Beautyland

Publication(s)

First publication
- Saving Worlds, 1973
Wolfe collection(s)
- Gene Wolfe’s Book of Days (1981)
- Castle of Days (1992)

No-one will pay to preserve a pristine nature park, but many will pay to destroy it.

Public sentiment clearly changed between the time of Beautyland's destruction and the time the story takes place. There seems to be an ongoing multigenerational effort to restore the environment. Wolfe seems to be implying that humanity does not appreciate what it has until it has been lost.
The name Dives is Latin for "rich man," and it is used in the Vulgate Bible as the name of the rich man who went to Hell in the parable of "The Rich Man and Lazarus." The Dives of this story lives in a hell-on-earth, because of the pollution as well as being universally hated.

Does the narrator end up murdering Dives for his money at the end of the story or does he just end up milking off of him indefinitely?