The Universal Net, As the Arolat Flies

Nets appear in Delany’s novel as an important symbol that we need to interpret as representing many things, including the diverse, all encompassing universe. The nets themselves are most visible on the Draco world of Vorpis, where fisherman hunt alien beast with these nets. In fact, Captain Von Ray is the victim of an attack from Ruby Red.

The net of the universe is a large system which connects all peoples, cultures, past, present and future: Katin muses “A great net, spreading among the stars, through time.” The world that Delany has created is a an extremely vast one, and a constant theme that appears is the shared experience of history that connects everyone. For instance, the assassination of Morgan by Underwood (or according to the Mouse, Underwood by Morgan). Due to the natures of psychoramas as medias where the audience actually experiences with all of their senses and emotions. “five-billion-odd were subjected to all the emotions of a man, about to be sworn in for his second term s Secretary of the Pleiades, suddenly attacked by a madman and killed.” Again, perhaps this points out the dangers of this interconnectedness, the five billion-odd people got caught up in the emotional stress of a dying politician, justt as Von Ray is caught in Ruby’s net.

The current intellectuals of Lorq Von Ray’s time believed that “we live in an age where economic, political, and technological change have shattered all cultural tradition.” They believed that this enormous net that connected all people of the universe was a detriment, “totally hollow”. But, Katin sees this huge net that connects all people, and mixes them together as a good thing. In The Mouse, he sees a representation of the universal net as a very good thing. Through his syrynx the Mouse takes many images of many societies and makes them his own, into something new and wonderful. A triumph of universal diversity.

In fact, the triumph of diversity seems to be one of the tenants of the universal net. Just as in Octavia Butler’s novels that show a multi-racial group, and the necessity of diversity to survival, Delany’s novel gives a multi-cultural crew, who together triumph against Ruby and Prince Red.


Michael Randolph