Intersection Of Differences

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An Intersection of Differences
Samuel R. Delaney’s The Einstein Intersection is a part fantasy, part science fiction novel exploring a fresh re-telling of the story of Orpheus—a legendary Thracian poet and musician whose music had the power to move even inanimate objects and who almost succeeded in rescuing his wife, Eurydice, from Hades. Delany uniquely recreates this myth and adds modern day legends such as Ringo Star, Elvis and pop-icons to the mix, providing the reader with a link to the past and a reminder of recurring archetypes of the human experience.
It is a mythic tale of a strange future Earth inhabited by an alien race who have assumed human form—at least, initially there was a strong resemblance. Cultural taboos prohibit any pair from producing more than one offspring, and the occasional pilgrimage to a high Rad site encourages an ever larger gene pool and with every generation divergence from the human mold increases. With the human form the aliens also acquire human myths and mannerisms. Somehow humanity’s baggage of archetypes is resonating from beyond the grave. The aliens are compelled to assimilate the rationale of this world: from Greek mythology to legendary Ringo Starr—the silent one, the demi-god of rhythm.
The title of the book is made relevant as part of Delany’s usage of mythology by an explanation late in the book of the importance of Gödel and Einstein and the possible future implications of their work:
Wars and chaoses and paradoxes ago, two mathematicians between them ended an age and began another for out hosts, out ghosts called Man. One was Einstein, who with his Theory of Relativity defined the limits of man’s perception by expressing mathematically just how far the condition of the observer influences the thing he perceives. […] The other was Gödel a contemporary of Einstein, who was the first to bring back a mathematically precise statement about the vaster realm beyond t...