Some Desperate Glory

Water has several different symbolic meanings. As an artificially scarce resource, it serves as a way of controlling people on Gaea Station. In Part 1, Kyr punishes a younger girl for spilling water and playing in it, a scene that symbolizes Kyr’s indoctrination and her inability to value pleasure or play.

On Chrysothemis, there is an excess of water. Kyr is shocked at the sight of “[s]o much water […] The mist br[eaks] over the sea, and the sunlight sh[ines] boldly down on the water, glittering in the foam caps where small waves toss[]” (120). It represents the freedom and abundance that exist outside Gaea’s tightly controlled, authoritarian world.

On Hymmer Station, water is less strictly controlled, and Val is able to get an apartment with a “waterfall shower (so much water, and on a space station)” (270). As a successful lieutenant in the Terran Expeditionary forces, she can indulge in the luxury of water, showing how luxuries can be used to elicit complicity with authoritarian regimes.

Water is one example of luxuries in the novel. Gaea teaches people that a reasonable amount of water is a luxury to control them. Another luxury is fabrics. When Gaea takes over Yiso’s ship, the Gaeans use Yiso’s “luxury fabrics” to mend uniforms (28).