UFOs

Poul Anderson, The Infinite Voyage: Man's Future In Space (London, 1969).

Anderson displays a picture of a "flying saucer" in New Mexico, not this one, on pp. 150-151. He points out that:

"...the reported behavior of flying saucers does not square with the laws of motion for solid objects." (p. 152)

I know a ufologist who would reply that obviously flying saucers are inter-dimensional craft that defy ordinary laws of motion. Obviously. The proposition that flying saucers are some kind of intelligently directed air/space/time/dimensional vehicles is for him not a testable hypothesis but an unassailable assumption and anyone who questions it is blinkered by Western science - unless and until scientists confirm one of his assumptions, in which case their testimony is then quoted as proving the matter. (It gets worse: every time scientists make a discovery that obliges them to revise their earlier statements or theories, they are showing themselves up to have been stupid for accepting their earlier "wrong" views; every time they publish the latest data, e.g., about the atmosphere of Venus, they are claiming infallibly and authoritatively to know the composition of the Venerian atmosphere, thus setting themselves up for another humiliation whenever they - by their own scientific methods, of course - acquire additional data. Could any (mis)understanding of science be more distorted than that?)

At a World SF Con, Arthur C Clarke showed slides, including one of an Apollo launch with a discernible and rather detailed ufo in the sky. He thought that it was some sort of reflection in the camera lens. What it was not was a vehicle hovering in a clear blue sky surrounded by thousands of eyewitnesses, including photographers and camera crews, none of whom noticed it. But a photo of that sort could easily be displayed in Ufology magazines as evidence that aliens monitored Apollo launches.

Anderson's The Infinite Voyage speaks to us from an earlier period when flying saucers were reported and "...Luna City...fifty or a hundred years from now..." (p. 82) was confidently anticipated. In his "Concerning Stories Never Written: Postscript" to some editions of Revolt In 2100, Robert Heinlein wrote:

"Space travel in the near future is likely to be a marginal proposition at best, subsidized for military reasons. It could die out..."

It could. In fact, as far as space travel goes, he is describing our timeline.

That is it for 2015, folks. Posting will resume some time in 2016.

Praise for Poul Anderson

On the back cover of Poul Anderson, Young Flandry (New York, 2010):

"One of science fiction's giants."
-Arthur C Clarke.

"A Master!"
-Robert Jordan.

"Poul Anderson immerses you in the future...Anderson puts you into a whole new world."
-Larry Niven.

"These are stories of the classic science fiction tradition: hard science and tough characters in logically well integrated action stories."
-Jerry Pournelle.

"Poul Anderson probably does more things well than anyone else in the field. A thorough grasp of language, history, science, and the human spirit make him a possession for all time..."
-Harry Turtledove.

"The winner of seven Hugos and three Nebulas...one of the towering figures of modern SF and fantasy."
-Publishers Weekly.

Each of these six comments says something different. Publishers Weekly imparts information. Sf fans, as represented by the World Science Fiction Convention, give annual Hugo awards for best novel, short story, dramatic presentation etc. Sf professionals, as represented by the Science Fiction Writers of America, give annual Nebula awards in similar categories. When a novel has won a Hugo or Nebula, I think that "Winner of Hugo (or Nebula) Award for the best novel of (year)" should be displayed on the cover. "Hugo (or Nebula) winning author" should not be displayed on other books by the same writer. Publishers Weekly tells us that Anderson has won at least ten major sf awards and also writes fantasy.

Niven expresses exactly how I feel about Anderson's History of Technic Civilization.

Dr Pournelle highlights no less than four salient features:

hard science;
tough characters;
logically integrated narratives (good point);
action.

Turtledove lists four points:

language (I have frequently commented on Anderson's vocabulary);
history;
science;
humanity.

All of these accomplishments explain the use of the terms "giant" and "Master!"

...And Mercury

Mercury must be the most frequently fictionalized planet after Mars, Venus and Jupiter:

Isaac Asimov set one robot story and one Lucky Starr juvenile novel on Mercury;

the opening story of Larry Niven's Known Space future history is set on Mercury;

again, Arthur C Clarke has a story set on Mercury;

and again, Poul Anderson excels. See Strangers and Vulcan's Forge.

"Strangers" also discloses yet another feathered, owl-like Martian. See recent posts.

...Or Jupiter

After Mars and Venus, Jupiter must be the most frequently fictionalized of planets:

ERB's John Carter and one of Clifford Simak's dogs wind up on Jupiter;

the exploration of Jupiter is described in a short story by Arthur C Clarke (title?) and in another by James Blish, the latter incorporated into Blish's Cities In Flight future history.

However, the master of Jovian fiction must be Poul Anderson:

in Three Worlds To Conquer, Jupiter is inhabited by three rational species, two separated by an ammonia ocean, the third living so high in the atmosphere that it is rarely glimpsed and regarded as supernatural;

in "Call Me Joe," Jupiter is colonized by intelligent artificial organisms;

in the History of Technic Civilization, Jupiter, visited by Dominic Flandry, is colonized by extrasolars;

in the Flying Mountains future history, asteroid colonists mine the Jovian atmosphere;

in the Psychotechnic History, a disabled spaceship floats in the Jovian atmosphere.

The reader notices that some of these fictional Jupiters have a solid surface whereas others do not. A very observant reader might notice that one of Anderson's Jovians and one of his Martians have the same name.

Strangers

One of Poul Anderson's collections is Strangers From Earth. One of Robert Silverberg's anthologies is Earthmen And Strangers. Silverberg argues that sf stories about human beings meeting aliens are really about the human need to cope with meeting strangers.

The nine stories in Earthmen And Strangers include "Life Cycle" by Poul Anderson and "Out of the Sun" by Arthur C Clarke. Both of these stories are set in the twilight zone of a Mercury still believed to turn only one side towards the Sun but also to librate, thus causing a local sunrise and sunset. Anderson's characters encounter Mercurian life whereas Clarke's encounter Solar life. Anderson's Terrestrial characters are accompanied by a feathered, owl-faced Martian who sounds familiar from other Anderson works.

Anderson devises an ingenious life cycle in which hive-minded Mercurian females inhabit the Twilight Zone but must risk the dangerous heat of Dayside in order to be fertilized, as they believe, by their gods. Since females past the age of fertility return to Dayside to die, it does not take long for the Earthmen to deduce that the females apparently going to their deaths are in fact going to be transformed by the heat into the males of their species.

There is an eerie moment when the Earthmen, disguised as females, having entered the Dayside temple, see the gods approach:

"...tall lizardlike forms, in burnished coppery scales, wreathed in silvery vapor - they glowed, walking dragons, but they did not burn. They advanced...Their beaks gaped..."
- Poul Anderson, "Life Cycle" in Robert Silverberg, Ed., Earthmen And Strangers (New York, 1966), pp. 91-116 AT p. 111.

Having visited Greystoke and Hadrian's wall yesterday, today we visited the Lake District town of Keswick where I bought Earthmen And Strangers as a second hand paperback in a charity shop.

Jupiter

Brian Aldiss and Harry Harrison edited Farewell, Fantastic Venus, containing "The Big Rain," from the Psychotechnic future history, and "Sister Planet," a non-series story, by Poul Anderson. Logically, this anthology should also have contained "Logic of Empire" by Robert Heinlein but Aldiss, in a bar conversation at an sf con forty three years ago, quoted Heinlein as saying, "You can't have 'Logic of Empire.' It's part of my Future History!'"

There could be a similar, though perhaps shorter, anthology for Jupiter, containing at least:

"Bridge" by James Blish, part of the Cities In Flight future history;
"Desertion" by Clifford Simak, part of the City future history;
"Skeleton Men of Jupiter" by Edgar Rice Burroughs, part of the John Carter series;
"Call Me Joe" by Poul Anderson, non-series.

Arthur C Clarke wrote a short story about a cyborg exploring a gas giant but I cannot remember what it was called, where it was published or which gas giant it was.

Anderson also touched on Jupiter in:

"Hunters of the Sky Cave," part of the Technic Civilization future history;
"Que Donn'rez Vous?," part of the Flying Mountains future history;
Three Worlds To Conquer, non-series -

- so an Anderson Jupiter collection could be compiled from these works.

It is on my agenda to reread "Call Me Joe." "Desertion" is similar but lacks Anderson's grasp of science. Simak's characters can transform a human body into a Jovian body and back again, which can only mean destroying a human body, creating a Jovian body with the human body's memories, then reversing the process. If they command that much knowledge and energy, then surely they do not need to send transformed beings to explore the Jovian environment?

The Avatar II

Where would extrasolar aliens hide an artifact to be found by humanity only when we have started space travel? On the Moon (Arthur C Clarke). In the same orbit as Earth but on the other side of the Sun (Poul Anderson). Both artifacts are "star gates," but Clarke's is unexplained whereas Anderson's is a T machine, a large spinning cylinder, conceived by FJ Tipler, around which spacecraft can travel to other points in spacetime.

Thus, Anderson's The Avatar curiously combines the mundane (Keynsian economics on Earth) with the fantastic (because the T machine is a gate through both space and time, the characters are unsure of the temporal relationship between their home planet and their extrasolar colony.)

Anderson's sympathetic characters are gungho for as much interstellar travel as possible as soon as possible whereas his odious political villain, Ira Quick, is for channeling all resources into social welfare, therefore delaying all interstellar exploration indefinitely. He sees the population merely as voters and as passive recipients of governmental policies without any capacity for collective action. Anderson, as always, presents a credible account of this character's personality and motives but nevertheless portrays him as unpleasantly unscrupulous and manipulative. I am bound to think that a third position would be possible, addressing social problems and improving conditions on Earth while valuing the scientific knowledge to be gained by interstellar contact.

Quick thinks, of interstellar exploration:

"The best and the brightest gone off in search of mere adventure, when they could be serving." (1)

How many things are wrong with Quick's view? Maybe Cavor and Bedford went to the Moon in search of mere adventure but Armstrong and Aldrin went as agents of a large government agency which must have had its own agenda and in fact did not follow up Apollo with any further interplanetary journeys. Secondly, scientific exploration is not "mere adventure." We can get that by scuba diving or mountaineering on Earth. Thirdly, some of the "best and brightest" in the relevant sciences will want to go into space but others will indeed stay at home and "serve." Fourthly, Quick gives no thought to educational or other campaigns to mobilize his "general public" and "the poor" to address problems that surely do need a collective response.

I have reread the novel to a point where Quick is self-righteously planning a final solution for the returned explorers whom he has concealed and incarcerated. Thus, even a reader who had, improbably, agreed with Quick so far would have to reject his next step with revulsion. 

(1) Anderson, Poul, The Avatar, London, 1981, p. 103.