I was in a reflective mood the other day so I decided to read OSC's book of poetry "An Open Book". I've tried to develop a taste for poetry in the past but somehow it has always eluded me.
Anyway, I enjoyed the poem "Tin Men" very much, but I could not figure out who the narrator(s) was supposed to be. An alien culture that somehow tamed humans? That was my first guess.
But after thinking about it, I decided I think the narrator is a human living in a future where men have stopped dreaming about finding and conquering other worlds... lost their ambition, in other words.
Has anyone else read this poem? Who do you think the narrator is?
Posted by Audeo (Member # 5130) on :
I'd agree that the the speaker is a human from the future, but I don't think they've necessarily lost their ambition. I think they've lost their idealism. The speaker sees the past as a place where the world is black and white, good or bad, but in the future, humanity has discovered that the bad is as integral a part of themselves as the good. In the past they dreamed big, and saw the future as an inexorable thing. With the knowledge and advances in science that the speaker has access to all those dreams have faded into impossibility. The past was able to dream big because they had no knowledge to curtail their dreams, but the future is hemmed in by reality, and by the science that they've discovered.
(Just like to add there is more than one way of reading any poem, so feel free to disagree with or even disregard mine )
Posted by Orson Scott Card (Member # 209) on :
Both good and accurate readings. Thanks for noticing. I think my poems are the best things I do, but the audience for poetry is so small, and the audience for poetry by science fiction writers is so very much smaller, so I'm pathetically grateful for any feedback at all.
[ March 30, 2005, 06:38 AM: Message edited by: Orson Scott Card ]
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