Arthur C. Clarke's "If I Forget Thee, Oh Earth..."

Publication Date: First published in the September 1951 issue of Future.

Intro from Mrs. Warren:

"If I Forget Thee, Oh Earth…’" is one of my favorite shorts stories because it leaves the reader stunned by its message. The story is about the aftermath of doomsday and it fits in the genre of Science Fiction. The themes in the story exploit the anxieties prevalent at the time regarding nuclear warfare. Its hard to talk about the story without talking first about the author, Arthur C. Clark. Clark's life--his mind, inventions, predictions, and experiences, are as interesting as his stories. I hope you enjoy learning about Arthur C. Clark and this story.

Mrs. Warren

Learning Targets (These are our learning goals as we read about the story and the author):

• Students will examine the text's historical context and how it fits into the events of its time to understand what the author was thinking when he wrote the story.

• Students will learn how to identify literary elements in a text (with a focus on setting, character, sensory detail, and allusion).

• Students will cite strong and thorough textual evidence that supports inferences and analysis of the text.

• Students will determine the theme of a text.

• Students will analyze the development of the theme throughout a text, including how it is shaped by specific details/events.

• Students will learn new vocabulary.

About the Author

Clarke was born on December 16, 1917, in Minehead, Somersetshire, England. Like many children in his generation, Clarke first discovered science fiction through Amazing Stories, one of the popular science fiction pulp magazines—so-called because they were printed on cheap, wood-pulp paper. Clarke moved on to reading books by H. G. Wells, Olaf Stapledon, and other British science fiction writers, and he wrote stories for a school magazine as a teenager. In 1936, he could no longer afford his education and dropped out to work as a government auditor. At the same time, he became involved with the British Interplanetary Society, an association formed by fans of science fiction and space science. Here, Clarke met many science fiction editors and writers, who helped him start selling some of his short stories.

Though these early endeavors were interrupted with the coming of World War II, Clarke’s service during the conflict would present him with the opportunity to indulge his technological aptitude. From 1941 to the war’s end, he was a technician with the Royal Air Force and among the first to use radar information to guide aircraft landings in unfavorable weather conditions.

His wartime experiences would prove fundamental in two of Clarke’s earliest offerings as a writer. In 1945, Wireless World magazine published his article “Extra-Terrestrial Relays,” in which Clarke theorized on how a geostationary satellite system could be used to transmit radio and television signals around the world. This was just the first of many technological realities that Clarke would predict during his prolific career. The following year saw his science-fiction work published for the first time when his short story “Rescue Party” graced the pages of Astounding Science Fiction.

Returning from the war, Clarke was at last allowed to pursue his higher education after receiving a fellowship to attend King’s College in London. During this time, he also reconnected with the British Interplanetary Society (which he would chair for several years) and continued in his literary endeavors. He graduated in 1948 with honors in math and physics and, straddling the line between scientist and author, quickly set about making a name for himself.

Clarke’s writing won him esteem as a novelist and brought him prominence as a revolutionary thinker. He was frequently consulted by members of the scientific community, working with American scientists to help design spacecraft and assisting in the development of satellites for meteorological applications.

He wrote the novels Childhood’s End and 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was adapted into a film with Stanley Kubrick. Clarke authored nearly 100 books, and many of his ideas around science had links to future technological innovations. Clarke died on March 19, 2008, in Sri Lanka.

Resources

• Link to full text of the story (pdf file): http://pehs.psd202.org/documents/swhalum/1537296883.pdf

• Link to Arthur C. Clark biography (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HGNMu3ii8E&t=10s

• Link to Clark's Space Elevator excerpt from Prophets of Science Fiction series (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xdr6zXXrTbg

NOTES

Historical Context

As we have learned this semester, historical context is the relevant information related to the time and place a text was written. Knowing when a book or other type of text was written, and how it fits into the events of its time, helps us understand what the author was thinking when he or she wrote the book/text. Writers are usually writing for a reason and sometimes that reason relates to what is happening in the author’s life or in the world when he or she is writing. Historical context refers to the moods, attitudes, and conditions that existed in a certain time.

The key historical context for "If I Forget Thee, Oh Earth…" is that Clark would have written the story soon after the atomic bomb because a park of our world. The story reflects the anxiety of this new technological threat, and the anxiety of to world powers developing an unstable relationship.

In August 1945, in an effort to end World War II quickly and decisively, the United States dropped atomic bombs, also known as A-bombs, on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The immediate explosive and long-term destructive forces were unlike anything that humanity had ever seen. These two events, which led to the rapid surrender of Japan and the end of World War II, also served to usher in the atomic age and the threat of further atomic war. During World War II, many countries had been working on their own atomic bombs. After the decimation at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, several countries rushed to complete these bombs. In 1946, the United States, the world’s top superpower, again set an example when it began a series of peacetime atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll in the western chain of the Marshall Islands, in the central Pacific Ocean. In 1949, the Soviet Union, the other major superpower at the time, tested its first atomic weapon, proving to the United States that it, too, had atomic capabilities. By this point, the Soviet Union and the United States, which were allies at the end of World War II, had already been on unstable terms for several years.

Allusion

Definition: Allusion is a brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing or idea of historical, cultural, literary or political significance. It does not describe in detail the person or thing to which it refers. It is just a passing comment and the writer expects the reader to possess enough knowledge to spot the allusion and grasp its importance in a text.

The use allusions are not confined to literature alone. Their occurrence is fairly common in our daily speech. Look at some common allusion examples in everyday life:

• “Don’t act like a Romeo in front of her.” – “Romeo” is a reference to Shakespeare’s Romeo, a passionate lover of Juliet, in “Romeo and Juliet”.

• The rise in poverty will unlock the Pandora’s box of crimes. – This is an allusion to one of Greek Mythology’s origin myth, “Pandora’s box”.

• “This place is like a Garden of Eden.” – This is a biblical allusion to the “garden of God” in the Book of Genesis.

• “Hey! Guess who the new Newton of our school is?” – “Newton”, means a genius student, alludes to a famous scientist Isaac Newton.

Allusions in "If I Forget Thee, Oh Earth…"

There are two allusions in this story that are used by Clark for different purposes. The first allusion is in the story's title. The title is "If I Forget Thee, Oh Earth…" and it is an allusion to a bible psalm: the title is taken from Psalm 137—"If I forget thee, O Jerusalem"—which consists of the writer lamenting over the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonian army. In the psalm, the people of Jerusalem have been forced away from their homes by their captors. They are an exiled people like the Earth Colony on the Moon.

Clark alludes to this psalm in the title to connect his story to the feelings of exile in the much older text—Psalm 137—"If I forget thee, O Jerusalem". And like the religious teachings that have been extended down through the generations, Martin too will bring his own children on this journey as will their children, to teach them about exile. Again, we are shown the tension of isolation.

The other important allusion is to “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” a nursery rhyme.

When young Martin looks into the lunar sky and sees “unscintillating points,” he remembers a rhyme from one of his father’s books:

Twinkle, Twinkle, little star,

How I wonder what you are.

Well, he knew what the stars were. Whoever asked that question must have been very stupid. And what did they mean by “twinkle”? You could see at a glance that all the stars shone with the same steady, unwavering light.

This short passage is filled with information about growing up on the moon. Clark adds the allusion (or reference) to this nursery rhyme to help us experience life from Marvin's perspective, and to feel the loss he is experiencing by living on the surface of the moon. Marvin's naivety about the simplicity of a nursery rhyme written for children shows the disconnect between a romantic past (on Earth) and a harsh future (at the Moon colony).

Secondly, this allusion (or reference), helps the reader to visualize the starry non-twinkling sky from the lunar surface as opposed to view of the stars through the atmospheric contamination we are limited to today here on Earth. For someone never having experienced the vision from the ground, twinkling stars would sound ridiculous.

Showing and not just Telling Details (Sensory Details)

Another important element many writers overlook is the use of our senses (sight, smell, touch, taste, hear). These are important measuring sticks we can easily relate and compare to, helping the reader experience the story better. At one point, Martin mentions the smells of life “everywhere” within the colonial dome, but in the cabin of the lunar vehicle, Martin touches on some other senses.

The only sound was the faint whisper of the oxygen feed and an occasional metallic crepitation as the walls of the vehicle radiated away their heat.

Here, the reader can imagine the near silence, the life support system keeping them alive and the harsh reality of what lies just inches away in the vacuum of space outside the vehicle. This is a recurring feeling of isolation Clarke successfully instills throughout the story.

The title ‘If I Forget Thee, Oh Earth…’ is a direct biblical reference to “if I forget thee, O Jerusalem” and the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem. And like the religious teachings that have been extended down through the generations, Martin too will bring his own children on this journey as will their children, to teach them about exile. Again, we are shown the tension of isolation.

Learning Activity

1. (a) Based on the story's opening, what did you think Marvin and his father were going to do or experience?

(b) How did your initial prediction or assumption differ than what actually happened?

2. How would you characterize Marvin? What about his father? Explain your reasoning.

3. How did the Earth come to be destroyed? Introduce, cite, and explain at least one piece of textual evidence to support your answer.

4. What are the major themes in the story?

5. What is the author's purpose in writing the story?

6. How does Clark’s choice to create the allusion to “Twinkle, Twinkle” support the story?

7. How does Clarke use the senses to help the reader experience the story?

8. How does analyzing the allusion in the title add to your understanding of the story's theme?

9. How does the story's context of when the text is published (1951) strengthen predictions and analysis.

Vocabulary *These words are available to study at Mrs. Warren's "If I Forget Thee Oh Earth..." Vocabulary.com list.

1. exile: the act of expelling a person from their native land

2. heritage: that which is inherited

3. pilgrimage: a journey to a sacred place

4. funeral pyre: wood heaped for burning a dead body as a funeral rite

5. anguish: extreme distress of body or mind

6. perennial: lasting an indefinitely long time

7. Armageddon: (New Testament) the scene of the final battle between the kings of the Earth at the end of the world

8. phosphorescence: a fluorescence that persists after radiation has ceased

9. colony: a group of organisms of the same type living together

SPACEGUARD

From Chapter #1

Rendezvous with Rama

A novel by Arthur C. Clarke

Sooner or later, it was bound to happen. On June 30, 1908, Moscow escaped destruction by three hours and four thousand kilometers—a margin invisibly small by the standards of the universe. On February 12, 1947, another Russian city had a still narrower escape, when the second great meteorite of the twentieth century detonated less than four hundred kilometers from Vladivostok, with an explosion rivaling that of the newly invented uranium bomb.

In those days there was nothing that men could do to protect themselves against the last random shots in the cosmic bombardment that had once scarred the face of the Moon. The meteorites of 1908 and 1947 had struck uninhabited wilderness; but by the end of the twenty-first century there was no region left on Earth that could be safely used for celestial target practice. The human race had spread from pole to pole. And so, inevitably . . .

At 0946 GMT on the morning of September 11 in the exceptionally beautiful summer of the year 2077, most of the inhabitants of Europe saw a dazzling fireball appear in the eastern sky. Within seconds it was brighter than the Sun, and as it moved across the heavens—at first in utter silence—it left behind it a churning column of dust and smoke.

Somewhere above Austria it began to disintegrate, producing a series of concussions so violent that more than a million people had their hearing permanently damaged. They were the lucky ones.

Moving at fifty kilometers a second, a thousand tons of rock and metal impacted on the plains of northern Italy, destroying in a few flaming moments the labor of centuries. The cities of Padua and Verona were wiped from the face of the Earth; and the last glories of Venice sank forever beneath the sea as the waters of the Adriatic came thundering landward after the hammer blow from space.

Six hundred thousand people died, and the total damage was more than a trillion dollars. But the loss to art, to history, to science—to the whole human race, for the rest of time—was beyond all computation. It was as if a great war had been fought and lost in a single morning; and few could draw much pleasure from the fact that, as the dust of destruction slowly settled, for months the whole world witnessed the most splendid dawns and sunsets since Krakatoa.

After the initial shock, mankind reacted with a determination and a unity that no earlier age could have shown. Such a disaster, it was realized, might not occur again for a thousand years—but it might occur tomorrow. And the next time, the consequences could be even worse.

Very well; there would be no next time.

A hundred years earlier, a much poorer world, with far feebler resources, had squandered its wealth attempting to destroy weapons launched, suicidally, by mankind against itself. The effort had never been successful, but the skills acquired then had not been forgotten. Now they could be used for a far nobler purpose, and on an infinitely vaster stage. No meteorite large enough to cause catastrophe would ever again be allowed to breach the defenses of Earth.

So began Project SPACEGUARD. Fifty years later—and in a way that none of its designers could ever have anticipated—it justified its existence.