Wednesday 31 August 2022
Aircars And Monotheism
Gratitude?
Kossara Vymezal reflects:
"He saw deeper than most, did her Dominic, and covered the hurt of it with a jape. If only he did not see right past God. In time? I'll never preach at him, nor admit outright that I pray for him. But if we are given time -" (XVI, p. 543)
But they will not be given time. According to a monotheist, that is God's doing.
Later:
"'If there is danger today,' [Kossara] said, 'I thank God He lets me be in it with you.'
"[Flandry] prevented himself from telling her he felt no gratitude." (XVII, p. 551)
Each leaves something unsaid. And here is the difference. For a monotheist, every experience, even danger, is part of a dialogue with God. The Hebrew Bible is a dialogue between the Abrahamic God and His people. The Dennitzans preserve Orthochristianity. God, if He exists, interacts differently with Flandry.
Tuesday 30 August 2022
Flying Cars
In some futuristic sf, we have learned to take it for granted that "cars" fly. A car carrying Dominic Flandry and Kossara Vymezal but also "...crammed with ychans..." (p. 551) lands "...in a parking lot at the edge of Zorkagrad." (ibid.) It is one of "...a swarm of battered vehicles which was arriving." (ibid.) They land at the edge of the city first because no parking lot farther in could have accommodated them and secondly because "...a sudden appearance downtown might have provoked alarm..." (ibid.) It would have looked like an aerial invasion.
When the two local Liverpool football teams played against each other in the home ground of one of them (they are a short walk apart), some trade unionists got the brilliant idea of leafletting the fans arriving to watch the match. As one of the trade unionists, I had to park an hour's walk away. When I got there, the others were giving up on the idea. Our Branch Secretary's car was blocked in and he had to go back for it later. Imagine if all of those parked cars had descended from on high. Are flying cars feasible?
1922 (b)
historical figures in an alternative history;
a John Buchan character;
a Merseian weapon (by which I mean a knuckleduster-handled knife);
comments, e.g., on English public schools, applicable to our history;
a reference to ERB's two concurrent series about air pirates - alternative fiction;
an accurate rendition of a particular English regional accent;
characters harmed and changed by the Great War.
We wonder what kind of later twentieth century and early twenty-first century this 1922(b) will lead to. Will time tell?
The Fishers Of The Obala
The zmayi fishers of the Obala on the east coast of the Rodna continent on Dennitza can find some of the truth. See the previous post.
Kyrwedhin is:
moot-lord of the steadcaptains of the Obala;
Hand of the Vach Mannoch;
the owner of a fleet;
a graduate of the Shkola;
a member of the House of the Zmayi in the Shkoptsina;
a correspondent with Korvash, Hand of the Vach Rueth on Merseia;
an acquaintance of Lazar Ristich, voivode of Kom Kutchi and member of the House of the Lords.
For what it is worth, the tone of Korvash's letters gives no indication of any imminent attack by Merseia. Lazar Ristich, who has close contact with Terra, says that a person of Kossara's rank, the Gospodar's niece, could only have been enslaved as a deliberate provocation which the present Imperium would not do. When Ristich tries to speak to Gospodar Bodin about this, he is stalled by aides, something which Bodin would not knowingly allow to happen. Then Terran officers arrest Bodin for treason. Many Dennitzans have settled in nearby planetary systems and one special assistant to the Gospodar, born in another system, has become the ranking Imperial in the Zorian System and thus the Emperor's representative, the first important person in the Zamok that the Terrans had managed to contact.
The Obala fishers discern the course of the conspiracy.
Disinformation And Intelligence
The spreading of disinformation is a crime against the truth and against anyone who is deceived. Intelligence-gathering is a science that can counteract disinformation but can also be used for partisan purposes.
The Gospodar of the planet Dennitza governs the Taurian Sector of the Terran Empire which borders the Wilderness separating the Empire from the Merseian Roidhunate. Thus, Merseia can both threaten and influence Dennitza. Disaffected Dennitzans might welcome Merseian support or even rule. The Emperor decrees the disbanding of the Dennitzan militia. Dennitzan Intelligence reports Merseian war preparations that are denied by Terran Intelligence. Who is lying and why?
Disinformation can be internalized. Thus, the Dennitzan, Kossara Vymezal, is not only arrested for treason but also brainwashed with false memories of her own participation in treasonous activities. Arrested on Diomedes, she is quickly and quietly sold into slavery on Terra but then the news of her enslavement makes its way back to Dennitza. Merseian agents have infiltrated both Terran Intelligence and the Zamok/Castle executive centre in Zorkagrad on Dennitza.
In an inflammatory situation, who can find and make known the truth?
Monday 29 August 2022
Dennitza And Avalon
Dominic Flandry and Kossara Vymezal, if married, would have worked:
"...for the future, not the poor wayworn Empire but a world he too could believe in, the world of their own blood." (p. 543)
Thus Dennitza would have been to Flandry what Avalon was to David Falkayn.
Similarities
Both involve a retreat from the centre of a crumbling regime to a planet on the edge.
Both planets are inhabited by human beings and by one other intelligent species.
Difference
Flandry would have joined a six hundred year old colony whereas Falkayn founded Avalon.
Kossara's Prayer II
Three figures that come together in my head are:
Krishna, teaching karma yoga;
the Buddha, teaching meditation;
Jesus, preaching the kingdom (a new consciousness and a new society).
This has brought us a long way from Kossara Vymezal addressing Father, Jesus, Mary and Holy Spirit but we are all human beings trying to make sense of life.
Kossara's Prayer
Through Poul Anderson's empathetic writing, we imaginatively enter into Kossara Vymezal's prayer. She remembers her dead: her family, her fiance, her zmay servant, every soul and every living being that was killed when her home was nuked:
"Father of Creation, receive them. Jesus, absolve them. Mary, comfort them. Light of the Holy Spirit, shine upon them forever.
"I dare not ask for more. Amen." (p. 542)
Some Christians would confidently ask for everything and would not address Mary. Either way, this theology is perhaps the most complicated there is. Kossara, who herself will soon be a saint and prayed to, addresses four persons. I have to write "persons" rather than "beings" or "deities" because:
the three divine persons are one being;
Mary is a human being;
Jesus is both a divine and a human being.
That reads like a Hegelian triad of thesis, antithesis and synthesis.
Is it customary to address Mary between members of the Trinity?
Kossara believes that these four persons literally exist. They are not myths or personifications. She also believes that all the departed souls are immortal and will (hopefully) be received by the Father. Secularists simply dismiss all such beliefs. Maybe some of us can appreciate religions as what Alan Moore called "higher fictions." In The King Of Ys by Poul and Karen Anderson, Ysans, unlike Christians, do not understand their myths literally.
In SM Stirling's The Peshawar Lancers, the British Empire, Angrezi Raj, relocates to India where Anglican and Hindu concepts merge. Our hero appropriately reflects on Krishna. As a myth, I appreciate Vishnu:
the middle member of the Trimurti (Triple Form) - Brahma/Creator, Vishnu/Preserver, Shiva/Destroyer;
incarnated in an evolutionary sequence of animals and human beings, the latter including Krishna, the Buddha and (I don't see why not) Christ.
Sunday 28 August 2022
Diyu And Heaven
One role of references to a hereafter is to comment on the here and now or on a life that has just been completed. Thus, Luz inwardly expresses the hope that a Chinese bodyguard who died in the line of duty will pass swiftly and easily "through the Courts of Diyu" (p. 174) but says "Amen" (p. 191) when a policeman of Irish descent voices a pious hope about heaven. There are works of fantasy in which people of different belief-systems survive into their appropriately diverse hereafters but perhaps not many of us would claim that that is literally the case? Again, I think that meditation is beneficial here and now but do not buy into reincarnation or rebirth. My sympathies are with Poul Anderson's Ythrian character who expresses incredulity and even incomprehension when informed of the Christian belief in a soul surviving the body and going elsewhere.
Saturday 27 August 2022
Three Spy Novels
The Spy Who Came In From The Cold by John le Carre;
The Wrecking Crew by Donald Hamilton;
A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows by Poul Anderson.
During the Cold War, le Carre and Hamilton wrote fiction about that conflict whereas Anderson projected a similar power bloc conflict into an sf future. Le Carre's Alec Leamas realizes that his own side has lied to him. Hamilton's Matt Helm finds that those who are with him are against him and that someone who is not involved is. Anderson's Dominic Flandry learns that his own son has deliberately sent him into a trap.
Maybe we could start to read such a novel assuming that major characters will turn out to be the opposite of what they appear to be, then anticipate how the author is going to do it? (I can't but maybe someone can.)
Northernness
Abba
Stieg Larsson
Donald Hamilton, born in Sweden, set his second Matt Helm novel there
Norse mythology in its own right -
- and as incorporated into works by Anderson and Neil Gaiman
Wagner
Tolkien
"Pure 'Northernness' engulfed me: a vision of huge, clear spaces hanging above the Atlantic in the endless twilight of Northern summer, remoteness, severity..."
-CS Lewis, Surprised By Joy (London, 1964), V., p. 62.
Maybe Lewis says it for us. I am just getting into Donald Hamilton.
Aycharaych's Art
Human agents of Merseia foment rebellion on Diomedes. They must pretend to be Avalonians in order to encourage Alatanism, the belief among (winged) Diomedieans that they will receive solidarity and support from (also winged) Ythrians. But the Merseian operatives must also give the impression that they are Dennitzans so that the Gospodar of Dennitza will send his niece, the xenologist, Kossara Vymezal, to investigate. Aycharaych can predict how the Gospodar will respond. On Dennitza, Kossara is contacted by human agents of Merseia posing as spies from Esperance. The fake Esperanicians claim that, having heard from Diomedeans of Dennitzan involvement in the resistance movement, they themselves then posed as Dennitzans. Agents of Merseia who have infiltrated Imperial Intelligence arrest Kossara. Hypnoprobing, combined with Aycharaych's telepathy and hypnosis, suppresses some of Kossara's memories and fakes others so that she believes that she had been involved in the Diomedean resistance. She is sold into slavery on Terra in order to drive a wedge between Dennitza and Terra. Aycharaych regards this kind of operation as a work of art.
Who is the "knight of ghosts and shadows" of the title? Flandry reflects:
"I see in my mirror the specter of [Aycharaych]. Though who of us is flesh and who image?" (pp. 503-504)
Esperance
"Esperance was near the border of Empire and Domain." (p. 501)
Indeed. Some Esperancians protested when the Terran attack on the Domain of Ythri was launched from their planetary system. The Technic History holds together in space and time.
Flandry:
"'Masks within masks, shadows that cast shadows.... Merseian operatives posing as Esperancians posing as Dennitzans whose comrades had formerly posed as Avalonians, while other Merseian creatures are in fact the Terran personnel they claim to be.... Yes, I'll bet my chance of a peaceful death that Aycharaych is the engineer of the whole diablerie.'" (p. 503)
Esperancians are human.
Dennitzans are human or zmayi/ychani (Merseian by species).
Avalonians are human or Ythrian.
The Merseian operatives and "creatures" are human.
Aycharaych is Chereionite.
Merseian operatives obviously pose as human Dennitzans, Avalonians or Terran personnel. Will human beings interact like this with other intelligent species in future?
Friday 26 August 2022
Resistance
Thursday 25 August 2022
Images
Imagine accurate adaptations of these novels into sequential art story-telling (comic strips), animations and live-action films. Poul Anderson's prose describes scenes that should be re-presented in more than one visual medium. Ythrians in flight, Merseians, Betelgeuseans, the Chereionite etc and their diverse planetary environments would look good both in cartoons and as computer-generated images.
Personally, I would appreciate a graphic novel as much as a serious screen dramatization. Each of these cover shows us what just one panel might look like.
Opposite Numbers II
If we read Poul Anderson's Technic History not in publication order but in chronological order of fictitious events, then we first learn something of Aycharaych when Ydwyr mentions him in A Circus Of Hells, then we see the Chereionite himself in action on Aeneas in The Day Of Their Return some time before his first encounter with Captain Flandry in "Honorable Enemies."
In "Hunters of the Sky Cave," Flandry converses with Aycharaych in the Crystal Moon in Jovian orbit and later captures him on an extra-solar proto-planet but the Merseians insist on a prisoner exchange. In A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, Flandry converses with Aycharaych on Talwin and again later at long distance while bombarding Chereion where Aycharaych probably dies.
In The Game Of Empire, Tachwyr reflects that the Chereionite had died or at least vanished. Tachwyr, who addresses the ghost of Aycharaych as an old ally, cannot suspect that, with all the records of Chereionite culture destroyed in the bombardment, Aycharaych, even if still alive, would no longer have any motivation to work for Merseia. We would like to see a later Aycharaych.
Opposite Numbers
Tachwyr
Ensign Flandry meets Mei (approximately, lieutenant j.g.) Tachwyr on Merseia in Ensign Flandry. Lieutenant Flandry meets Mei Tachwyr on Irumclaw in A Circus Of Hells. We do not see Tachwyr again until the meeting on Talwin in A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows when Flandry is a Captain and Tachwyr is a Qanryf. However, we are told that Flandry:
"...knew him from encounters both adversary and half friendly since they were fledglings in their services..." (p. 456)
- back in Ensign Flandry.
Tachwyr appears only once more, in The Game Of Empire, where he has become the Hand of his Vach and presides over the Grand Council. He does not meet Fleet Admiral Flandry but does remember vanished Aycharaych.
To be continued.
Wednesday 24 August 2022
{ }
This chapter begins, just two lines above the bottom of p. 453, with a bracket, thus: {. The bracket is repeated/renewed/refreshed only once, after a double space in the text, two lines above the bottom of p. 458. The bracket is closed two thirds of the way down p. 465 and only two sentences before the end of the chapter.
The brackets enclose an extended reminiscence/flashback to Flandry's last meeting with Tachwyr of Merseia and Aycharaych of Chereion on the planet Talwin near the end of the Terran civil war.
However, I have just been diverted into a philosophical discussion on email and do not feel like tackling Flandry's reminiscence this evening! There is always more.
Language
When Poul Anderson's Manse Everard approaches another time traveller in a past era, he can identify himself and indicate his purpose by saying just: "Time Patrol." In fact, I would guess that "Time Patrol" is a single word or even just a single syllable in Temporal. When Everard transmits:
"'Unattached Everard. Come immediately. Combat.'"
-Poul Anderson, The Shield Of Time (New York, 1991), 209 B. C., p. 113 -
- that is five words in English but how many in Temporal? "I sing of arms and a man" is seven words in English but three in Latin: Arma virumque cano.
When SM Stirling's Luz O'Malley needs a night-shift doctor to treat a wounded man urgently without informing the police, she gets results with just two words:
"'Black Chamber.'"
-Daggers In Darkness, CHAPTER SEVEN, p. 133.
Well, Luz goes on to say considerably more than that but it is those first two words that do the trick.
In a Trade Union Centre in Liverpool, I was astounded to see a man wearing a black shirt with a swastika arm band standing to attention outside the door of a meeting room, especially since there was a memorial to the International Brigade elsewhere in that same building. Then someone spoke two words that made everything OK:
"Drama group."
Diomedes, Ythri, Dennitza And Merseia
The People Of The Wind: The Terran Empire and the Domain of Ythri fight a war to adjust an interstellar frontier.
A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows: Some disaffected Diomedeans want to leave the Empire and join the Domain. Aycharaych, working for the rival imperium of Merseia, exploits disaffection on Diomedes and also on Dennitza in order to divide the Empire.
In a future history series, later instalments build on earlier instalments but are set generations and centuries later.
Spacefaring Diomedeans
A text informs Flandry:
"'As producers, merchants, engineers, industrialists, even occasional spacefarers, [the Drak'ho people] flourish, and are on the whole well content.'" (p. 427)
So some Diomedeans do go into space (see my question here) but it sounds like not in their own spacecraft. The raft-, then land-, dwelling Drak'ho can assimilate technology whereas the migratory Lannachska cannot without destroying their life-style. Hence, the problems on Diomedes. Poul Anderson seems to have imagined a fundamentally insoluble social conflict. "Alatanist" Diomedeans want to be accepted into the nearby Domain of Ythri - a mystique of winged beings - but few Ythrian leaders have heard of Diomedes and none want conflict with the Terran Empire. Narrative threads from The People Of The Wind and The Man Who Counts approach each other but then recede.
Tuesday 23 August 2022
A View On Lannach
Dominic Flandry's spaceship, the Hooligan, has landed half way up a mountain on the large Diomedean island of Lannach:
above, an overhanging cliff;
below, sea gleaming on the horizon;
amethyst sky;
towering clouds;
crags;
boulders;
waterfalls;
talus slopes;
murky scraps;
grass-like growth;
grey thorn bushes;
low twisted trees;
forest in misty valleys;
cruising flyers, either Diomedeans or predators;
yowling wind.
Regular Anderson readers might think, "Yes, the wind must of course be heard and, on this occasion, should sound slightly threatening." Must Flandry and Chives face off against armed rebels? (No. Something worse.)
Diomedeans In The Imperial Period
"Progressive autochthonous cultures had brought Stone Age technology, the sole kind possible for them, to an astonishing sophistication. Once contacted by humans, they were eager to trade, originally for metals, subsequently for means to build modern industries of their own. Diomedes offers numerous organic substances, valuable for a variety of purposes, cheaper to buy from natives than to synthesize...." (pp. 418-419)
As ever, Poul Anderson displays an excellent grasp of interstellar economics: "...cheaper to buy...than to synthesize..." was the basis of the Polesotechnic League. But why did some Diomedeans not try to get into space, as the Ythrians and the Cynthians had done? Did Diomedeans join Supermetals in the League period? They are not mentioned in this connection as far as I remember.
Interstellar contact forces radical change on ancient customs. Some cultures adjust. Others suffer. But Flandry reflects that, if the Imperials were to withdraw, then all Diomedeans would be much worse off:
"There've been too many irreversible changes.
"You can't even sit still in this universe without making waves." (p. 419)
An example of the Wit and Wisdom of Dominic Flandry.
Four Organizations
George Orwell's Thought Police change records and memories so that it is as if the past has been changed.
The temporal bureau in Robert Heinlein's "-All You Zombies-" causes the past events that it has caused but only those.
The Service in James Blish's "Beep"/The Quincunx Of Time is an Event Police ensuring future events.
(Blog readers might recognize this as a quick breakfast post before going out for the day.)
Monday 22 August 2022
Sensory Overload On Diomedes
"Cliffs and crags loomed in darkling solidity, here and there a gnarled tree or a streak of snow tinged pink by a reddish sun high in a purple heaven." (p. 410)
We recognize an overload of colours and immediately look for more sensations. Sure enough, the text continues:
"The wind thrust slow, strong, chill; it had not only an odor but a taste like metal." (ibid.)
So far, four senses. Next:
"A cataract, white and green half a kilometer away, boomed loud through thick air that also shifted the pitch and timbre of every sound." (ibid.)
And that is not all because Kossara feels something else:
"Huddled in her parka, she felt how Diomedes drew on her more heavily than Dennitza, nearly two kilograms added to every ten." (ibid.)
Are the sense of balance and the sensation of gravity additional senses?
(We have said all this before but in a slightly different way. See Five Senses On Diomedes.)
Inter-Timeline References
Poul Anderson
In "Eutopia," a traveller between divergent histories hates the filth, waste, ugliness, restrictions, hypocrisy and insanity of "America" in what we, the readers, recognize as our timeline.
SM Stirling
In George Orwell's 1984, the United Kingdom has been re-named "Airstrip One." In Stirling's Daggers In Darkness, the UK is nicknamed "Airbase One" but Stirling's characters cannot be referring to 1984 because they are in 1922 (b) whereas that novel was published in 1949 (a). The connections are in the mind of the omniscient author.
See also Rackham And One Other.
Neil Gaiman
When a reality storm strands travellers from different worlds in the Inn of the Worlds' End, one guest remarks that a "reality storm" sounds like something from Star Trek. She is from our world - or one like it.
Good People In Bad Societies
Poul Anderson's Dominic Flandry cheats at poker in order to acquire a Shalmuan slave work force, then frees the slaves and arranges for their passage home. One Shalmuan, Chives, prefers to remain in Flandry's service and even refuses manumission until the control bracelets are imposed on Earth. Flandry buys Kossara Vymezal but only in order to investigate her alleged involvement in an attempted insurrection. Flandry treats Kossara with respect, initially as a prisoner of war, but then, of course, other things happen.
Incidentally, Chives was named as such by Flandry so it is possible that not only Anderson but also Flandry based this Shalmuan servant's name on PG Wodehouse's "Jeeves."
Sunday 21 August 2022
The Bellamy Salute
We can learn some history by reading alternative histories. I learned about the importance of the Scipios by reading Poul Anderson's story about time travellers who eliminated the Scipios. In SM Stirling's Daggers In Darkness, a crowd in 1922(b) salutes Theodore Roosevelt by making the Bellamy Salute:
"...stand to attention, eyes front, put the right hand over the heart, and then extend that arm stiffly at a forty-five degree angle, palm up." (p. 97)
I read this passage in haste just before going out to drive my daughter and granddaughter to Morecambe seafront for a Burrito and a view of the sunset and I missed the crucial significance of that single concluding two-letter word. I misremembered the passage as stating that the palm should be "open." I practiced making the salute to see if it came out any differently to what I expected. Aileen told me to stop doing it. (Don't try this in public, folks!)
Stirling has educated me and maybe some others about the Bellamy Salute. It is so easy nowadays to google and (sometimes) clear up misunderstandings.
The Merrypark
I remembered that, when Kossara Vymezal anticipates married life with Dominic Flandry, one of the many activities that she envisages is taking:
"...their children to the zoo and the merrypark." (XVI, p. 544)
"Merrypark" stuck in my memory as a distinctively Dennitzan word for a fairground, children's play area or something of that sort. On rereading we learn that Gospodar Bodin Miyatovich had taken his niece, the young Kossara:
"...to the zoo and the merrypark." (II, p. 366)
I had not noticed this first use of the term but, of course, Poul Anderson was carefully building a consistent picture of life on Dennitza whether or not his readers noticed every detail. Dennitza might be my favourite planet in the Technic History although I think that of Avalon when rereading The People Of The Wind. I would certainly welcome the opportunity to meditate in the Cathedral of St. Clement, Zorkagrad. Kossara was christened and confirmed and would have been married by Father Smed but instead she lay in state:
"...St. Kossara." (XX, p. 605)
Hans Molitor
was born to colonial bourgeois parents on Germania;
had several years of wild adventure in space;
enlisted in the Terran Navy;
rose through the ranks by ability alone;
was a hero of the battle of Syrax;
was proclaimed Emperor by his personnel in the succession crisis;
is a shrewd, uncultured pragmatist;
leads an armada to quell the barbarians in Sector Spica;
will be succeeded by dull Dietrich, then by scheming Gerhart, although he would have preferred dead Otto.
When Flandry sees Hans glance at the picture of Otto, he almost reads the Emperor's mind: a Sherlock Homes stunt.
When we read in the Chronology that Hans is succeeded by Dietrich who is succeeded by Gerhart, we might ask, "Why do such details matter?" But every character does matter. In fact, did Gerhart murder Hans, then Dietrich?
Some Strong Female Characters In Fiction
a passage in Poul Anderson's A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows where Kossara Vymezal, on vacation from the Schola and on furlough from her ground defense unit in the Narodna Vokska, hunts in the Kazan with her family's zmay (Merseian by species) gamekeeper, Trohdwyr, and kills a charging dyavo with her rifle;
SM Stirling's Daggers In Darkness about the intrepid secret agents, Luz O'Malley and Ciara Whelan;
Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy about Lisbeth Salander - although I also like a long list of Larsson's male characters, including the real life Paulo Roberto;
Neil Gaiman's The Sandman, well known for its many strong female characters, notably Dream's older sister, Death.
(Grammatically, a single-sentence post until I added this parenthetical remark.)
Technologized Slavery
"A couple of sensor spots and a niello of letters and numbers..."
-A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, II, p. 357.
The bracelet, powered by body heat, is audiovisually linked to a global monitor net. (We have become familiar with global links but not for this sort of use.) Computers noticing anything suspicious, such as tampering with the bracelet, alert a human operator who signals the bracelet to stimulate a centre in the brain causing several seconds of pain throughout the body, harmless for less than a minute unless the slave has some such condition as a weak heart.
Ingenious - especially when we reflect that that level of technology could be used to maintain a comfortable life-style for everyone.
Saturday 20 August 2022
A Life Of A Thousand Years
-Daggers In Darkness, CHAPTER FOUR, p. 77.
Some fictional characters live for more than a thousand years and we know who some of them are. Is it true that memory accumulation would overwhelm the finite capacity of a single brain or has it been argued that that is a fallacy? Why should the brain not simply edit out and forget its earliest or less important inputs, if necessary?
I would have two expectations of someone who had lived for a thousand years. First, they should indeed know a lot - although very far from everything. Secondly, they might have some wisdom. If knowledge is like a growing, albeit finite, circle on an infinite plane, then a larger circle has both a larger area and a longer circumference. The latter is the point of contact with the unknown. He who knows most knows how little he knows. That should be the beginning of wisdom. Apparently, the Webb Telescope is already overturning previous cosmological understanding.
Flandry's Life-Style
intelligence agents;
serving a monarchy;
a powerful collective opponent;
powerful individual opponents;
active heterosexuality;
dangerous assignments;
hedonism when off-duty.
Hedonism
Fiction And Reality II
"'...be rebuilt in imperishable marble and granite...'"
-Daggers In Darkness, CHAPTER THREE, p. 54.
- thus initiating the transformation of mere images of a possible future into the actual future. However, Roosevelt began this process only within a work of fiction. Theodore Roosevelt was not President of the United States in 1915 and we are invited to imagine him in that role only through the medium of alternative history fiction. The relationship between fiction and reality becomes more complicated. Willingly suspending disbelief, we temporarily accept a fictional situation as if it were a reality. Within the imagined reality of Daggers In Darkness, buildings that were transient structures in our history are in the process of becoming permanent towers at a later date. We can handle such complexities because we have been accustomed from earliest childhood to hearing stories and to knowing that they did not really happen - although sometimes people get confused. I once asked a guy to accept as a fictional premise that The Time Machine was a true account mistaken for fiction because the Time Traveller had not returned. Almost immediately, he was asking me in puzzlement whether I thought that The Time Machine had really happened.
What We Did Not Know Before
"...Josip died, and the Policy Board split on accepting his successor..." (p. 350)
Josip had been Terran Emperor in Ensign Flandry and The Rebel Worlds. Thus, the mention of his name counts as a ninth reference to earlier instalments. However, it is news to us that there was Terran civil war during the events of "Warriors from Nowhere."
Flandry mentions "'...the time I came to [Emperor Hans'] notice...'" (p. 346)
That has to be when he rescued Hans' granddaughter in "Warriors from Nowhere." For three or four years after that, Flandry was one of Hans' right hand men, persuading the marches that:
"'...they'd really rather keep Hans for their Emperor than revolt all over again.'" (ibid.)
So Josip had died, the Policy Board had split and the marches had revolted between "Hunters of the Sky Cave" and "Warriors from Nowhere." In fact:
"'...Hans had assumed, which means grabbed, the crown less than two years earlier.'" (p. 350)
So Flandry was working for a usurper at the time of "Warriors from Nowhere" and we had no idea how volatile the situation was. The text continues:
"'Everything was still in upheaval. Three avowed rivals were out to replace him by force of arms, and nobody could guess how many more would take an opportunity that came along, whether to try for supreme power or for piratical autonomy.'" (ibid.)
This is retcon: retroactive continuity. And the Empire could have disintegrated then. Flandry met his opposite numbers, Tachwyr and Aycharaych, on Talwin four years before the events of A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, thus shortly after "Warriors from Nowhere" but when Hans Molitor has almost won the civil war.
References To Earlier Instalments
Dominic Hazeltine's looks recall:
"...Persis d'Io as she had been when she and Flandry said farewell on a planet now destroyed, he not knowing she bore his child." (pp. 344-345)
- Ensign Flandry.
"'Fenross hated my guts.'" (p. 345)
-"Hunters of the Sky Cave" and "Warriors from Nowhere."
"...Flandry well-nigh singlehanded put down the barbarians of Scotha and was knighted for it..." (p. 346)
-"Tiger by the Tail."
"...Flandry well-nigh singlehanded rescued the new Emperor's favorite granddaughter - and headed off a provincial rebellion..." (ibid.)
-"Warriors from Nowhere."
"...the civilized Roidhunate of Merseia probed..."
-several previous instalments.
"'Remember how hard the colonists of Avalon fought to stay in the Domain of Ythri, way back when the Empire waged a war to adjust that frontier.'" (p. 351)
-The People Of The Wind.
"'Nicholas van Rijn...was shipwrecked [on Diomedes] once.'" (p. 353)
-The Man Who Counts.
"'Shall I open the Chateau Falkayn '35?'" (p. 355)
-Van Rijn's protege was David Falkayn.
Thus, eight direct or indirect references to previous instalments.
Friday 19 August 2022
Decadent Eras
"...reflected her owner's philosophy that, if one is born into an era of decadence, one may as well enjoy it while it lasts."
-A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, I, p. 343.
Time Patrol agents are luckier. They can pick and choose:
"'Wait till you've been to the decadent stage of the Third Matriarchy! You don't know what fun is.'"
-Poul Anderson, "Time Patrol" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 1-53 AT 2, p. 14.
"'[Augustan Rome]'s overrated. Unless we want to go 'way upstairs, the most glorious decadence available is right in my own milieu. New York, say.... If you know the right phone numbers, and I do.'"
-Poul Anderson, "Delenda Est" IN Time Patrol, pp. 173-228 AT I, p. 175.
Is that right about New York, 1960?
The Third Matriarchy decadent period must be "...way upstairs..."
Future City
"The price of building the Ideal Progressive City of the Future was years of living in the Chaotic Inconvenient Construction Site of the Now."
-SM Stirling, Daggers In Darkness (Eric Flint's Ring of Fire, 2021), CHAPTER THREE, p. 70.
Is that a comment on human life in general?
In my youth, there were two kinds of sf futures: future cities and spaceships or post-catastrophe survival. Which kind are we heading for?
Cold Planets
-Poul Anderson, A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows IN Anderson, Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight Of Terra (Riverdale, NY, March 2012), I, p. 342.
Every new instalment in a pyramidally structured future history series builds on earlier instalments and adds more. This is demonstrated by the planets referred to by the omniscient narrator:
Terra We have seen the Earth of Flandry's period in earlier instalments.
Diomedes Van Rijn was there.
Talwin Flandry was there before.
Chereion Aycharaych's home planet. We have read and learned something about it. This is the first and last time that we see it.
Dennitza New and extremely important but unfortunately never to be seen again. We want the Technic History to be much longer. As Tolkien said of his Trilogy: "It is too short."
Thursday 18 August 2022
Invaders And Reavers
On Aeneas, heroes "...of the early days..." include:
"...Brian McCormac who cast out the nonhuman invaders and whose statue stood ever afterward on a high pillar near the main campus of the University."
-Poul Anderson, The Day of Their Return IN Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 74-238 AT 4, p. 103.
On Dennitza, "...the olden heroes..." include:
"...Stefan Miyatovich...who in the depths of the Night Years cast back the reavers from our very homes."
-Poul Anderson, A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows IN Anderson, Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight Of Terra (Riverdale, NY, March 2012), pp. 339-606 AT p. 342.
The Troubles are called the Night Years on Dennitza whereas the phrase, "the Long Night," is reserved for the period still to come after the Fall of the Terran Empire.
Both Aeneas and Dennitza retain military traditions from the Troubles which, in both cases, cause friction with the Empire.
Back To Basics With Poul Anderson
I suppose that the core of the Time Patrol series is the original four short stories about Manson Everard. For over a decade these four stories filled a single volume of modest length comprising the entire series. Fortunately, the series grew and not just by the addition of more stories comparable in length or content to the original four.
The core of the Technic History must be the Captain Flandry series. Before it, in terms of fictional chronology, come the Young Flandry Trilogy and much earlier history. After it, come Flandry's later career and much later history. Captain Flandry fills two collections and one novel although, of course, the contents of the collections must be rearranged so that they are read in the order of Flandry's experience:
Captain Flandry, Volume I
"Tiger By The Tail"
"Honorable Enemies"
"The Game of Glory"
"A Message in Secret"
Volume II
"A Plague of Masters"
"Hunters of the Sky Cave"
"Warriors from Nowhere"
Volume III
A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows
We might have another look at A Knight...
Wednesday 17 August 2022
Tom Mix And Joshua
1922(b) has:
"...dime-store illustrated Westerns and Hollywood horse operas like The Taming of Texas Pete, with Tom Mix subduing bandidos." (p. 59)
Born in 1949, I remember the name, but only the name, of Tom Mix from Western comics in the 1950s. I liked cowboys, men with guns on horses, but preferred sf, men in spacesuits, and did not like footballers. What determines such likes and preferences? Little did 1950s comics readers suspect that Dominic Flandry began in 1951 and Nicholas van Rijn in 1956.
Tom Mix began his film career in 1909. Manse Everard learned roping from Will Rogers in 1910. I remember Roy Rogers but not Will Rogers.
A picture of Parisians killed by V-gas reminds Luz of Joshua:
"And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city..." (p. 61) (Joshua 6:21)
The tradition of, sometimes highly appropriate, Biblical quotations continues.
Fiction And Reality
Daggers In Darkness, CHAPTER THREE.
An exchange between Luz and Ciara: Luz suggests that the San Francisco Tower of Jewels, currently under construction, will rival the towers of Helium when ambassadors arrive from Barsoom. Ciara reminds her that, of course, there will be no cities on Mars until human beings go there and build them. So far, this is an antithesis between fiction and reality. However, Luz replies that Martian cities will be built:
"'...because people like Burroughs and Wells made us dream of it...'" (p. 56)
Synthesis: fiction becomes reality. And one fictional colonized Mars has:
"'...the Dreamers' Craters - Wells, Weinbaum, Heinlein, all the dreamers -...'"
-Poul Anderson, The Fleet Of Stars (New York, 1998), 21, p. 270.
This has become a topical issue. Will Mars be colonized soon? I will believe it when I see it.
Tuesday 16 August 2022
Other Authors
Poul Anderson made good contributions to several other authors' series. He would have been capable of exactly reproducing Conan Doyle's style in a Sherlock Holmes story. He would also have been capable of vastly improving on ERB's Martian series or EE Smith's Lensman series. (Kimball Kinnison cameos in the Old Phoenix.) Some series cry out for improved versions.
I would not welcome continuations of any of Anderson's series by other authors. Multiverse was enough to show that most other authors are not going to get it right. I do wish that Anderson himself had given us more of Dominic Flandry, Diana Crowfeather, Aycharaych and Manse Everard and other Time Patrol agents even at the expense of some later works. But what he did give us was immense.
Two Inns And A Tatterdemalion
"...lean pipe-smoking Victorian and his slightly lame companion, wide-eyed freckle-faced boy and Negro man in tatterdemalion farm clothes..."
-Poul Anderson, A Midsummer Tempest (London, 1975), Epilogue, p. 228.
First, we recognize these four. Secondly, from this and perhaps other contexts, I had picked up the idea that "tatterdemalion" was an adjective. Having re-encountered the word today, I wondered precisely what it meant. My Chambers Dictionary informs me that:
"Tatter" is a noun, meaning "a torn shred" or "a loose hanging rag";
"To tatter" is a transitive verb, meaning "to tear to tatters";
"To tatter" can also be an intransitive verb, meaning "to fall into tatters";
"Tattered" and "tattery" are adjectives, meaning "ragged";
"Tatterdemalion" is a noun, meaning "a ragged fellow."
"Tatterdemalion" is a noun in the passage that I have just read:
"We had to find one child, one helpless tatterdemalion among so many others, and if Holmes was right, if there was danger abroad, we had no time to spare."
-Anthony Horowitz, The House Of Silk (Leicester, 2012), 6, pp. 91-92.
Coincidence: Holmes and "tatterdemalion" in a single sentence in both works.
Two other points. First, Anderson describes the pipe-smoking Victorian's companion as slightly lame and, in "Time Patrol," states that the private agent's companion has a limp. I read in the Introduction to a Sherlock Holmes omnibus that Watson seemed unsure whether the jezail bullet had hit his arm or his leg. On p. 1 of The House Of Silk, Horowitz/Watson writes "...shoulder..."
Secondly, the scene in the Old Phoenix ends with Valeria Matuchek signing off:
"'Enough. I hope you've enjoyed my story.'" (p. 229)
This recalls Neil Gaiman's Inn of the Worlds' End:
Mister Gaheris: There.
Mister Gaheris: That's my tale told. Who's next?
-Neil Gaiman, The Sandman: Worlds' End (New York, 1994), p. 41, panels 5-6.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)