"Noble slogans were cheap, and the finest causes could go awry. Even the dictatorship had started as a movement to restore to a beaten United States her sovereignty and her pride. Then somehow one emergency after another cropped up, and those who grumbled began to have problems with the cops...."
-Poul Anderson, Three Worlds To Conquer (London, 1966), Chapter 1, p. 9.
This passage accords thematically with the conclusion of the story, "For the Duration" (see here), although I would have to reread that story to check its other details.
6 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Some things I remember about "For The Duration" is that the original dictator in that story was personally modest and unassuming, and prefer to rule "behind the curtain" thru the older forms of gov't in the US. And that he died bravely.
Sean
Kaor, Paul!
I read "Sam Hall" before reading THREE WORLDS TO CONQUER, which is clearly in the same history. However, I don't think that "For the Duration" is in the same history; for example, in "Duration," the dictator, Hare, had rebuilt the United States after World War Three, but had apparently not liberated it from Soviet domination, which is the backstory of "Sam Hall." Also, the rebellions we see in the two stories are not at all the same.
Best Regards,
Nicholas D. Rosen
Nicholas,
Thanks. Sometimes phrases resonate even between stories in different timelines.
Paul.
Kaor, Nicholas!
Apologies, I think you are wrong. The US of "For The Duration" was not a puppet dominated by the USSR. Rather, it was bristlingly independent. I think you had "The Pugilist" in mind, which DOES show a US which had fallen under Soviet domination (and "The High Ones" shows the entire world as under the Soviet thumb).
Btw, Poul Anderson republished the entire, unmutilated text of "Sam Hall" in GOING FOR INFINITY. Earlier publications of the story had been mangled by editors for one reason or another.
Sean
Kaor, Sean!
Apologies, but I'm afraid I wrote in a way subject to misinterpretation. I didn't mean that the U.S. was under Soviet domination in "For the Duration," but that Hare had not freed it from Soviet domination, because, although bloodied in a major war, the United States had not been conquered or made into a satellite.
I'll try to write more carefully.
Best Regards,
Nicholas D. Rosen
Kaor, Nicholas!
I'm sorry, and the problem might be me, not you, but I'm still puzzled. You said "...that Hare not freed it [the US] from Soviet domination, because, although bloodied in a major war, the United States had not been conquered or made into a satellite." I still thought this meant as tho it was being said Hare HAD freed the US from Soviet rule before you also said the US had NOT been conquered.
Sean
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