153:. At the age of ten he is taken outside the complex by his father, driving across the Moon's surface to see a glimpse of the Earth, glowing with lethal radiation. Marvin knows that the planet was made uninhabitable in a nuclear war. His father tells him that the colony is the last vestige of mankind, but that without a goal to strive for it too will die. The ultimate purpose of the human survivors has become to one day reclaim a cleansed Earth, using the ships which stand waiting on the lunar plain. It has taken desperate efforts to save the colony and to maintain confidence that in a far distant future mankind's birthplace can be restored.
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128::5โ"If I forget thee, O Jerusalem"โwhich consists of the writer lamenting over the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonian army. The themes in the story exploit the anxieties prevalent at the time regarding
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Marvin returns with his father to resume their exile without looking back. However he realises that one day he will take his own children to view the dead Earth and give purpose to a further generation.
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reviewer Peter J. Henniker-Heaton wrote: "I do not know of any short story that has moved me more than Arthur C. Clarke's 'If I Forget Thee, Oh Earth'."
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