems to teach the tenants of living a good life. However, Patrick Woodruffe's religion is decidedly more ecologically driven and passifist than those of "The people of the book." The book even self-consciously lays out it's own themes in the final "Appendix C: The Pentatauch Today by Sir George Francis, Director of Public Relations Services, U.N.T.W. and editor of the Second Edition." But this is really a fictional character, acting as the Artist/Author's mouth piece for his own analysis of his work. I think that the book seeks to teach us that we are guests of the planet Earth, we should not be ruling the planet, we should be taking care of it. This is also reflected in the way Ildrinn treats us humans as well. Where first she caused us to fight and exploit each other and the planet, but once both are brought to the brink of ruination, she realizes that even she has need of us. And that is really what life is like as well. We often hardly appreciate the things around us until they are gone. And that goes for our planet as well.
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