58 pages • 1 hour read
Arthur C. ClarkeThe Nine Billion Names of God
Fiction | Short Story Collection | Adult | Published in 1967A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Stories 19-21Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Story 19 Summary: “The Reluctant Orchid”
Narrator Harry Purvis is well known in the White Hart pub as the teller of tall tales. This is one of his finest. Hercules Keating is a short, small man who never lived up to his name. He keeps almost entirely to himself, preferring the company of his beloved plants. His only relative is his gruff aunt Henrietta. She breeds large dogs, smokes cigars, and towers over him at six feet tall. Though he is polite and tolerates her affections and weekly visits, he cannot stand her. Eventually, he grows to hate her brash manner and patronizing attitude toward him. Some days he hates her so much he feels like murdering her.
One day, Hercules receives a strange orchid. At first, he is sure it is a dud. But after a month or so, it has grown and begins to behave strangely. Hercules goes to the library and rereads H. G. Wells’s story, “The Flowering of the Strange Orchid.” Hercules realizes that he has in his possession a carnivorous orchid. Once home, he tests his theory by attaching a piece of fresh meat to a broomstick. Sure enough, the plant extends its tendrils and snaps up the meat. Within 24 hours it has consumed the entire piece.
The following Sunday, Aunt Henrietta arrives for her customary tea. Her noisy arrival and bone-crushing handshake bother Hercules to no end. As he serves her tea, he wishes it were poisoned. Then he has a “most pleasing fantasy” (201). He will get his orchid to eat his aunt.
Hercules begins to test and train the orchid, preparing it for a meal of such magnitude. In the following weeks, he is even more doting toward his aunt. He scours the streets for a test victim such as a cat or dog, but he “was simply too kindhearted to put it into practice. Aunt Henrietta would have to be the first victim” (202). He starves the orchid for two weeks, then invites his aunt to see it. He tells her it is a surprise “that will tickle you to death” (202). She walks into the dark conservatory, and when she is within the range of danger Hercules turns on the light. The orchid at first doesn’t move. Then it screams and wraps its tentacles around itself as it assesses Aunt Henrietta: “It might be able to cope with the wildlife of the Amazon jungle, but coming suddenly upon Aunt Henrietta had completely broken its nerve” (203). Henrietta accuses Hercules of bullying the poor, frightened orchid. She explains that she is experienced with animals and he should have called her sooner. She goes on to stroke the plant until it is calm and reaches out its tendrils to stroke her as well. Hercules sees that he has only made his situation worse. Henrietta forms a bond with the orchid and begins to visit two to three times a week. Hercules sinks “into a kind of vegetable sloth: indeed…every day he becomes more and more like an orchid himself. The harmless variety, of course” (205).
Story 20 Summary: “Encounter at Dawn”
Three scientists from the Galactic Survey approach a new planet in their spaceship. They are on a mission to discover as much about the universe as possible, yet the narrator repeatedly implies that their mission is futile as their civilization is coming to an end. They find a planet that looks familiar and safe, with signs of vegetation. Once the scientists land, they determine that the atmosphere is safe for them to exit the ship.
They begin to explore in their suits, looking for signs of life. They first spot a bird, then are startled by an attack from a “large quadruped with a most ferocious set of teeth” (208). Inside the robotic suit, the scientist Clindar sounds an alarm that scares away the beast. Clindar comes to an opening where he is stunned to find a village of huts, full of human life and activity. Although they have already discovered one hundred planets with human life, it is still amazing to witness the scene. They hatch a plan to get to know one of the villagers. They will hide a robot with Clindar inside, and Bertrond will wait on a path for a villager. Clindar will be ready with a weapon in case the villager is not friendly toward Bertrond.
After seven days, Bertrond sets himself up on a path with an offering of fresh meat. A villager named Yaan is surprised to find Bertrond sitting on a chair in the middle of the path, but he accepts the gift of meat and returns to his village. He returns day after day, collecting his reward. Yaan and Bertrond attempt to communicate with each other. The robot records everything for later study and analysis. Once Bertrond is sure that Yaan is comfortable, he introduces him to the robot. This is the first time Yaan shows fear or hesitates. Eventually, he comes to accept the robot.
When it is time for Bertrond and Clindar to leave, the men gather at the edge of the river. Bertrond speaks to Yaan about the end of civilization and apologizes for not being able to stay longer and bring them out of “barbarism” (214). Bertrond leaves Yaan with tools like a knife and flashlight. He wonders how long it will be before Yaan’s people evolve and what will have happened to Bertrond’s world by that point. He wishes he could warn Yaan “against the mistakes we made, and which now will cost us all that we have won” (215). Bertrond sadly boards his spaceship and bids farewell to Yaan. Yaan feels sadness at Bertrond’s departure, believing him to be a god. He walks home to his village, “through the fertile plains on which, more than a thousand centuries ahead, Yaan’s descendants would build the great city they were to call Babylon” (216).
Story 21 Summary: “If I Forget Thee, Oh Earth”
Ten-year-old Marvin lives in a colony on a planet far from Earth. He is part of a small group of people that survived the end of life on Earth. He has never been outside of his atmospherically protected shelter until today. His father takes him outside for the first time, riding in a type of dune buggy across rocky and rugged terrain. They drive for hours, and Marvin surveys the terrain with fascination. Finally, they stop the vehicle and gaze out at the crescent of Earth. Marvin can see the pearly white ice caps and blue oceans. Earth looks beautiful and peaceful to him. Then he notices that a portion of Earth is “gleaming faintly with an evil phosphorescence…he was looking upon […] the radioactive aftermath of Armageddon” (219).
Marvin’s father tells him the story of the end of Earth. The people in their colony watched and listened as their home was destroyed. No more supply ships from Earth would come. They were left alone to survive and to keep the human race alive. It would take centuries for the poison to sink into the seas and dissipate. Only then could human life attempt a return to Earth. Marvin understands that his father brought him here to view Earth in order to share the story. Marvin will one day do the same for his own son, and on through the generations until finally they can go home. As he and his father return to “their long exile” (220) he can’t bear to look back at the Earth he will never know.
Stories 19-21 Analysis
“Reluctant Orchid” pays homage to another famous short story, “The Flowering of the Strange Orchid” by H. G. Wells. Clarke’s version employs a frame story: a tale within a tale, narrated by Harry Purvis. Purvis is a known liar and fabricates elaborate tall tales, so he qualifies as an unreliable narrator. Thus, the story of Hercules attempting to kill his aunt with a carnivorous orchid can be read as humorous rather than horrific. As Hercules becomes more familiar with his killer plant, he compares himself to Doctor Frankenstein. This is an allusion to Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, which is often credited as the first science fiction story. In the novel, Dr. Frankenstein creates a life-form that becomes monstrous and destructive under his care. However, he shows love and kindness when shown the same, just as the orchid becomes tame and kind under the aunt’s care. In the end, Hercules becomes depressed and gives up his murderous plans, likening himself to a non-carnivorous orchid.
The title “Encounter at Dawn” is a play on the phrase “the dawn of time.” In this story Clarke imagines a group of human explorers from the future who find another human civilization on a planet very similar to Earth, at the dawn of their time. In his conception, the newly discovered planet is at the same stage as Earth during the earliest stages of civilization. This story posits that there may be many planets like Earth, with groups of humans similarly developing and evolving: “As she must do often in eternity, Nature had repeated one of her basic patterns” (214). The protagonist, Bertrond, sees Yaan and his planet as an unblemished version of his own civilization. He wants to explain to Yaan what will happen as his people evolve, but they do not share a language to have this conversation. Bertrond reveals that his own home is going to be destroyed, as are so many other planets which humans have inhabited.
The science fiction genre often serves to help readers question their sense of reality and explore alternate possibilities. This story asks readers to look critically at humanity’s conception of its planet as the only one capable of supporting human life. Similarly, the story plays with the idea of time. Rather than marching on in a linear fashion, here time begins anew again and again, with human life evolving at different paces across the universe. The story ends with a reference to Babylon, suggesting that Yaan was one of the earliest ancestors of Earth’s human race. This would mean that Earth is home to one of the youngest civilizations, again playing with the idea that Earthlings are the only humans in the galaxy.
“If I Forget Thee, Oh Earth” is an apocalyptic tale set in a future when Earth has become uninhabitable due to radiation, presumably from nuclear warfare. A small group of humans who were already living in a Colony on another planet are the only survivors, left alone to keep the human race alive until Earth is safe to return to. The protagonist, a ten-year-old boy, journeys to the edge of their desert-like planet to get a look at Earth, which is “gleaming faintly with an evil phosphorescence” (219). It is only when he sees Earth, still beautiful in some parts but burning with “the radioactive aftermath of Armageddon” (219), that he realizes he will never return to his home planet. It will “be centuries yet before the deadly glow died from the rocks and life could return again to fill that silent, empty world” (219). Therefore, the humans left in the colony are sentenced to live in exile, having children for generations just so that someday they can return to Earth. The title of the story is a biblical allusion to Psalm 137, which begins “If I forget thee, oh Jerusalem” and discusses the Jewish people’s longing to return home during their exile. The story describes the colony as a “long exile” (220). Similarly, the title invokes the poetic style of an elegy, which laments the personified Earth and captures the feeling of loss.
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By Arthur C. Clarke
