The Meaning of Life, The Universe and Everything - Terra Ignota

Hope, Curiosity, Vulnerability, Empathy

Introduction

On the surface, Ada Palmer's Terra Ignota series is an intricate tapestry of science fiction, politics, philosophy, character exploration and a perhaps overlarge obsession with Eighteenth-Century France. Begin digging, though, and you might unearth a variety of strange new ways to examine this text. Today I'll be discussing one such lens, which is simultaneously the simplest and most magnificent of all.

I've previously written about Terra Ignota's utopian world and brought the series up in reflecting on the CEO shooting in December. Suffice to say that I'll be spoiling some major thematic moments from the series today, so go give it a read/listen first if you're disposed to.

This is something of a sequel to my previous article about speculative fiction's tendency to equate the Earth with the universe, so consider reading that if you haven't already. And like that post, I'm writing today with a bit of a fever so please forgive any crazed notions which arise (besides, you know, this topic).

Art by Emmanuel Castillo

Inward vs. Outward

Part way through Perhaps the Stars (the fourth and final novel – really wasn't kidding about spoilers) we discover the secret philosophical war for the future of humanity that has been a major catalyst for events and actions throughout the series.

The Gordian Hive, under Headmaster Felix Faust, seek to unlock the potential of the human mind, to eventually transcend our inconvenient bodies and achieve digital immortality. Faust is desperate to reach this goal in his own lifetime, both for himself (already nearly 80 by the start of the series) and for his cherished students, and sees alternative ventures as frivolous and wasting human potential. The Inward Path.

The Utopian Hive seek to travel the stars, already inhabiting a city on the moon and having spent lifetimes of work terraforming Mars despite knowing it will take them at least another 250 years to complete their task. To explore, to seed humanity beyond the reach of disaster, to work together for a common cause: better lives for those who come after. Every Utopian's coat is programmed to depict their individual vision of utopia, and every coat shows only static for a few moments whenever a Utopian dies – mourning the loss of their human labour, hope and dream. The Outbound Path.

A Utopian, by Alex Broerman

Utopia's path is desperately resource and labour-intensive, requires absolute dedication and courage in the face of the unknown. They are already seeing resolve decline within their Hive, as members grow used to the comforts of Earth and dread harsh lives in space (this is another fascinating lens I'll have to write about).

These factions are therefore fighting for the hearts and minds of humanity, to decide the future of our planet and species. They're also fighting for the gifted mind and good will of J.E.D.D. Mason, nominally because he is the most influential person in the world at the time the conflict comes to light, but also because our universe exists solely for this reason.

Big Protagonist Energy

As I've previously discussed, J.E.D.D. Mason was born into the most influential position on the planet, educated by and heir to the leaders of most of the seven Hives and mothered by the woman who pulls their strings. He is unique in many ways, including his difficulty confining his speech to only one language – often mixing words from German, Latin, French, English and others unless actively working not to – and showing highly physiologically abnormal brain development.

By the age of twenty-one, he's also convinced the entire universe around him was put together for his benefit: a Great Letter written for He, the Addressee.

J.E.D.D. Mason, by Atiglain

I'll certainly write a post at some point which questions the diegetic (in-fiction) truth of these ideas – because they are still quite debatable – but for today's purpose I'm taking them at face value.

In his own understanding, Jehovah Epicurus Donatien D'Arouet Mason is a God/Alien visiting our universe from his own, at the invitation of our universe's God. (Not my fever talking, this is a central idea of the series – even if J.E.D.D. Mason only mistakenly believes it.)

He is deeply troubled by much that he has witnessed in our universe, since in his own he has never contemplated – let alone introduced – ideas such as time, loss, finitude and the unknown. He sees humans (and other sentient beings) as 'small authors'; our free will and spark of life a miniscule but true imitation of that shared by Him and our universe's God. This is why, as I mentioned in that previous article, he cannot comprehend the trolley problem: all life is infinitely sacred to him.

And to clarify without (hopefully) getting too far off track, the narrative gives him some reason to intuit the existence of this universe's God. A child named Bridger, who gets a fair amount of focus in the first two novels, is capable of miracles: bringing toys to life, creating literal magical items such as healing potions, Hermes' shoes and Thor's belt, and even re-writing reality to have the upcoming conflict take the narrative shape of The Iliad. (Go read the dang books! More on all of that in different posts to come.)

Achilles (yes that one) becomes a major character in Terra Ignota

So, given apparent evidence of the local Divine and J.E.D.D. Mason's firm belief in his own Divinity, what is the purpose of this Great Letter? Why is there suffering in the world? Should we go into the mind, or out among the stars?

Into Lands Unknown (Terra Ignota)

It's so beautifully, hauntingly simple in the end. What J.E.D.D. Mason concludes is that our universe's God was once like himself, content in a personal, infinite but known universe. But then they strove for more:

"This, this is the image of thy Maker, Mycroft, One Who Groped, Who reached beyond His own Infinity, imagining beyondness as I never did, and found Me. [You plural] do image Him, Him only. There may be a trillion Beings of Our Species scattered in Our trillion cosmoses, Each unique and alone, but His uniqueness is that He is the God Who Groped, Who Moved, Who conceived—inconceivable to Me—of Beings beyond Himself. You were right who called Him First Mover, for He is the One Who Moved, Who reached, though there was no direction to reach in, but He imagined Motion, Distance, and Direction, casting Himself into a void as blind as Time. And so He found Me, Other, Alien, Peer, Interlocutor, Addressee, Stranger, Outsider, First Contact, Friend." - Ada Palmer, Perhaps the Stars

God damn. Not relatable at all, is it, the idea of reaching out for contact with another being like yourself? It's so good.

Our universe then, is a question to this Peer: are you, like me, one who Reaches toward the stars? Or are you content to explore the infinities within?

As presented, it appears the Great Letter was written with the latter answer being assumed: partway through Perhaps the Stars, all the work, hope and dreams of Utopia is on the verge of being annihilated. No human technology, expertise, craftiness or bargaining can possibly save it. The Letter's Author and Host showing deference to the Addressee and Guest, who comes from a universe entirely Himself. Yet:

“I do not know how to call ‘Friend’ One Who does this.” I turned. Jehovah, reader. This wounds even Jehovah, teaches the Heart Which Loves all with a universe of Love to Love less. Jehovah’s Loneliness crossed infinities. He hungered for a Peer, a Friend, as no creature beneath the skies has ever hungered, His long patience enduring Time, Distance, impotences’ tortures, this long and bloody greeting we call war, but He Loved on, unconditional, and patiently He called This strange Host ‘Friend.’ But now He can’t. Now That Host reveals Himself as One Who would light such a spark and snuff it. One Who gave us Midway Island, stepping-stones, then crushes us when it would have been kinder by far to crush this spirit long ago, the first time someone thought to hollow out a log to make a boat, before we toiled a hundred thousand years. Intolerable. This makes Him finite, reader, He who was omnibenevolent and wrapped us in His kind Infinity. The Heart Which Loved all with a universe of Love cannot Love this.

And immediately a literal deus ex machina intervenes; miracles worked months and years before by Bridger coming together to save Utopia in one of the most harrowing yet rewarding chapters I've ever read.

Andromeda Galaxy, Credits: NASA/Swift/Stefan Immler (GSFC) and Erin Grand (UMCP)

Bridging the Gap

The series ends in such a way as to leave both the Outward and Inward Paths accessible, thanks again to Bridger's relics and J.E.D.D. Mason's hope for our species – but that is yet another topic that must wait for later.

Having apparently found a self-portrait of the Author in the form of Dominic Seneschal (good grief that's a terrifying prospect, if I ever do a piece on deeply disturbing-but-effective imagery you'll learn why) and humanity in general, J.E.D.D. Mason believes that in exploring the stars, humans may come across portraits of himself and possibly other Peers in the forms of other intelligent species. It's a way of demonstrating empathy and understanding, like J.E.D.D. Mason experienced and as is necessary for any healthy communication.

I love this stuff to bits, I hope you find it fascinating too! Thanks for reading and until next time <3