"A Rose for Ecclesiastes" is a Science Fiction Novelette by Roger Zelazny, first published in The Magazine Of Fantasy And Science Fiction (November 1963 issue). It was nominated for the 1964 Hugo Award for Short Fiction.
The story takes place on Mars in the near future. In it, a linguist and poet named Gallinger is chosen by the reclusive Martians as the first human to learn about their society. The story follows his attempts to understand their alien culture,and explore the mystery of their past.
The story has been republished at least five times, in Venture Science Fiction (The UK issue of April 1964), Tenth Annual Edition The Years Best SF (1965), The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume One (1970), The Doors Of His Face The Lamps Of His Mouth And Other Stories (1973), and Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 25 (1963) (1992).
"A Rose For Ecclesiastes" contains examples of:
- Apologetic Attacker: Gallinger has to fight his way into the temple. The guard explains that he must do his duty, even though he does not at all want to.
- Choreography Porn: Literary example. Braxa knows the sacred dances of their race...all 234 of them.
- Dress Hits Floor: Gallinger, having been woken up late at night to recite Braxa the poem he wrote for her, suggests they go back (separately) to bed. This trope happens instead.
- Driven to Suicide: Gallinger attempts suicide when he finds Braxa never loved him.
- Dying Race: The Martians are sterile as a result of past nuclear/biological warfare. They have decided to accept this fact philosophically. It turns out that only the men are sterile....
- Fiery Redhead: Gallinger describes himself as looking like a poplar in autumn: tall, skinny, and red on top. He also is an Insufferable Genius and has more issues than you can shake a stick at.
- Genius Bruiser: Gallinger is a genius linguist and writer who has also studied martial arts and can hold his own in a fight.
- The Ingenue: Braxa comes across as an innocent... She's actually a Femme Fatale, who was assigned to seduce Gallinger in accordance with prophecy.
- Insufferable Genius: Gallinger, who certainly knows he's a genius, and is pretty insufferable to most other people.
- Kirk Summation: Gallinger gives one to the Martians to convince them that living and associating with humans isn't
- Lady in Red: When Gallinger first meets Braxa, she's dressed in a red robe. She also has red hair.
- Literary Allusion Title: Alluding to the Book of Ecclesiastes.
- Mars Needs Women: Treated quite soberly and gender-flipped. All male Martians and most females have become sterile, long before humans visit their world. Unusual in that the female who has an affair with a human linguist didn't realize he could impregnate her, and because her lover then has to talk the other Martians out of their prior resignation to extinction. How often does Mars have to be convinced it needs women/men? She knew/believed she would get pregnant and thus save their species, based on prophecy. She just hoped it wasn't true because she didn't love him back.
- Maligned Mixed Marriage: The Survey commander had one. His wife died when he was deployed, and he never found out what happened to his children, which is why he is willing to go to the bat for Gallinger.
- No Full Name Given: Gallinger's first name is never mentioned.
- Only You Can Repopulate My Race: Gallinger fell in love with a woman of the dying Martian race; he doesn't learn until afterwards that the whole thing was this trope and that the woman was not happy about having to sleep with him (each of them fulfilled a described role in a Martian prophecy about the only way to save their race, even her not being in love with him was part of it).
- Planetary Romance: Features a Mars of the "dead cities and dust-choked canals" type.
- Screw Destiny: The protagonist is studying the dying Martian culture, which is in slow decline since a mysterious catastrophe has rendered the population sterile. The Martians, following the predictions of an ancient prophet, believe this to be inevitable and make no effort to stop it. When the protagonist discovers that his local lover, whom he impregnated (proving that the sterility problem can be fixed), is about to terminate because of this, he bursts into the main temple and carries a blasphemous sermon, claiming that the greatness of humankind stems from our ability to ignore our own prophets of doom and carry on anyway. It works, but is still subverted: he was actually fulfilling another prophecy about a man from space who will save Mars.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy:...Gallinger explicitly notes that he has issues as a result of his upbringing with a tyrannical father. He takes them out on male authority figures in general.
