Tragedy: The Binding of Isaac Retold in Hyperion

"The River Lethe's Taste is Bitter"

The Scholar's Tale

What would you do if given the divine command to follow in the footsteps of Abraham with his son Isaac? What if your family began suffering, though there was no apparent connection? How bad would it have to be for you to find hope in the idea of finally following the command?

Welcome to the story of Sol Weintraub and his infant daughter Rachel, as shared with his fellow pilgrims on their voyage to confront the alien Shrike. Two weeks ago I write about Lenar Hoyt's tale in Dan Simmons' Hyperion (1989); consider (re)visiting that introduction for more details about the novel and its structure as a collection of pilgrims' tales.

I'll offer a brief warning that this isn't a happy story, but I find it to be a fascinating exploration of love, loss and faith through the lens of a uniquely sci-fi tragedy.

Japanese Cover of Hyperion (Sol & Rachel 2nd from right), art by Noriyoshi Ohrai

The Time Tombs

Rachel was born to Sol and Sarai Weintraub more than fifty years before the current pilgrimage – a fact which seems odd, considering that Sol tells his story while cradling her infant form in his arms. (Rest assured, I'm not about to reveal that she's Grogu's sister or anything.)

She had a pleasant childhood raised by loving parents, eventually attending a prestigious university to follow her passion of archaeology. At the age of twenty-five she takes an opportunity to study the mysterious Time Tombs on the world of Hyperion alongside a small team, having passed over other alien artifacts on the world of Armaghast. (The same which Father Paul Duré called proof of alien Christianity in Hoyt’s tale. I love how Simmons subtly connects elements of each story to make his universe feel more alive.)

It's while alone within one of the seven Tombs – shaped as a Sphinx – that the Time Tides surge and Rachel has an encounter with the Shrike which leaves her unconscious. Upon waking a few days later, she has lost all memory of the past week. This continues moving forward as well: she retains no new memories day-to-day, and loses her most recent day of prior memories upon waking each morning. She is aging backwards.

Sol & Rachel Weintraub, by Kriszta Arányi

Untold Suffering

At the same moment as Rachel's encounter with the Shrike, Sol receives a vision in which an 'immense' voice tells him:

“Sol! Take your daughter, your only daughter Rachel, whom you love, and go to the world called Hyperion and offer her there as a burnt offering at one of the places of which I shall tell you.” And in his dream Sol had stood and said, “You can’t be serious.”

Sol takes little heed, being a religious scholar whose mind could conceivably conjure this nightmare in the way of normal dreams. The vision returns often, however, and at least a part of Sol begins to take it a little seriously once he learns about Rachel's condition.

In the style of Memento and Before I Go to Sleep, Rachel is able to function well enough for the first eight years by watching a tape of herself explaining her situation each morning. That doesn't make things easy, however: at university she must learn and re-learn more material each day; she attempts to continue a relationship with her boyfriend even past the point she has lost all memory of him, but eventually finds it impossible to fall in love with a complete stranger each morning.

By the time she has returned to the age of seventeen, the tapes have accumulated to the point that it takes Rachel more than a day to relearn every important detail of her life. She takes stimulants to stay awake and learn it all one last time before asking Sol (who has spent eight years consulting with nearly every scientist and doctor in human civilization on Rachel's behalf) to just let her live each day from now on without the heavy burden of this knowledge.

So, Sol and Sarai do their best to give Rachel another pleasant childhood. And... can you imagine? I simply can't do it justice: every day they must lie to Rachel about why things have changed so much from her most recent memories – already almost two decades past when she's seventeen – and every day they must retire with the knowledge that she won't retain any of these happy memories upon waking. They do their damnedest, first inviting Rachel's original friends then her friends' children to her birthday parties and shielding her from the voracious press once her story gets out.

Eventually, when Rachel is four years old, Sarai reveals that she's also been experiencing the vision and its commandment – perhaps even a more detailed version of it – and has reached the point where she believes they must take Rachel back to Hyperion if there is to be any hope of saving her. (Sarai's then immediately killed off, which I personally consider a crime of the highest magnitude. She should be the pilgrim instead of Sol, missing his knowledge of biblical philosophy instead of him missing her for cliché fridging reasons.)

Sol offering Rachel to the Shrike, by Gary Ruddell

Faith & Love

But we're stuck with Sol, and he spends plenty of time philosophizing about Abraham and Isaac in relation to his own predicament. (A writer with more biblical knowledge than myself has analyzed this connection here). As he finishes his tale, we learn that Rachel is now less than six weeks old. He has come to offer himself in her place, but as the image above suggests, he eventually must obey the vision and test his faith by hoping for a miracle from the utterly alien Shrike.

My frustration about fridging aside, Sol has lost everything and suffered horribly just to reach this point. His life for twenty-five years has been dedicated to helping his daughter by any means necessary, both by consulting experts and daily performing the emotional labour of keeping her happy. But would Sol and Sarai have led a happier life if Rachel (like the vast majority of people who encounter the Shrike) had simply died that day on Hyperion instead of torturously regressing? I don't think so. In spite of everything, they would have chosen this road every time.

That's why I wanted to write about this story. It's an incredible treatise on love, faith and loss; I think it has to give the stories of Job and Abraham a run for their money. And to do so while talking about magic-like de-aging and a three meter-tall spiky stand-in for God? Brilliant.

What happens to Rachel, you might ask? Well believe it or not, she's actually in the topmost image twice (in a choice of a depiction), as a part of both Sol's and Colonel Fedmahn Kassad's stories – but his tale is for another time. Suffice to say that her life doesn't get any more normal upon being handed to the 'Angel of Retribution from Beyond Time' at the moment of her 'birth'.

A final note: Sol's tale is subtitled with "The River Lethe's Taste is Bitter", referencing the river from Greek myth which runs through Hades and drinking the water of which causes one to lose their memories. It suggests that the Weintraub family are now trapped in an underworld of sorts, having experienced the Lethe's bitter taste with Rachel's amnesia.

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Went a little longer and did a little more recap than I meant to – let me know your thoughts on this style compared to that of my piece on Hoyt's story!

Thanks for reading and until next time <3