Having been a suscriber since episode 88 or thereabouts, I'd say this story was my favourite so far. Very thoughtfully written.
If I was a monkey, I'd give it four thumbs up.
The golemized (?) statue was certainly not a deus ex machina, since it had been hinted at all through the story in one form or another. I was expecting more of a metaphorical golem though, something to do with one of the resistance group members (which group, in real life, borrowed the name of Holger Danske -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holger_Danske_%28Resistance_group%29 ). But then, it would merely be a work of historical fiction (or as Steve put it, "secret history" - I like that one).
I'm surprised that nobody has yet brought up the notion that Bohr along with many Jewish (and non-Jewish, of course) ex-pats, was ultimately going to contribute the construction of the biggest golem of all, the atomic bomb. Like the Golem of Prague, the atomic bomb is a servant that is proving very hard to deactivate once the original task was accomplished. As far as it being a "sin" to create one goes, wasn't it Robert Oppenheimer who said "Now we are all bastards" after the Trinity test?
I am so glad it didn't end with Bohr wielding some weapon involving a blinding light, as in the son's dream.
I liked the way a number of threads wove themselves in and out of the story: the golem(s), Holger Danske as a symbol for the resistance by the Danes, the mysticism/physics comparisons, and so on.
I was worried that the SS Captain on the train was going to be a bit of a cartoon villain, because it's impossible not to think of the stereotypical Nazi officer, yet it was necessary to have one here. Fortunately his part was quite short, and he did have that menacing air of a rattlesnake in your sleeping bag. Nobody (except the father, of course) wanted to speak or move, hoping it would just slither away. I like that kind of villain.
About the train: Is it just me not following the story closely enough, or did it not magically turned into a
bus for a while, when they took the young family off at one of the stops?
It (the story) also recalled one of my favourite new (to me) words:
Liminality - see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LiminalityLiminality (from the Latin word līmen, meaning "a threshold") is the quality of the second stage of a ritual in the theories of Arnold van Gennep, Victor Turner, and others. In these theories, a ritual, especially a rite of passage, involves some change to the participants, especially their social status.
The liminal state is characterized by ambiguity, openness, and indeterminacy. One's sense of identity dissolves to some extent, bringing about disorientation. Liminality is a period of transition where normal limits to thought, self-understanding, and behavior are relaxed - a situation which can lead to new perspectives.
People, places, or things may not complete a transition, or a transition between two states may not be fully possible. Those who remain in a state between two other states may become permanently liminal.
[snip]
During the liminal stage, normally accepted differences between the participants, such as social class, are often de-emphasized or ignored. A social structure of communitas forms: one based on common humanity and equality rather than recognized hierarchy.
[snip]
Liminality in states of consciousness
Another example of liminality can occur when someone wakes from dream sleep and in a hypnagogic state of mind is unable to distinguish if a vaguely recalled dream actually occurred.
[snip]
Liminality in places
These can range from borders, to no man's lands and disputed territories, to crossroads to perhaps airports or hotels, which people pass through but do not live in. In mythology and religion or esoteric lore this can include such realms as Purgatory or Da'at which as well as signifying liminality some theologians have denied actually existing, making them, in some cases, doubly liminal. "Between-ness" defines these spaces.
[snip]
The story certainly had many of those elements - the "communitas", losing his family and leaving his home to go to the "higher plane" of Cambridge University, the dream that he tries to nurture as he is waking up, the catacombs being a sort of purgatory, crossing borders and passing through a neutral country, the threshold between land to sea, the threshold between the mystical and empirical knowledge, it's all there, lots of that Hero's Journey stuff.
There is also the separate article on the
Liminal being -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liminal_beingIn speculative fiction and, loosely applied, in mythology, a liminal being is a fantasy character that combines two distinct states of simultaneous existence within one physical body. This unique perspective may provide the liminal being with wisdom and the ability to instruct, making them suitable mentors, whilst also making them dangerous and uncanny.
Some of the examples in mythology and popular culture that they give are the Green Man (both alive and dead), cyborgs, and ghosts. Except for the fact that the golem isn't much for talking, I'm inclined to include it too.
Now that I think of it, Neils Bohr himself was born of one Jewish and one Lutheran parent, and was a mentor figure, making him a kind of liminal being.
I don't know if Sullivan purposely had "liminality" in mind when he wrote the story, but I think that the fact that it had those elements helped to make it a great story.
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On the silly notion of science and empirically derived knowledge conflicting with religious beliefs, see my sig line, which currently is this quote from a noted astrophysicist:
"It is a primitive form of thought that things exist or do not exist." - Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington