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Textbook The Disciples of Apollo Brown Eric Ebook All Chapter PDF
Textbook The Disciples of Apollo Brown Eric Ebook All Chapter PDF
Textbook The Disciples of Apollo Brown Eric Ebook All Chapter PDF
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The Disciples of Apollo
a short story by Eric Brown
Foreword
I wrote the following story in two sittings on the 1st of
October 1987, something of an achievement as until then I'd
always taken at least three or four days to complete a story,
no matter how short. "The Disciples of Apollo" was one of
those rare gifts that come to a writer all too infrequently, the
story that writes itself. I'd had the central idea - the element
that makes the story science fictional or fantastical - for a
year or so, and as is always the case needed the solid bedrock
of human interest on which to found the story. The character
of Maitland (Levine in the original draft) came from somewhere
within me, as do most of my characters. I wanted to write a
story about someone who realises, too late, that his life to
date has been a waste, an emotional blank, and I also wanted
to write a story of redemption. Maitland's predicament seems
hopeless - his past is a source of regret, his future
non-existent: it is an irony of the situation that his salvation,
his love for Caroline, allows him the bittersweet realisation that
he might never have achieved fulfillment without being
terminally ill.
The first draft did not contain the section beginning, 'Between
the time of diagnosis...' through to the break. I finished the
draft and filed it away, dissatisfied. I liked the story, was
happy with its style and resolution, but felt that something
was missing. Perhaps six months later I found myself writing a
passage of text in a notebook from the point of view of
someone suffering a terminal illness. Only days later did I
realise that this passage was the section missing from "The
Disciples of Apollo". I inserted the long paragraph and the story
came to life. Maitland became more sympathetic and
believable.
I sat on the story for a while. It was like nothing I had written
before, and as it was not overtly science fiction, or really
horror, or fantasy, I was unsure as to where I might submit it.
Then Other Edens III, edited by Christopher Evans and Robert
Holdstock, opened for submissions, and I realised that
"Disciples..." was an Other Edens tale. Fortunately, so did the
editors. "The Disciples of Apollo" was published in Other Edens
III, Unwin Hyman, 1989, and reprinted in my collection, Blue
Shifting, Pan Books, 1995.
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The success in blending courage with courtesy, bravery with
politeness, which this way of disciplining the youth of the country
may attain, and actually has attained in Japan, is a complete
refutation of the silly notion—so common, alas! in Anglo-Saxon and
Christian lands, that haughtiness in “superiors” and insolence in
“inferiors,” together with the readiness to fight one’s fellows with fists,
swords, or pistols, is a necessary part of a soldier’s preparation for
the most successful resistance to the enemies of one’s country. It is
difficult to conceive of more impressive lessons regarding the effects
produced by different systems of education upon different racial
characteristics than that afforded by the following two incidents. For
some weeks in the Autumn of 1899 I occupied a house in Tokyo,
from the rooms of which nearly everything going on in one of the
large public schools of the city could be either overheard or
overlooked. But not once did a harsh word or a loud cry reach our
ears, or a rude and impolite action our eyes. But during a residence
of a fortnight in similar proximity to one of the best Christian colleges
of India, there was scarcely an hour of the school day when some
seemingly serious uproar was not in evidence in the room beneath
our window. And it was not an uncommon thing to observe both pupil
and teacher standing on their feet and vociferously “sassing” each
other,—with one or more of the other pupils occasionally chiming in.
More suggestive of vital differences, however, is another experience
of mine. Toward the close of the Russo-Japanese war a Japanese
pupil, a Buddhist priest, who had fought in the Chino-Japanese war
and had been decorated for his bravery, had been called out into the
“reserves.” A letter received from him while his regiment was still
waiting to be ordered to the front, after telling how he had left the
school for “temple-boys,” which he had founded on his return from
his studies in this country, and of which he was the Dean, added
these pregnant words: “Pray for us, that we may have success and
victory.” Now it so happened that almost the same mail which
brought this letter, carried to another member of my family a letter
from a Christian Hindū, who had come to this country for theological
study. In this letter, too, there was an appeal to our pious sympathy;
but it took the following form: “Pray for me, that I may be able to bear
the cold.” Surely, Great Britain need not fear an uprising of the
“intellectuals” in India, so long as its babus are educated in such
manner as to foster so unenduring character, however gifted in
philosophical speculation and eloquence of speech.
The system of education now established in Japan, both in its
Universities and in its public schools, has still many weaknesses and
deficiencies, and some glaring faults. Nor are Japanese boys,
especially when they have grown older and become more wise in
their own eyes, always agreeable to their teachers, or easy to
manage and to instruct. But of all this we may perhaps conclude to
speak at another time. This at any rate is certain: There are few
memories in the life-time of at least one American teacher, which he
more gladly recalls, and more delights to cherish, than those which
signalise his many meetings with the school children of Japan: and
among them all, not the least pleasant is that of the three hundred
boys of Kameoka, standing in a row upon the banks of the Katsura-
gawa and shouting their “banzais” to the departing boat.
And, indeed, having already described with sufficient fulness how
one runs the rapids, admires the banks, perhaps visits a shrine or a
tea-house on the way, and arrives in safety to find refreshment and
rest at Arashi-yama, there is nothing more worth saying to be said on
the subject.
CHAPTER III
CLIMBING ASAMA-YAMA