Wednesday 14 January 2015

Fashions II

See here.

"They had both stopped space roving when their Juanita was born, because it meant indefinite absences from Earth. An older, more hedonistic, less settled generation than Coya's had bred enough neurotics that she felt, and made her husband feel, children needed and deserved a solid home. And now she had another on the way."
-Poul Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (New York, 2011), p. 34.

(The next installment of the Technic History is a short story about that second child's son.)

Is that older, more hedonistic, generation the one before Coya's or the one before that? Does Coya reflect that too many of her contemporaries are neurotics or that too many of her parents' generation were? Either way, we see social change in the Technic History.

Coya prays:

"Please, God of my grandfather Whom I don't believe in..."
-Poul Anderson, David Falkayn: Star Trader (New York, 2010), p. 666.

-or is it a prayer if there is no belief? I would say so. I suggest that at least some deities would heed even agnostic invocations. I say, "To Whom it may concern, to whatever gods may be..." although I cannot practice the prayer of the monotheist faiths.

In recent history, we have been used to children or grandchildren not accepting the beliefs of their elders and Coya's remark sounds like more of the same but remember that she is living in the twenty fifth century. Many fashions will have come and gone. She and her grandfather differ on this question but that does not tell us anything about their respective generations as such. However, we do feel that we get a good sense of changing social mores in that future century.

4 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Hi, Paul!

Your comments here about Coya Conyon and agnosticism reminded me yet again of my doubts about how CONVINCED an agnostic Poul Anderson was. Coya's prayer to a God she did not believe existed and Anderson's poem "Prayer in War" are among the frequent texts in his works which makes me think Anderson at least WISHED he believed in God.

Just as telling, perhaps, is the respect Anderson had for honest believers in God, esp. Jews and Christians. In fact, some of his novels are very CATHOLIC, examples being THE HIGH CRUSADE and THREE HEARTS AND THREE LIONS. And the Technic History series includes stories where Anderson treated Christianity seriously, such as "The Problem of Pain," "The Season of Forgiveness," and THE GAME OF EMPIRE. And Commander Max Abrams, a major character in ENSIGN FLANDRY, is a devout Jew.

And this remains true of PA's later works as well. Examples being GENESIS and FOR LOVE AND GLORY Yes, I have to conclude Poul Anderson was one of those SF writers who treated religious believers and theologically grounded beliefs seriously.

One of the many weaknesses of Isaac Asimov's Foundation books was his inability to take religion seriously or to work out a "futuristic" faith with ideas and beliefs worthy of being treated with respect. The so called "religion of science" cooked up by Mayor Salvor Hardin is too ridiculous, and created out of contempt for the intelligence of religious believers, to take seriously.

Sean

Jim Baerg said...

I was raised without religion.
My father was raised in a Mennonite community but never joined the church.
My mother was raised in the United Church of Canada, but gradually drifted away from belief.
The closest I have come to praying is saying to an empty room, "OK God if you want me to believe in you, you can show up any time."

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Jim!

And I hope you can, some day, come to belief in God.

Ad astra! Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

If Jim, or anyone, remains open to new experiences and new evidence, then the rest is up to God.