Knowing the grand old man as I did, I can say that he never intended his "blessing" should become the curse to mankind that it did. And the catastrophe it brought about was certainly beyond range of all prophecy.

Of course, anyone who lived in 1972 and tried to get inside Stegner's weird life-circle must agree that you can get too much of a good thing. Even a pumpkin can get too big -- and that's what happened when the Prof turned on his field -- things got big; and too darned healthy!

I mean, seriously! A twenty-foot goddess walked out of the jungle, and then everybody knew Stegner wasn't kidding.