From: Natasa Tucev tucev@tesla.rcub.bg.ac.yu

Dana asked:

...

*Or, for that matter, why there's a vortex or whatever the hell Travis falls into on Star One.

Because he is a creature from the subconscious, Blake's 'dark self' (his ruthlessness, obsession, hatred, need for revenge)

No he isn't. He's a one-armed one-eyed bloke who's got it in for Blake. He might be Blake's shadow in literary terms, but within the subreality of the text he doesn't come from anyone's subconscious. He just is.

and he retreats back down there after Blake has overcome his darkest impulse - to destroy Star One.

A statement that only carries any validity if destroying Star One counts as a 'dark' impulse, which has been discussed to death on the Lyst too many times already.

Look at the number of fantastic creatures in folklore and legends (evil dwarves, dragons, witches) who fall into abyss once they have been

defeated.

Throwing witches off cliffs used to be a regular means of executing them, so the fatal plummet trope doesn't require any recourse to discussions of the subconscious. In these cinematic days, of course, it makes for good eye candy. Or in the case of Mori, rather sad and shoddy eye candy.

There's another thing I was thinking about, and this is Jungian idea that you can't really overcome your 'shadow'. You either manage to incorporate

it

(like Ged in the Earthsea trilogy) or you have to adopt some of its characteristics in order to win. The boy who has defeated a dragon becomes

a

new dragon after he has touched the forbidden treasure. Blake appears in 'Blake' with a very telling scar.

Or couldn't that be simply a touch of irony?

You can keep your Jungian archetypes, I'll stick with Dawkins' memes.

Neil

At 06:42 AM 1/30/01 +0100, Natasa Tucev wrote:

Dana asked:

...

*Or, for that matter, why there's a vortex or whatever the hell Travis falls into on Star One.

Because he is a creature from the subconscious, Blake's 'dark self' (his ruthlessness, obsession, hatred, need for revenge), and he retreats back down there after Blake has overcome his darkest impulse - to destroy Star One.

I like your ideas. I've often got vague notions of such things but unfortunately never know how to put them into words. -- "This is the kind of conversation that can only end in a gunshot."