Only two chapters are set in the Beta timeline:
1989beta A. D., pp. 368-373.
1254beta A. D., pp. 393-413.
The Patrol, alerted, does not blunder in but sends two scouting expeditions. The two paragraphs of p. 393 describe the Apulian plain:
white villages
green orchards
golden fields
brown meadows
frequent woods
yellow sunbeams
blue shadows
warm air
earth odours
gleaming city
pealing bells
Four senses.
The following page describes Emperor Frederick II's hunting party:
rainbow garb
belled falcons
masked ladies
trailing attendants
dangling game
slung hampers
costly bottles
On p. 395, this emperor in a divergent timeline, who has not heeded the call to prayer, says not "...if God allows..." but "'...if time allows...,'" as if he intuits the problem addressed by the Patrol.
Frederick will order that a copy of his book on falconry be given to Munan (Everard). (See image.)
9 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I have thought, a time or two, of searching for any English translations of Frederick II's book and getting a copy.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
A Time Patrol library or at least bookshelf would be PA's two volumes + all the works that they refer to.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I agree!
Sean
Kaor, Paul!
Another thought I've had is that while there has been a fair number of intelligent, able, and even DECENT rulers, most of them have been more men of action, not thought. That is, we know them most and best from what they did, or tried to do, not from what they wrote.
The Emperor Marcus Aurelius seems to be the earliest leader who left us a written account of his ideas and beliefs, in the MEDITATIONS. Frederick II's book on falconry might not seem of much account, but it interested him enough to write about it.
Among US presidents Washington and Lincoln left speeches elucidating what they held to be the core principles of the US political system. And a fair number of later presidents wrote memoirs, real or ghosted, some of which are of interest (esp. Grant's MEMOIRS).
Jonathan Spence, in EMPEROR OF CHINA, compiled a truly fascinating "memoir" of the K'ang-hsi Emperor (r. 1661-1722) pieced together from autobiographical comments made by that Emperor in official documents and declarations. He too was an able and basically well meaning leader.
Ad astra! Sean
Jefferson was an intellectual before he was a ruler -- and not, IMHO, a good advertisement for intellectuals in politics. Woodrow Wilson was another, and even worse.
Theodore Roosevelt wrote quite extensively; on natural science (his original career choice), American history, political theory and a number of other subjects. Really a polymath.
On the whole, intellectuals do better as advisors to rulers than as rulers.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I mostly agree. There is much in Thomas Jefferson's thought and activities as President I dislike or disagree with. And Woodrow Wilson was VASTLY worse!
I admit to thinking better of Theodore Roosevelt, even if I did not like quite a bit of what you had him doing in your BLACK CHAMBER books.
One curious book I have is something called THEODORE ROOSEVELT'S LETTERS TO HIS CHILDREN, ed. by Joseph Bucklin Bishop (Scribner's Sons, 1923). High time I read it!
By and large, I agree, most intellectuals don't make good leaders. Either they are bunglers like Wilson or monsters like Lenin, Stalin, Mao, et al. They are better used as advisers to rulers.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: it's an interesting compendium. Tho' TR's children did say that you could tell when one of his letters to them was "for posterity".
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I'm definitely interested in that TR collection, despite having so much else to read: Anderson's Time Patrol stories, the third vol. of Solzhenitsyn's MARCH 1917, and John Rutheford's translation of DON QUIXOTE (which I've started reading). And, in popular science, Chip Walter's IMMORTALITY, INC.
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Paul
I think one more comment can be said about books and the Time Patrol. In Chapter 2 of STAR OF THE SEA (page 302 of my hard bound copy of THE TIME PATROL) I read this: "Among books in a floor-to-ceiling case he spied stuff by Dickens, Mark Twain, Thomas Mann, and Tolkien." The works of these writers would also be found in a Time Patrol library.
Finished rereading THE TIME PATROL. Not quite sure which book is next, but definitely one of the titles I mentioned to Stirling.
Ad astra! Sean
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