Downward to the Earth

Reliving old sins
curiosity, remorse
it's all about you.

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.

After being back on Earth for eight years, Edmund Gunderson returns to the formerly colonized planet Belzagor where he used to be one of the human rulers of the two intelligent species who live there ??? the nildoror, who look much like elephants, and the sulidoror, who look like apes. While Gunderson was on Belzagor, he considered these species to be soulless and stupid, but now that the humans have given up their control of the planet, he realizes that he sinned against the nildoror, and he wants to cleanse his conscience by undergoing their ritual of rebirth.

When Gunderson arrives, he finds that the planet is gradually reverting back to the wild (the nildoror don???t have opposable thumbs, after all) and he marvels that the nildoror and the sulidoror are now working and living together ??? a practice which they did not keep when the humans ruled the planet. After he gets the nildoror???s permission to travel freely, he sets out across the planet and travels to the place of rebirth. Along the way, he encounters the beauty and the terror of that wild planet, learns more about the species that inhabit it, and begins to fully realize the evil he committed there.

If this sounds a little familiar, that???s because Robert Silverberg???s Downward to the Earth (1970) is his tribute to Joseph Conrad???s Heart of Darkness (1902), which explored the Belgians??? cruel colonization of the Congo. Silverberg makes his homage transparent by naming one of his characters after Conrad???s Kurtz. Like Heart of Darkness, Downward to the Earth was first serialized and later published as a novel. Also, like Heart of Darkness, Silverberg???s descriptions of the coexisting beauty and horror of Belzagor are the best parts of the book.

The title Downward to the Earth, comes from Ecclesiastes 3:21 (???Who knows that the spirit of man ascends upward and the spirit of the beast descends downward to the earth????). Not only does Silverberg consider the question of what happens to the souls of humans and beasts, but he also asks how we should distinguish a human from a beast. Are some ???beasts??? more human than we are?

Downward to the Earth could be considered as Christian allegory because it beautifully illustrates the pain of guilt and loneliness, the desire for redemption, the relief of forgiveness and liberation, and the pleasure of unity with like-minded souls. There is much Christian symbolism, too, including a serpent who offers a drug which promises the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 3:5). Silverberg portrays the drinking of the serpent???s drug as a great sin, but the commission of this sin leads to the understanding of the need to be reborn (???through the law comes the knowledge of sin??? ~Romans 3:20). The allegory eventually breaks down (as allegories usually do) when we see how the redemption is accomplished, but I enjoyed this thought-provoking aspect of the novel.

Blackstone Audio produced the version I listened to which was read by the magnificent Bronson Pinchot, one of my favorite readers. Downward to the Earth is a beautiful story and the audiobook is a great way to read it.

I m really impressed with the story and how Silverberg managed to portray everything so vividly. Loves all of it! And i highly recommend it!