Wristcoms And Brotherhood-Of-Beings

Ensign Flandry, CHAPTER TWO.

Abrams considers calling "...the guard on his wristcom..." (p. 20)

It has become standard blog practice to note any mention of a mobile phone or equivalent instrument but what are a wristcom's range and other limitations?

Earlier, Abrams had reflected that:

"In spite of what the brotherhood-of-beings sentimentalists kept bleating, Merseians did not really think in human style." (p. 18)

It should be possible to advocate attempted brotherhood towards all beings without denying the facts of differences between their thought-processes.

The viewpoint characters of the opening four chapters are, respectively:

ONE: Hauksberg, a human being with illusions in Merseians;

TWO: Abrams, a human being with no illusions;

THREE: Brechdan, a Merseian.

FOUR: Flandry, a human being, still learning.

The Kaddish

Ensign Flandry, CHAPTER TWO.

Abrams inwardly recites the Kaddish for young Flandry. (p. 18)

There are two previous blog references to this prayer. See:

The Bible In Time Of Crisis

Avalon And Starkad

Since my son-in-law, Ketlan, was of Jewish descent, we had the Kaddish at his funeral.

The Kaddish in Aramaic, transliteration and translation is here. 

Curiouser

Ensign Flandry, CHAPTER TWO.

When Runei comments that Abrams' chess move is curious, Abrams tells him that:

"'It'll get curiouser.'" (p. 18)

This is an Alice reference by Poul Anderson that I have not noted before despite having previously quoted James Blish's use of this same phrase from Alice. See here.

See also other blog references to Alice, here.

Natural Enemies

Ensign Flandry, CHAPTER TWO.

"Tigeries and Seatrolls had fought since they evolved to intelligence, probably. But that was like men and wolves in ancient days, nothing systematic, plain natural enemies." (p. 15)

That makes sense. If wolves had evolved to intelligence in parallel with proto-men, then the two species might have remained enemies despite both becoming intelligent.

However, I was brought up with a set of beliefs that would deny that any of this made sense. Would God create two intelligent species to be natural enemies? Surely both species would have been created without sin? And surely, therefore, one or both species would have had to "Fall," morally and spiritually, before they could become enemies?

It is easier just to accept evidence for natural, evolutionary processes without also imposing a set of theological presuppositions.

Lord Byron In SF

Ensign Flandry, CHAPTER TWO.

Lord Byron is a character in The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers. See Three Other Time Travel Novels.

Abrams refers to "'...his cohorts all gleaming in purple and gold...'" (p. 13)

This is a quotation from a poem by Lord Byron and thus is, indirectly, yet another Biblical reference by Poul Anderson:

The Destruction of Sennacherib

By Lord Byron (George Gordon)

 

The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,

And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;

And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,

When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.

   Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green,

That host with their banners at sunset were seen:

Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown,

That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.

 

 For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,

And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed;

And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,

And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!

   And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide,

But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride;

And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,

And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.

 And there lay the rider distorted and pale,

With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail:

And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,

The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.

   And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,

And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;

And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,

Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!

Twain, Wells And Anderson

See Series In NESFA.

Furthermore, of the eight non-series stories in the fifth NESFA collection, "The Nest" is in Past Times and indeed should be in an even more comprehensive collection of Poul Anderson's shorter works on time travel. Anderson replies to Twain and Wells.

Twain

Would a modern man be able to survive and thrive in an earlier period?

 

Yes in A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court and in "The Little Monster."

 

No in "The Man Who Came Early."

 

Wells

Would a time traveler arrive in a future dystopia involving cannibalism?

 

Yes in The Time Machine and "Welcome."

 

What would a time traveler find in the remote future?

 

Comprehensive answers in The Time Machine and "Flight to Forever." 

 

One further point about "The Nest": Norman bandits using the Time Rover are time travel equivalents of the barbarians with spaceships and nuclear weapons in Anderson's Technic History.

Subtlties Of POV

Ensign Flandry, CHAPTER TWO.

In the opening paragraph, "...Commander Max Abrams, Imperial Naval Intelligence Corps..." (p. 12) hears construction work in progress. Thus, he is the viewpoint character of this chapter as Mark Hauksberg was of the first.

However, in the second paragraph:

"The whole place stank. He didn't notice." (ibid.)

If Abrams did not notice that his office stank, then that datum was not part of his point of view. Here, the omniscient narrator, very unobtrusively, intervenes to give readers the bigger picture. Most readers do not notice that they have momentarily stepped outside of Abrams' pov before stepping back inside it again for the remainder of the current chapter.

Or maybe the point here is that Abrams does know that his office stinks but is too preoccupied to notice it right at this moment. Thus, the text remains inside his pov after all? Sometimes what seems to be an omniscient narrator turns out to be a very remote pov within the narrative, e.g., see here.

That Serious

Ensign Flandry, CHAPTER ONE.

"'Would you like to see Terra under attack? Could happen.'

"'Mark!' Abruptly she was changed. Her fingers, closing on his wrist beneath the cloth, felt cold. 'It can't be that serious?'

"'Nuclear,' he said." (pp. 7-8)

It is always that serious, not that nuclear war as such is always imminent although it remains possible as long as nuclear weapons exist but civilization, always fragile, is particularly vulnerable on several fronts at present. In any case, personal tragedy is perennially possible in even the most comfortable of lives, including those of:

 

"'Lord Markus Kauksberg, Viscount of Ny Kalmar, Second Minister of Extra-Imperial Affairs, and Lady Hauksberg!'" (p. 8)

All fiction, including space opera, is about life and death.

Series In NESFA

Series-wise, the fifth NESFA collection of Poul Anderson's short works contains:

Technic History (6 installments)

Time Patrol (2)

Berserkers (1)

Flying Mountains (1)

Operation Otherworld (1)

Hoka (1)

Psychotechnic History (1)

non-series (8)

 

Too much! So it would be only eight instead of twenty-one stories if all the installments of series were to be removed. I could make the same analysis of other NESFA volumes but am not going to! I think that I found that all three installments of The Star Fox were scattered among other volumes.

The cover illustrations are superb and should be preserved on later editions even if the contents are reorganized.

Three SF Scenarios

I had to read "The Fatal Fulfillment" to the end although it did not do a lot for me. Maybe there could be one volume of Poul Anderson's "difficult" stories?

A character in an sf story can explore a succession of future periods, alternative realities or virtual realities. The same kind of imaginative, extrapolative writing is involved in each of these three scenarios and the author can take his time about telling us what is really going down.

The virtual reality scenario is unique in assuming that the protagonist's body remains safe somewhere throughout the ostensible action. One way to terminate a virtual reality is to simulate death. If the protagonist then enters sensory deprivation with partial amnesia, he thinks that he is dead whereas sensory deprivation plus total amnesia would equal unconsciousness.

There are similarities between the last virtual reality in "The Fatal Fulfillment" and "The Last of the Deliverers" but the latter is set in a "real" future - but both are fictions. And human minds are very strange in their ability to handle all this stuff.

Brains And Thoughts

"It had never been shown that any particular encephalography pattern corresponded to any particular thought, and indeed the evidence was against it. Thought appeared to be the incredibly complex functioning of the entire cortical network."

-"The Fatal Fulfillment," p. 340.

That first sentence is plausible. Think of every thought that you have ever had, then consider the difficulty of correlating each of those thoughts with just one detectable pattern of electrical activity in the brain. Even if one such correlation were to be made, that particular thought would probably never be repeated. It is plausible that neuronic interactions within the entire brain generate each momentary thought. But there is still a problem.

A man thinks for an hour, then recounts his thoughts which can be about anything: his earliest memories, his current work schedule and daily routines, his plans for the weekend and for a holiday next year, his knowledge of various academic disciplines, his opinions about religion, politics, art and literature etc. Meanwhile, a scientist records the man's brain activities, then reports what he has recorded. They are talking about different things. Thoughts are not simply identical with brain functions. It seems that brain functions cause thoughts but causality is not identity.

"Deathwomb" And "Strangers"

Poul Anderson, "Deathwomb" IN Door To Anywhere, pp. 35-62.

For previous blog discussions of this story, see:

Deathwomb

Berserkers

Another Berserker

The 1980's

 

Poul Anderson, "Strangers" IN Door To Anywhere, pp. 437-452.

 

For previous blog discussions of this story, see:

 

Strangers

"Strangers"

 

"The Last Of The Deliverers"

Poul Anderson, "The Last of the Deliverers" IN Door To Anywhere, pp. 408-417.

I read this story once before in an anthology a long time ago. An author's note explained that the story shows one of our present conflicts as history because it will become history.

A future history is summarized:

"'Technology made it possible for a few people and acres to feed the whole country, till millions of acres were lying idle; you could buy them for peanuts.'" (p. 415)

A few people, yes, but a few acres?

"'Meanwhile the cities were overtaxed, underrepresented, and choked by their own traffic. Along came the cheap sunpower unit and the high-capacity accumulator. Those let a man supply most of his own wants, not work his heart out for someone else to pay the inflated prices demanded by an economy where every single business was subsidized or protected at the taxpayer's expense.'" (ibid.)

Living better on less work, people needed to earn so little that they paid nearly zero taxes, consumed little, thus causing a depression, and preferred to live in small country communities, despite rearguard action from both big business and trade unions. Individuals and families use town tractors as and when they need to and most grow garden vegetables. Land cannot be owned because it cannot be pocketed and carried around.

"'And when we do work, we'd rather work for ourselves, not for somebody else, whether you call the somebody else a capitalist or the people. Now let's go sit down and take it easy before lunch.'" (p. 414)

Each town has horses for local travel but also an airport with flitters. The United Townships Research Foundation sent a man to Mars. When the Brotherhood comes to power in the north and cuts down Trees without planting any, a newly formed alliance wages war against them.

The last Republican (US variety) and the last Communist, both very old, meet and fight to the death.

The Communist (before fighting and dying) says:

"'Marx proved that technological advances mean inevitable progress towards socialism...'" (p. 415)

Marx proved nothing of the sort. He clearly stated that society either progresses or regresses. If he had lived into the future history of this short story, then he would have studied the new evidence before theorizing further.

"The Fatal Fulfillment"

Poul Anderson, "The Fatal Fulfillment" IN Door To Anywhere, pp. 324-358.

I am having multiple problems with this story. First, the Publication History on p. 6 states that it was published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, May 1970, but it is not listed here in the contents of this issue.

Secondly, I am finding the narrative too surreal. The viewpoint character endures a sequence of simulated (?) scenarios but how can he be sure that he is back in the real world at the end?

The text is divided into:

Prologue (pp. 324-326)

Fate the Second (pp. 326-334)

Fate the Third (pp. 334-339)

Fate the Fourth (pp. 340-350)

Fate the Fifth (pp. 350-357)

O Ye of Little Fate (pp. 357-358)

 

Brief Observations (So Far)

(i) The reference to a "...a 1989 Chevrrolet..." (p. 329) places Fate the Second nineteen years in the future.

(ii) Fate the Fifth ends with "Creation began." (p. 357) - like James Blish's Cities In Flight.

 

(iii) "O Ye of Little Fate" is yet another disguised Biblical reference.(Matthew 8: 26) Should I stop mentioning these?

(iv) Maybe the few previously uncollected NESFA collection stories aren't as good?

Hail Mary And 666

In "The White King's War," Flandry's meeting with Leon Ammon in Old Town on Irumclaw is a flashback whereas, in A Circus Of Hells, we read these events in chronological order. But we read the same story, not two different versions of a story. In "The White King's War," Flandry's remark about Ammon being a son of a bitch but our son of a bitch is the punchline whereas, in the novel, the conversation continues.

In both versions, there are two Biblical references. Djana recites the "Hail Mary," which is Luke 1:28. Ammon's room is 666. (See the combox.) In a book that I lent and did not get back, Friedrich Engels argued that "666" meant "Nero," numerologically speaking.

Vaster Spaces

Speculatively and imaginatively, what is beyond and vaster than intergalactic space?

We can begin our outward journey in the company of CS Lewis:

"I had the sense of being in a larger space, perhaps even a larger sort of space than I had ever known before: as if the sky were further off and the extent of the green plain wider than they could be on this small ball of Earth. I had got 'out' in some sense which made the Solar System itself seem an indoor affair. It gave me a feeling of freedom, but also of exposure, possibly of danger, which continued to accompany me through all that followed. It is the impossibility of communicating that feeling, or even of inducing you to remember it as I proceed, which makes me despair of conveying the real quality of what I saw and heard."

-CS Lewis, The Great Divorce (London, 1982), p. 26.

 

I have always remembered this passage. But Lewis has projected a blue sky and a green plain into his larger space. Let us now follow a three-stage progression with Poul Anderson and Mike Carey:

 

in Anderson's Tau Zero, a relativistic spaceship traverses the vast dark spaces between clusters of clusters of clusters of galaxies;

 

in Anderson's "Door to Anywhere," a man looks into the vacuum where distant universes are visible as small points of light;

 

in Carey's Lucifer: Evensong, God and Lucifer, both retired, meet in a spatio-temporal void where they can see universes begin, briefly exist, then end:

God: Let's take a table at the edge of the terrace. We can watch the creations enjoy their brief efflorescences.

-Mike Carey, Lucifer: Evensong (New York, 2007),  p. 151, panel 4.

 

And maybe that is as far as imagination can take us?

 

Now that we have reached a round number of posts for this month, will I pause until the beginning of next month? Time will tell.

"The Fatal Fulfillment" And "The White King's War"

I have started to read "The Fatal Fulfillment" but have not got into it yet but it does have a Biblical reference:

"Click, said God. And there was silence, and darkness was upon the face of the deep."

-Poul Anderson, "The Fatal Fulfillment" IN Anderson,  Door To Anywhere, pp. 324-358 AT PROLOGUE, p. 326.

I have also started to check "The White King's War" (Door Into Summer, pp. 168-200) for comparison with A Circus Of Hells , CHAPTERs FOUR-TEN. The short story is cleverly integrated into the novel. Of course:

"Lieutenant (j.g.) Dominic Flandry, Imperial Terrestrial Navy, sent his hands dancing over the pilot board." (p. 168)

- is reduced to:

"Flandry sent his hands dancing over the pilot board."

-Young Flandry, p. 221 -

 

- because Flandry does not need to be introduced to the reader. But that is more than enough for tonight.

"Door To Anywhere" III

See "Door To Anywhere" II. 

The complementarity principle:

every description of reality is limited and incomplete;

prima facie inconsistent descriptions may be equally valid because they emphasize different aspects;

sub-atomic entities can be described as particles or as waves in different circumstances;

the universe can be described either as finite but unbounded or as infinite and permeated by the matter-creation field;

a probe sent via many way stations to a planet fifteen billion light-years away looks through a gate to a distance of a further billion light-years and detects nothing, then reaches through the gate and disappears;

the explanation is that the cosmic radius is not twenty billion light-years as had been thought but somewhere between fifteen and sixteen billion so that the probe has reached into inter-universal space where the physical constants are different and atoms expand, absorbing energy.

Fictional Dynasties

Poul Anderson's first Terran Emperor: 

Manuel I.

 

Isaac Asimov's first Galactic Emperor: 

Frankenn I.

 

CS Lewis's first King of Narnia: 

Frank I.

Any more? No doubt there are Tolkien equivalents.

 

Despite their similar names, I do not think that there is any connection between the first King of Narnia and the first Galactic Emperor.

 

Poul Anderson contributed one Robots short story to Asimov's Robots and Empire future history series. Although that story is set long before the Empire, it nevertheless comprises an Andersonian contribution to the Asimovian future history. Thus, the Complete Works of Poul Anderson and the Complete Robots and Empire future history series intersect in this single story. Readers can move from it in either or both directions. 

"Door To Anywhere" II

"Door to Anywhere."

There is another Biblical reference:

"Camacho tried to remember the Our Father and couldn't." (p. 31)

The Scientific Rationale

The steady state theory:

The most distant galaxies reach light speed and become undetectable.

At exactly the same rate, hydrogen atoms appear out of nowhere, maintaining the steady state.

Field theory describes the correlation.

A cosmic force-field balances disappearing galaxies with newly appearing atoms.

Counter-Evidence

A count of remote galaxies shows that the universe must have started small and expanded and will eventually collapse.

Hoyle's New Field Theory

There are large volumes of space with variable rates of matter creation. Each volume expands and contracts. The rate of creation averages out over "...the whole infinite system." (p. 19) Physical constants vary with total mass. Therefore, the universes differ.

 

Matter creation equals spatial unity. Modifying parameters with nuclear binding energies opens ways to other places but way stations are necessary to allow for energy differentials.

"Door To Anywhere"

Poul Anderson, "Door to Anywhere" IN Rick Katze (Ed.), Door To Anywhere, pp. 11-34.

This story incorporates the kind of cosmological background information that I usually find interesting although I do not want to try to summarize it right now. Maybe later when the dust has settled. The story was originally published in Galaxy Science Fiction, December 1966, when Fred Hoyle's steady state universe theory was still on the table. Of course, Anderson the sf writer utilizes a fictional extension of the theory to rationalize instantaneous interstellar teleportation, somehow.

However, the following sentence is worthy of note:

"His face might have been Saul's on the road to Damascus." (p. 26)

This, of course, is yet another Biblical reference.

I have yet to finish reading the story. A man has disappeared in intergalactic space and we have yet to learn why.

The Fifth NESFA Collection II

See The Fifth NESFA Collection.

The stories that I do not seem to have read before are:

"Door To Anywhere"

"The Fatal Fulfillment"

 

And I have not before read "White King's War" as a short story. Some already-read stories I will reread since I remember little or nothing about them.

 

"Some stories are a piece of a larger history. Some are stand-alone. These volumes are not intended to include complete series in a single volume. Nor are they published in any internal chronological order."

-Rick Katze, p. 6.

 

But I want volumes of complete series and stand-alone stories collected in chronological order of publication! I stopped getting the NESFA collections because they contained too many already-read stories. I requested Volume 5 as a birthday present because it was one way to get "White King's War." It turns out to contain only two other stories that I have not read before! This volume is free of short verses and non-fiction. Reading or rereading parts of it will contribute to Poul Anderson Appreciation so it is worth having.

The Fifth NESFA Collection

Rick Katze (Ed.), The Collected Short Works Of Poul Anderson, Volume 5: Door To Anywhere (NESFA Press, Box 809, Framingham, MA 01701, 2013).

In his Editor's Introduction, Katze states that Poul Anderson's four main characters:

"Manse Everard, David Falkyn, Nicholas van Rijn, and Dominic Flandry are represented in this volume." (p. 6)

I have reproduced a miss-spelling of Falkayn's surname. Is he in the volume?

In his "An Appreciation of Poul Anderson," Jerry Pournelle wrote:

"This book is an appreciation of the man and his work.

"And what work it was. He built characters. He turned simple ideas into stories. He constructed worlds in less time than it takes to spade up a garden. He built worlds and civilizations, often quite effortlessly, or at least it appeared that way. Sometimes he had an idea for a story that needed a very weird world. He could dash that off, apparently effortlessly, done so well that it might later serve as the basis for new stories and novels." (p. 10)

This bears out what I guessed in Ways Of Writing.

"Or Persis d'Io."

Ensign Flandry, CHAPTER ONE.

On rereading a series, we appreciate our rediscovery of the earliest mention of a character who will be important later.

Hauksberg and his wife:

"'You know I still hunt women. Preferably beautiful women, such as you.'

"'Or Persis d'Io.'" (p. 6)

Persis d'Io! She will be the heroine of this novel and, several volumes later, we will learn that she has become the mother of Dominic Flandry's son, Dominic Hazeltine, who will work for Aycharaych and against the Terran Empire during the Dennitzan crisis. Names to conjure with!

Poul Anderson knew no more of Dominic Hazeltine when he wrote Ensign Flandry than did his readers. Series, and particularly future history series, grow organically and unpredictably like real history.

Human And Alien

Joseph F. Patrouch, Jr, The Science Fiction Of Isaac Asimov (Frogmore, St Albans, Herts, 1976).

This point may be merely terminological but is also somewhat odd.

First, we must clarify at least three levels of consciousness:

(i) mere sensation, feeling hot, cold, hungry etc - this must be how consciousness began;

(ii) perception of discrete objects -  clearly cats, dogs and many other animals do this;

(iii) rational self-consciousness - on Earth, at least, we attribute this to only a single species.

(iii) incorporates (ii) which incorporates (i). (i)-(iii) is a spectrum but with vast qualitative differences. Human beings refine reason and reflection by internalizing symbolic/linguistic communication.

Sf writers imagine (iii) in extraterrestrial species. Poul Anderson's World Without Stars, The Earth Book Of Stormgate and The Rebel Worlds begin with alien points of view. Anderson wrote several stories about human-Ythrian interactions, wrote some passages in The People Of The Wind from Ythrian povs and clearly could have written an entire story from such a pov. Speculation about alien consciousness is a major part of sf.

Patrouch describes sf as examining "...scientifically plausible alternate settings for human consciousness." (p. 15) This is where the terminological conundrum arises. Patrouch describes two approaches. "Human consciousness" is either consciousness in a humanoid body or a human level of consciousness in a body of any shape. Patrouch claims that sf takes the second approach, thus that a creature of any shape can be conscious and intelligent and thus human. Clearly, we do not usually use the word "human" in this sense. Human beings are just one kind of intelligent beings. We could call all intelligent beings "human" but that would be to extend the meaning of the word and in practice we do not usually do this.

"Thus stories about aliens are really stories about ourselves, about what our physiques and psychologies would be if our environments happened to be different. Science fiction is a series of lab experiments, of demonstrations, on the subject of what I  would have been like (would be like) under different environmental circumstances: the relationship of setting and psychology." (p. 17)

A story can be about me if it is about how I would react to changed circumstances but it is not about me if it is about an entirely different being in any entirely different circumstances. That is about someone else.

The first person singular pronoun, "I," has two referents. The empirical "I" or "me" is the person that I am as perceived by myself and others: white, male, heterosexual etc. The abstract "I" is purely a form of consciousness, empty of any empirical content. Any self-conscious being can think and say, "I perceive the world as consisting of...," followed by an exhaustive list of every single object of that being's consciousness. However, if that being's own empirically discerned properties, size, shape, sex, color, digestive system etc are listed among its objects of consciousness, then the "I" that is the subject of consciousness is an abstraction common to every self-conscious being.

A human being thinks, "I see..." A Merseian thinks, "I see..." But it is meaningless to say that the Merseian is what the human being would have been if his species had evolved on Merseia. The human being is what did evolve on Earth.

Three Ideas

In his The Science Fiction Of Isaac Asimov, Joseph F. Patrouch, Jr, lists time travel, FTL and parallel worlds as three ideas that have very little scientific basis but that have come to be accepted as if they were scientifically plausible because they have been so well established by many good writers.

We notice that Wells gives us space travel in The First Men In The Moon, time travel in The Time Machine and parallel worlds in Men Like Gods but no FTL whereas Poul Anderson excels at all three of these ideas and some sf writers, notably Harry Turtledove and SM Stirling, specialize in parallel worlds.

Shortly, we will address another of Patrouch's remarks specifically in relation to some of Poul Anderson's works.

The Significance Of Stars In Three Future Histories

"'Of course there are worlds. Millions of them! Every star you see has worlds, and most of those you don't see. It's all part of the Empire.'"

-Isaac Asimov, Pebble In The Sky (New York, 1964), chapter 11, p. 103.

 

This sounds like what fathers said to their sons on Birthday but the situation is completely different. Anderson's Terran Empire is a small part of one spiral arm of the galaxy and has external enemies whereas Asimov's Galactic Empire encompasses the Galaxy (capitalized) and has no external enemies.

 

In Anderson's Genesis, members of the dwindling population of a darkened Terrestrial city know that the planets orbiting other stars are not part of any human Empire but instead are the dwelling places or perhaps simply the locations of post-organic intelligences that are descended from, originally human-made, AIs. Thus, the universe has been given meaning:

 

"'But is it our meaning?' Naia cried."

-Poul Anderson, Genesis (New York, 2001), PART ONE, VIII, p. 93.

 

Three very different future histories, one by Asimov and two by Anderson.   

Cities And Stars IV

See:

Cities And Stars III

Terrestrial Transformations III 

 

Hauksberg, viewpoint character of Ensign Flandry, CHAPTER ONE, remembers what fathers said to sons on Birthday two hundred years previously, then reflects that:

 

this galaxy comprises more that a hundred billion stars yet is only a "...dustmote..." (p. 6);

 

human beings have not yet explored the whole of this single spiral arm and probably never will (in fact, they will but a long time later);

some visible stars are not part of the Empire;

the Empire is ruled by force, its government is corrupt, its frontier is brutal and its Navy is war-mongering, oppressive and anti-intellectual;

so people get the message that they should not take the Empire seriously.

 

We have discussed Hauksberg's jaundiced view of the Empire here.

Terrestrial Transformations III

In Terrestrial Transformations, Earth/Terra was progressively urbanized. In Terrestrial Transformations II, urbanization continued for a while, then was violently interrupted by a descent into Hell. In Ensign Flandry, it is back big time. On the Terran Emperor's Birthday:

"Tonight, while the planet turned, its dark side was so radiant as to drown the very metro-centers seen from Luna."

-Poul Anderson, Ensign Flandry IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 1-192 AT CHAPTER ONE, p. 5.

And this urban civilization has gone interstellar. Two hundred years previously, on Birthday:

"Fathers had taken their sons outdoors when twilight ended parades and feasts; they had pointed to the early stars and said, - Look yonder. Those are ours. We believe that as many as four million lie within the Imperial domain. Certainly a hundred thousand know us daily, obey us, pay tribute to us, and get peace and the wealth of peace in return. Our ancestors did that. Keep the faith." (ibid.)

This will generate further observations either when I have eaten something or tomorrow.

(The fifth NESFA volume of Anderson's "Short Works" just arrived.)

Ways Of Writing

"There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays, and every single one of them is right!"

-Rudyard Kipling quoted by Robert Heinlein in the SFWA Bulletin, Fall 1979.

 

The sheer quantity of Poul Anderson's output leads me to guess, first, that he was able to write very quickly and, secondly, that his published texts were mostly either first drafts or minimally altered second drafts. Please correct me if anyone knows that this is wrong.

If it is right, then it follows that all the colorful, descriptive details that we appreciate were present from the beginning of the writing process. I mention this to contrast it with what I have recently read of Ian Fleming's writing process. Apparently, a publisher saw a first draft, then Fleming added the details for which he is admired in the second draft. This matters because the single posthumously published novel was only a first draft. If this is the case, then, in this single example, we are privileged to sample that first stage of this author's creative process.

 

If Anderson left any work unfinished, then I suspect that it would consist of a text fully readable and satisfying as far as it went but unfortunately broken off at some point in the narrative.

Terrestrial Transformations II

See Terrestrial Transformations.

Mirkheim shows us:

Chicago Integrate;

Delfinburg;

Chee Lan traveling on Earth and meeting Adzel in Terraport;

a Pacific island;

Rio de Janeiro Integrate;

van Rijn and Falkayn on a windjammer;

the Southern Alps of New Zealand;

the Sunda Strait;

many scenes off Earth.

 

The next two installments are set on Avalon.

 

"The Star Plunderer" shows us:

Earth devastated by Gorzuni raids, including "...a scene from some ancient hell...";

inside a Gorzuni ship and the Gorzuni planetary system;

snow crunching and breath smoking in a winter of the northern hemisphere.

The next two installments are set off Earth.

And that returns us to Ensign Flandry but not tonight, folks.

Tomorrow, I will have a long walk with my daughter during the day and a zoom meeting in the evening so blogging will have to take a back seat. Not before time, says you.

Terrestrial Transformations

Here's the deal. Having reread Poul Anderson's A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, we stay with Dominic Flandry, although obviously we are not rereading his series in chronological order. However, since Ensign Flandry opens with "Evening on Terra-," we first look at what we are shown of Terra in pre-Flandry periods.

The opening three installments of Anderson's Technic History are set off Earth;

"Margin of Profit" shows us the view of Djakarta and the Java Sea from Nicholas van Rijn's office, the one of van Rijn's mansions that is on the peak of Kilimanjaro and some action in space;

"How To Be Ethnic In One Easy Lesson" shows us San Francisco Integrate;

the next four installments are set off Earth;

"Esau" shows us Chicago Integrate, then action on another planet;

the next four installments are set off Earth except for one cameo appearance by van Rijn in his office;

"The Master Key" shows us Chicago Integrate and action on another planet;

Satan's World is mostly off Earth but also shows us van Rijn in the floating town of Delfinburg;

the next two installments are off Earth -

- to be continued.

Wrath, Sorrow, Valor And Vengeance

A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, the unheaded, italicized opening passage.

This passage begins by asking what words can express the wrath, sorrow, valor and vengeance of Bodin's raid. This question means nothing to the reader as yet. We have not previously read anything about Bodin (Miyatovich). Indeed, he appears only in this single work by Poul Anderson. This introduction, like those of The Rebel Worlds, World Without Stars and The Avatar, does not immediately connect with the ensuing narrative and is one that we might skip past when rereading the novel.

Words are in one respect like algebraic symbols. Thus, although we do know what "wrath" means, we have not yet been informed of or come to empathize with the particular wrath that motivates Bodin's raid. It is a different story if, having read the novel, we then reread this introduction.

In the concluding chapter, Bodin speaks:

"'I own to a desire for vengeance,' he confessed. 'My judgment might have been different otherwise.'

"Flandry nodded. 'Me too. That's how we are. If only- No, never mind.'" (XX, p. 603)

 

We now know exactly what they are talking about. Bodin has lost his niece, Flandry his fiancee.

 

Bodin's valor is celebrated in the concluding italicized passage. See Our Hope.

 

Anderson sells himself short. The opening italicized passage concludes:

 

"That the glory of Bodin Miyatovich go not from memory, let us find what poor words we may." (p. 342)

 

However, the concluding italicized passage is of such beauty that I quoted it in full here.

The Chereionite Heritage

A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, XX.

Aycharaych preserves and enjoys:

architecture;

arts;

music;

books;

"dreams" (p. 599);

and, even more than any of that, "...the loftiest spirits of a million years..." (ibid.)

 

What does he mean by this last claim? We know of the lofty spirits of the Terrestrial past through books by or about them but Aycharaych seems to imply something more. (I write "seems" because I am now less sure.)

 

He refers to the Chereionite equivalents of: 

Gautama Buddha

Kung Fu-Tse

Rabbi Hillel

Jesus the Christ

Rumi

Socrates

Newton

Hokusai

Jefferson

Gauss

Beethoven

Einstein

Ulfgeir

Manuel the Great

Manuel the Wise

Of these equivalents, he says that "'...they lent themselves to the scanners, the recorders...'" (ibid.) and that he can "meet" their "likenesses." (ibid.) "Meet" implies something more or other than just looking at pictures, even moving pictures. People sometimes use the word "met" metaphorically when they say that they have "met" someone who is now dead by reading what he wrote but does Aycharaych mean just that he "meets" the equivalent of the Buddha by watching and hearing his recorded sermons? Now that I am writing this, it occurs to me that maybe that is all that he means.

The two other possible meanings were:

computer programs enabling him to interact with simulations of the equivalents of the Buddha etc;

emulations as this term is used in Anderson's Genesis, i.e., fully conscious Artificial Intelligences constituting attempted reproductions of the consciousnesses of people now dead.

In the latter case, an AI would think that it was the Buddha unless it reasoned that it could not be or was simply told that it was not. I think that the word "likenesses" rules out emulations.

Our Hope

A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, XX.

Bodin Miyatovich to Dominic Flandry:

"'Between us, my friend, I dare hope myself that what I care about will still be there when the Empire is gone. However, that scarcely touches our lifetimes.'" (p. 604)

St. Kossara brings peace through Bodin's valor: 

"Sing, poets, of his fame and honor! Long may God give us folk like these!

"And may they hearten each one of us. For in this is our hope.

"Amen." (p. 606)

With Bodin and with the anonymous author of this heartfelt prayer, we hope that the Dennitzan peace continues long after the Fall of the Terran Empire.

Spirituality On Chereion

A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, XX.

The Chereionites have concepts similar to Buddhism.

(i) Liannathan:

"'...the others have gone before us. We are those who have not yet reached the Goal; the bitter need of the universe for help still binds us.'" (p. 597)

This is a contradiction. Are the few remaining Chereionites still present because they have not yet reached the Goal or because, having reached it, they have opted to remain to help the universe? A being may be in either of these states but surely not in both simultaneously?

Two words of caution here: 

first, personally, I regard this aspect of Buddhism as mythological; 

secondly, we soon learn that Liannathan and the other Chereionites visible in a deserted city of their planet are not in any case really present but instead are holograms projected by Aycharaych.

However, regarding that second point, the ideas expressed by the hologram must be derived from Chereionite philosophy or spirituality. Further, the idea that "'...the others have gone before us...'" ties in with the later human Cosmenosis philosophy.

(ii) Aycharaych has access to the recorded likenesses of the Buddha, Confucius, Jesus, Hillel, Rumi and others. (Here I mention only the spiritually significant names.) These likenesses would have answered Fr. Axor's questions about the Universal Incarnation.

(iii) When Flandry has refused to help Aycharaych, the latter brings his fingers together as if in prayer. That is our last sight of this last Chereionite. 

Darkness Within

Poul Anderson bears comparison with Ian Fleming and CS Lewis although those two English authors have nothing in common with each other.

The hologram of Liannathan of Chereion to Dominic Flandry:

"'I told you, knowing what darkness you must dwell in, for mercy's sake we will leave your thoughts alone unless you compel us.'"

-A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, XX, p. 597.

One planetary angel to another, discussing Elwin Ransom, a human being:

"'...in his best thoughts there are such things mingled as, if we thought them, our light would perish.'"

-CS Lewis, Perelandra IN Lewis, The Cosmic Trilogy (London, 1990), pp. 145-348 AT 16, p. 322.

 

But Ransom "'...is in the body of Maleldil...,'" (Lewis, ibid.) a Solar way of saying something that we express differently here.

Human thoughts are both light and darkness.

Flandry Versus Aycharaych And Bond Versus Blofeld

Physically..

Aycharaych is no match for Flandry whereas Blofeld is formidable. In their respective showdowns, Flandry sees only Aycharaych's hologram whereas Bond and Blofeld fight to the death, wooden staff against samurai sword, then with Bond's hands around Blofeld's throat.

Morally...

Aycharaych pursues a good end by bad means whereas Blofeld's ends and means are evil. Both try to justify their actions.

"Cinematic" Climaxes

Bond films often end when everything blows up. A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows and You Only Live Twice have such "cinematic" climaxes. Flandry bombards Chereion and the Castle of Death, with Blofeld's dead body inside, blows up because Bond has blocked a diverted fumarole.

There are probably other comparisons.

Dissimilar Settings

Bodin Miyatovich stood outside a cathedral here and on the command bridge of a space dreadnaught here, two entirely dissimilar settings for fictional narratives although Poul Anderson as author was equally at home in both. Unfortunately, when the action has shifted to the dreadnaught, we have had our last sight of Dennitza. The remaining two novels to feature Dominic Flandry introduce some interesting new planets and also make welcome returns to Terra and Hermes but we never again see Dennitza, Avalon, Vixen or so many others. A future history series reuses settings introduced in earlier installments but also moves the narrative continually forward. The last four installments of the Technic History refer to several earlier settings and even to a colony of Vixen, New Vixen, but also move the action further away in space to newly colonized planets and even to the further edge of another spiral arm thousand of years in the future and that really is the end of the series but we need not go there yet.

Vatre Zvezda And Hooligan

A Knight O Ghosts And Shadows, XIX.

Bodin Miyatovich leads the raid on Chereion in the Nova-class dreadnaught, Vatre Zvezda:

huge;

heavily armored;

intricately compartmentalized;

monstrously powerful in engines, weapons and shields;

chiefly designed to protect its fleet command posts;

spherical;

like a misshapen moon;

bristling with -

 

guns;

launch tubes;

projectors;

sensors;

generators;

snatchers;

hatches;

watch domes.

 

This dreadnaught carries Flandry's speedster, Hooligan, which slips from a boat lock and through a momentary opening in the shielding fields when Flandry decides to fly ahead to scout on Chereion and what happens there we will deffo not discuss tonight.

Outside St. Clement's Cathedral

(St. Clement's Cathedral, Prague.)

A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, XVIII.

"Bodin Miyatovich and his wife waited outside. The weather was milder than before, as if a ghost of springtime flitted fugitive ahead of winter." (p. 577)

The pathetic fallacy never lets up. Flandry is about to tell Miyatovich that he has found a way forward. Appropriately, the weather mildens as a ghost - also appropriate - of springtime flits through.

Sounds never let up either:

"Traffic boomed in the street. Walkers cast glances at the three on the stairs, spoke to whatever companion they had, but didn't stop; they taught good manners on Dennitza." (ibid.)

Another good word about Dennitza, where Flandry would have stayed if Kossara had lived. Passersby glance at all three. The Gospodar and his wife are planetary celebrities and Flandry has become one. He even ran the provisional government after defeating the coup.

More tomoz. 

Finding And Showing

Because there is so much to be found in Poul Anderson's Technic History, I stay with it as long as I can in terms of blog posting and, because I stay with it as long as I do, I find even more, which is possible only because so much is there to begin with. Thus, I not only show what I have found but also find more while showing it.

The present rereading of A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows approaches the concluding chapters but is not over yet and there is more of the Dominic Flandry series to be reread, then to be reread again later, a process that cannot go on forever but that has already gone on for far longer than I would have thought possible. I am interested to learn how far we can go with this and what will happen after that.

Far-Off Chanting

A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, XVIII.

When Kossara lies in her open coffin in St. Clement's Cathedral, Flandry:

sees her uniformed honor guard, candles, flowers, evening sunlight between columns, the Apostles with Christ Lord of All against blue and gold on the domed ceiling and Kossara's face, now colorless and serene;

smells lilies, roses, viyenatz and incense;

hears "...the somehow far-off sound of a priest chanting behind the iconostasis..." (p. 576);

feels cool air.

A perfect setting for either prayer or contemplation. Flandry in fact prays, addressing Kossara who will be canonized. The far-off rising and falling chant of archaic words symbolizes transcendence but is not the affirmation of survival that Flandry asks for.

Bodin's Return

A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, XVIII.

"Day broke windless and freezing cold." (p. 569)

For once, no wind! The combination of windlessness with freezing suggests cessation of all normal activities. Dennitza pauses between the defeat of a coup and whatever is to come next, no one knows what.

The text continues:

"The sun stood in a rainbow ring and ice crackled along the shores of Lake Stoyan. Zorkagrad lay silent under bitter blue, as if killed." (ibid.)

Even now, we are able to appreciate Dennitzan natural beauty: a rainbow, crackling ice, vast Lake and blue sky, the last not warm but bitter. The city is as if killed but is not killed because unusual activities continue. Thundering spacecraft arrive and depart. Whistling airships pass. Armored vehicles rumble. Boots slam. When Bodin Miyatovich returns from his arrest by the Imperials, folk celebrate and church bells peal. (A lot of sounds there. The celebrating includes shouting, weeping and singing.)

When Lieutenant Matthews, reporting by phone, asks Flandry what to do about the prisoner, the by now brain-dead Dominic Hazeltine, there is a pause:

"Flandry fell quiet. Miyatovich puffed volcanic clouds. Outside the bells caroled." (p. 575)

Matthews has to prompt Flandry. Life continues, with many people in different mental states:

Flandry reflects;

Miyatovich covers the moment with his, appropriately "volcanic," smoking;

Dennitzans still celebrate;

Matthews needs an answer...