Miesel described the Technic History in which the Terran Empire rises and falls, a process that takes about a thousand years. (Without the hyperdrive, a single millennium would have been a very short time on an interstellar scale.)
Miesel referred to another future history series in which the characters swore by Cosmos. Is this the Psychotechnic History? The Chronology of the Future dates the beginnings of the Cosmic Religion to 2130 although we are told nothing about this religion. (By contrast, we learn something about Cosmenosis in the Technic History.)
Remembering the time spent wandering through space in the Traveler, in which he was born, Thorkild Erling reflects:
"...before Cosmos, I had loved every minute of it!"
-Poul Anderson, "Gypsy" IN Anderson, The Complete Psychotechnic League, Volume 2 (Riverdale, NY, February 2018), pp. 255-270 AT p. 262.
When conversing with his wife, he exclaims:
"'...good Cosmos, Alanna!'"
-ibid., p. 263.
In another isolated community on another planet later in the Psychotechnic History, Masefield Ellen exclaims:
"'Oh - oh Cosmos, no!'"
-Poul Anderson, "Star Ship" IN Volume 2, pp. 273-306 AT p. 300.
(Small details like naming conventions and swear words indicate a common timeline.)
Sandra Miesel's sign-off italicized passage in Volume 2 concludes:
"The Cosmos and the life it sheltered held challenges both unpredictable and inexhaustible." (p. 307)
The capital initial suggests that maybe this "Cosmos" is not just the universe or the cosmos but the subject of the Cosmic religion. We will look out for any further references in Volume 3.
Meanwhile, we are free to imagine anything about the Cosmic religion! I suggest that the empirical universe and the object of numinous or mystical experience are a single reality differently perceived. See here.
8 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
This "Cosmos" religion is, really, very vague. What was its teachings? Did it have any normative, binding scriptures? Did it have any organized rites and leadership (clergy)?
A pity Sandra Miesel apparently never found this blog and decided to leave some comments here. An old personal friend of Anderson like her could have left very interesting insights here!
If she is still alive Miesel would be in her eighties, so of course it would not be right to bother her even if I could send her emails.
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Paul!
Thanks for sending me the Wiki link for Sandra Miesel. It's good that she is still alive. She is probably the most prominent commentator in English for the works of Poul Anderson. So I thought it right to list here her Andersonian essays.
"Challenge and Response," article in THE MANY WORLDS OF POUL ANDERSON (Chilton: 1974).
AGAINST TIME'S ARROW: THE HIGH CRUSADE OF POUL ANDERSON (Borgo Press: 1978)
"Introduction" for WAR OF THE WING MEN (Gregg Press: 1976)
"Introduction" for THE PEOPLE OF THE WIND (Gregg Press: 1977)
"Afterword" for THE NIGHT FACE (Ace Books: 1978)
"Introduction' for ENSIGN FLANDRY (Gregg Press: 1979)
"Afterword: The Price of Buying Time," for A STONE IN HEAVEN (Ace Books: 1979)
"The Price of Buying Time" was written as a general commentary on the Dominic Flandry stories and novels.
"An Introduction to Elfland," in FANTASY (TOR Books: 1981)
The above listed essay being a commentary on Anderson's fantasies.
"Of Time and the Rover," Afterword to THE GUARDIANS OF TIME (TOR Books: Oct. 1981)
"The Bear That Walks Like a Man," Afterword for HOKA (TOR: June 1984)
An amusing commentary on the Hoka stories of Poul Anderson and Gordon R. Dickson.
I've also read Miesel's THE DAVINCI HOAX, co-authored with Carl E. Olson. And that covers all I have read of her works.
Ad astra! Sean
One thing I disagreed with in Miesel's work on Anderson's stories was her Chronology of Technic Civilization. Both Paul and I agreed in believing it needed serious correcting, and we both proposed amendments to it.
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Paul!
I've been wondering, how many of Miesel's above listed essays did you read? I've regretted more than once how she did not expand AGAINST TIME'S ARROW to discuss the stories Anderson wrote after 1978. AGAINST is the singles longest work I've found in English commenting on Anderson's works.
Ad astra! Sean
"Challenge and Response"
AGAINST...
"The Price of..."
"Of Time and..."
Kaor, Paul!
That's a start, at least. One idea might be to collect AGAINST TIME'S ARROW with the essays I listed above in a larger volume.
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Paul!
Another thought I had is that any COMPLETE COLLECTED WORKS OF POUL ANDERSON should include a few appendix volumes, one of them collecting Miesel's above listed Andersonian essays. Another volume should have Anderson's surviving letters, preferably including the letters of the persons Anderson was replying to, such as your correspondence. I'm glad you made copies of the letters you wrote, to keep with his responses.
All this is hypothetical, alas. There doesn't seem to be enough interest in compiling a COMPLETE COLLECTED WORKS.
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Paul!
Thinking about Sandra Miesel, her work on Anderson's stories, the book she co-authored criticizing THE DAVINCI CODE, all led me to recalling how PA wrote two stories featuring Leonardo DaVinci: "The Light," and "House Rule." Both of them far more honest works than Dan Brown's book!
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment