"What contribution does this first part of the story make to that explanation?"

"You mean . . . what contribution does it make to explaining how things came to be the way they are right now?"

"That's right."

"Offhand, I don't see how it makes any any contribution to it." contribution to it."

"Think. Would things have come to be this way if the world had been made for jellyfish?"

"No, they wouldn't."

"Obviously not. If the world had been made for jellyfish, things would be entirely different."

"That's right. But it wasn't made for jellyfish, it was made for man."

"And this partly explains how things came to be this way how things came to be this way."

"Right. It's sort of a sneaky way of blaming everything on the gods. If they'd made the world for jellyfish, then none of this would have happened."

"Exactly," Ishmael said. "You're beginning to get the idea."

8.

"Do you have a feeling now for where you might find the other parts of this story-the middle and the end?"

I gave this some thought. "I'd watch Nova Nova, I think."

"Why?"

"I'd say that if Nova Nova was doing the story of creation, the story I told today would be the outline. All I have to do now is figure out how they'd do the rest." was doing the story of creation, the story I told today would be the outline. All I have to do now is figure out how they'd do the rest."

"Then that's your next assignment. Tomorrow I want to hear the middle of the story."

FOUR.

1.

"Okay," I said. "I think I have the middle and the end of the story down pat."

Ishmael nodded and I started the tape recorder.

"What I did was start with the premise: The world was made for man. Then I asked myself how I would write the story as a treatment for Nova Nova. It came out like this: "The world was made for man, but it took him a long, long time to figure that out. For nearly three million years he lived as though the world had been made for jellyfish. That is, he lived as though he were just like any other creature, as though he were a lion or a wombat."

"What exactly does it mean to live like a lion or a wombat?"

"It means . . . to live at the mercy of the world. It means to live without having any control over your environment."

"I see. Go on."

"Okay. In this condition, man could not be truly man. He couldn't develop a truly human way of life-a way of life that was distinctively human. So, during the early part of his life-actually the greater part of his life-man just foozled along getting nowhere and doing nothing.

"As it happened, there was a key problem to be solved, and it was this that took me a long time to work out: what the problem was. Man could get nowhere living like a lion or a wombat, because if you're a lion or a wombat. . . . In order to accomplish anything, man had to settle down in one place where he could get to work, so to speak. I mean that it was impossible for him to get beyond a certain point living out in the open as a huntergatherer, always moving from place to place in search of food. To get beyond that point, he had to settle down, had to have a permanent base from which he could begin to master his environment.

"Okay. Why not? I mean, well, what was stopping him from doing that? What was stopping him was the fact that if he settled down in one place for more than a few weeks, he'd starve. As a huntergatherer, he would simply clean the place out-there would be nothing left to hunt and gather. In order to achieve settlement, man had to learn one fundamental manipulation. He had to learn how to manipulate his environment so that this foodexhaustion didn't occur. He had to manipulate it so that it produced more human food more human food. In other words, he had to become an agriculturalist.

"This was the turning point. The world had been made for man, but he was unable to take possession of it until this problem was cracked. And he finally cracked it about ten thousand years ago, back there in the Fertile Crescent. This was a very big moment-the biggest in human history up to this point. Man was at last free of all those restraints that. . . . The limitations of the huntinggathering life had kept man in check for three million years. With agriculture, those limitations vanished, and his rise was meteoric. Settlement gave rise to division of labor. Division of labor gave rise to technology. With the rise of technology came trade and commerce. With trade and commerce came mathematics and literacy and science, and all the rest. The whole thing was under way at last, and the rest, as they say, is history.

"And that's the middle of the story."

2.

"Very impressive," Ishmael said. "I'm sure you realize that the 'big moment' you've just described was in fact the birth of your culture."

"Yes."

"It should be pointed out, however, that the notion that agriculture spread across the world from a single point of origin is distinctly old hat. Nevertheless the Fertile Crescent remains the legendary legendary birthplace of agriculture, at least in the West, and this has a special importance that we'll look at later on." birthplace of agriculture, at least in the West, and this has a special importance that we'll look at later on."

"Okay."

"Yesterday's part of the story revealed the meaning of the world as it's understood among the Takers: The world is a human lifesupport system, a machine designed to produce and sustain human life."

"Right."

"Today's part of the story seems to be about the destiny of man. Obviously it was not man's destiny to live like a lion or a wombat."

"That's right."

"What is man's destiny then?"

"Hm," I said. "Well. Man's destiny is . . . to achieve, to accomplish great things."

"As it's known among the Takers, man's destiny is more specific than that."

"Well, I suppose you could say that his destiny is to build civilization."

"Think mythologically."

"I'm afraid I don't know how that's done."

"I'll demonstrate. Listen."

I listened.

3.

"As we saw yesterday, creation wasn't complete when jellyfish appeared or when amphibians appeared or when reptiles appeared or even when mammals appeared. According to your mythology, it was complete only when man appeared."

"Right."

"Why was the world and the universe incomplete without man? Why did the world and the universe need need man?" man?"

"I don't know."

"Well, think about it. Think about the world without man. Imagine Imagine the world without man." the world without man."

"Okay," I said, and closed my eyes. A couple minutes later I told him I was imagining the world without man.

"What's it like?"

"I don't know. It's just the world."

"Where are you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Where are you looking at it from?"

"Oh. From above. From outer space."

"What are you doing up there?"

"I don't know."

"Why aren't you down on the surface?"

"I don't know. Without man on it . . . I'm just a visitor, an alien."

"Well, go on down to the surface."

"Okay," I said, but after a minute I went on to say, "That's interesting. I'd rather not not go down there." go down there."

"Why? What's down there?"

I laughed. "The jungle jungle is down there." is down there."

"I see. You mean, 'Nature, red in tooth and claw . . . Dragons of the prime that tare each other in their slime.' "

"That's it."

"And what would happen if you did go down there?"

"I'd be one of the ones the dragons were tearing in their slime."

I opened my eyes in time to see Ishmael nodding. "And it is at this point that we begin to see where man fits into the divine scheme. The gods didn't mean to leave the world a jungle, did they?"

"You mean in our mythology? Certainly not."

"So: Without man, the world was unfinished, was just nature, red in tooth and claw. It was in chaos, in a state of primeval anarchy."

"That's right. That's it exactly."

"So it needed what?"

"It needed someone to come in and . . . straighten it out. Someone to put it in order."

"And what sort of person is it who straightens things out? What sort of person takes anarchy in hand and puts it in order?"

"Well . . . a ruler. A king."

"Of course. The world needed a ruler. It needed man."

"Yes."

"So now we have a clearer idea what this story is all about: The world was made for man, and man was made to rule it The world was made for man, and man was made to rule it."

"Yes. That's very obvious now. Everyone understands that."

"And this is what?"

"What?"