Hello.

There is the word "after-days" in the opening part of the short Story "Thge Primal City" by C.A.Smith. What exactly does it mean? Old age?

"In these after-days, when all things are touched with insoluble doubt, I am not sure of the purpose that had taken us into that little-visited land, I recall, however, that we had found explicit mention, in a volume of which we possessed the one existing copy, of certain vast primordial ruins lying amid the bare plateaus and stark pinnacles of the region."

I've read this story a few times, each time with great appreciation, but I realize now that I never deeply considered what the "after-days" are. I assumed they referred to our modern age, coming long after the days of the story's primordial giants. A quick search on Google shows that "afterdays" can refer to a later period or future time.

kojootti Wrote:
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> "In these after-days, when all things are touched
> with insoluble doubt, I am not sure of the purpose
> that had taken us into that little-visited land, I
> recall, however, that we had found explicit
> mention, in a volume of which we possessed the one
> existing copy, of certain vast primordial ruins
> lying amid the bare plateaus and stark pinnacles
> of the region."
>
> I've read this story a few times, each time with
> great appreciation, but I realize now that I never
> deeply considered what the "after-days" are. I
> assumed they referred to our modern age, coming
> long after the days of the story's primordial
> giants. A quick search on Google shows that
> "afterdays" can refer to a later period or future
> time.

The grammatical construction leads one to reject that it had happened in the past.

"In these after-days, when all things are touched with insoluble doubt,..."

would likely be were, if Smith wanted to indicate it was in the past.

Too, "these afterdays" (the present) as opposed to "those afterdays" (the past).

Given this interpretation, I'd say it's a sort of whimsical observation that formerly, in times of a belief in a divinity, there was less doubt, but since the death of God (or the divine), there's doubt in everything that had been certain before.

Kinda disquieting, huh?

My opinion, only.

--Sawfish

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"The food at the new restaurant is awful, but at least the portions are large."
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Thank you for answering.