Pytho

Read the most by: boys and girls

Pytho is a gifted boy child with special abilities which enable him to communicate with other species. He begins life with an interest in numbers but learns the inadequacies of their axioms and is moving towards an interest in words. His companions and associates are an elderly aunt, Clara, an intelligent well-read woman who has a somewhat didactic relationship with him; Simonides, a starling, who conveys information from and moves freely in the great airways of the world; and, finally, with Lucanus, a stag beetle, who acts persuasively with the insect orders. Their joint task is to work at maintaining balance and order among the components of the first evolutionary order - life as we know it in the world. Their story works by fable, image and symbol to enact an indictment of late 20th century life and to suggest a remedy for the disease. The author has tried symbolically to express the disquiet which many feel about the misuse of power, about greed and the exploitation of the natural environment. He also explores the more mystical side of human experience. The narrative may be seen as engaging in fantasy, but it is a fantasy clearly and interestingly rooted in changing and improving human relationships and significant trends emerging in the late twentieth century. The environmental system is seen to work by self-control, and the prime species of the system, Homo Sapiens, is seen to be losing his adequacy, in fact to be violating the major role which his intelligence has equipped him to perform. Pytho and his companions sense and measure this failure and take positive steps towards solving the problem.