Hoka And Draka

While discussing Poul Anderson's and Gordon R Dickson's role-playing aliens, the Hokas, I addressed the philosophical question of identity. This question has arisen again while reading SM Stirling's Draka series.

Marya, the serf who is also an OSS agent, reflects that her non-stop performance as a serf is like method acting:

"...creating and living in a persona. She suspected most born-serfs did the same from infancy, less consciously; it was impossible to tell how many retained anything beneath the role, how many became it."
-SM Stirling, The Stone Dogs (New York, 1990), p. 397.

But surely we all live a persona or role from infancy and usually also become it? Any two babies could have been switched at birth. Thus, a man who has been a Christian all his life would instead have been a Hindu all his life, and vice versa. We accept these arbitrarily assigned roles and mistakenly believe that they are actually substantial identities whereas the only reality is that we are malleable social organisms sharing one planet where the borders exist only in our minds - as do many other social conventions, most significantly money.

In Britain, some undercover cops infiltrated the movements (animal rights, environmentalism, Justice for Stephen Lawrence etc). In some cases, the undercover men entered into relationships with female campaigners who then had children by them. When it was revealed that some such undercover police officers had been agent provocateurs, convictions had to be quashed. These men must have been doing what Marya calls "method acting" and might subsequently have encountered difficulty in differentiating between their two identities.

Space Time Fiction

In Poul Anderson's and Gordon R. Dickson's "The Adventure of the Misplaced Hound," the quadrupedal criminal indeed turns out to have been masquerading as the Hound of the Baskervilles. No surprises there.

If anyone were to read the fourth NESFA collection of Anderson's short works from cover to cover, then they would encounter the third Gunnar Heim story, the fourth Hoka story, the fourth Time Patrol story, two independent stories and a pivotal David Falkayn story one after the other. Some readers might even prefer these unexpected reappearances of familiar characters. To this extent, the collections recapture something of the unpredictability of the original magazine publication of the author's works.

I remarked recently that Captain Heim of Fox II might recall Captain Kirk of the Enterprise. However, I feel that a worthier comparison can be drawn between Anderson's interstellar fiction and some comic strip sf written for example by Alan Moore. See here.

Hokas And The End Of Time

Michael Moorcock's Dancers at the End of Time are immortal decadents who can create whatever they want with energy stored by their ancestors millions of years previously. Consequently, their time is spent neither working nor learning but playing their chosen roles and, in this at least, they resemble Poul Anderson's and Gordon R Dickson's Hokas. Jherek Carnelian does not find himself falling exclusively in love with a woman who has been brought from the nineteenth century but decides to do so and is then applauded by his contemporaries for original thinking.

When Jherek has returned from a visit to the nineteenth century, it takes him a while to appreciate that no one in Victorian London was playing a role. Each was what s/he seemed to be. Anyone who appeared to be old and poor really was old and poor. This would be difficult for an End of Timer to comprehend. Unlike the Hokas, they encounter no practical limitations to the roles in which they have immersed themselves. Instead, they create and inhabit artificial or illusory landscapes and therefore never encounter any contradictions requiring rationalization.

Thus, superior technology enables End of Timers to take Hoka-type role-playing to a higher level. I think that there remains considerable scope for this idea in sf and also that it can be used to comment on our condition which combines material necessities with enacted fictions and pretenses that can be mistaken for realities.

An even busier weekend looms ahead. I do not expect even to look at a computer any time tomorrow.

Ppussjans And Hokas

Ppussjans from Ximba are:

"'...small, slim fellows, cyno-centauroid type; four legs and two arms...'" (Admiralty, p. 56)

Yet another quadrupedal race. How many in Poul Anderson's sf?

Regarding the Hokas, I do not buy intelligent alien teddy bears. On the one hand, the Hoka series is humorous sf. Therefore, its details are not meant to be taken too seriously. On the other hand, I would like to see a more serious treatment of this premise:

"'...my servant...does not consciously believe he's a mysterious East Indian; but his subconscious has gone overboard for the role, and he can easily rationalize anything that conflicts with his wacky assumptions...Hokas are somewhat like small human children, plus having the physical and intellectual capabilities of human adults. It's a formidable combination.'" (p. 58)

But is that not what we are? Protoplasm with an imagination? - that "...Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven as make the angels weep."

Repetition

Since I have begun to reread Poul Anderson's and Gordon R Dickson's Sherlock Holmes pastiche, I considered posting my thoughts on the phrase, "Elementary, my dear Watson!" Fortunately, I first searched the blog to check whether I had already done so and found that I had done it twice, first in September 2013 and again in November of that same year. See here.

Both posts have the same title and begin by quoting Anderson's and Dickson's story, yet I had clearly forgotten the September post when I published the November post. This happened at least once before with two nearly identical posts on Starkadian mathematics although a search has located only one such post so the other must have a different title.

I have found the other mathematical post here by searching for "factorial N." So how much of the blog is repetition? Please feel free to search it and let me know!

Afterword III

Virgil wrote, "Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes," (I fear Greeks bringing gifts), in Aeneid, II, 49.

The captain of the first survey ship to Toka is alleged to have said, of the Hoka's reptilian opponents, "'Timeo dracones et dona ferentis'..." (I fear dragons bringing gifts):

- S*ndr* M**s*l, "'The Bear That Walks Like a Man': An Ursinoid Stereotype in Early Interbeing Era Popular Culture" IN Poul Anderson and Gordon R Dickson, Hoka (New York, 1985), pp. 241-253 AT p. 244.

M**s*l thinks "...it is no accident that the next starship dispatched to Toka was the H.M.S. Draco." (pp. 244-245)

Thus, Sandra Miesel, as she is on our side of the event horizon, neatly links reptilian Tokans to the H.M.S. Draco through a clever Virgilian misquotation.

If I were ever to be assisted by an apprentice blogger, I might set him/her this exercise: edit M**s*l's piece to eliminate political swear words. Thus:

"Although in their contemptible bourgeois fashion Anderson and Dickson attempt to portray Jones as a bumbling simpleton of a hero, it is well known that he was in actuality a cunning arch-villain steeped in reactionary paternalism of the deepest hue. This lackey of the League's ruling caste..." (p. 245)

would have to become something like:

"Although Anderson and Dickson attempt to portray Jones as a bumbling simpleton of a hero, he was in actuality a League apologist who..."

- and even that might not be edited down enough. I edited out "...it is well known that..." because M**s*l needs to cite evidence, not appeal to what (she says) we all know anyway. (Sorry if I sound as if I am taking this too seriously but it is an interesting exercise.)

"Had political development proceeded at its natural pace, a bispeciesist communal society would have inevitably evolved on Toka." (p. 244)

Ideological blindness indeed! In fact, there are three howlers here. First, nothing about society is either inevitable or mechanically predictable and in this case the projected outcome seems highly unlikely. Secondly, political development is not a "natural" process like biology or natural selection. Rational species have stepped out of natural history into social history which is qualitatively different. Everything that they do is "artificial" and interstellar contact is just more of that. Thirdly, political development cannot possibly have a predetermined "pace." It can stagnate for millennia or explode in a week.

"Although the cleansing fire of revolutionary zeal has happily rendered such aberrations obsolete, speciesism in all its loathsomeness did pervade human behavior in the League era." (p. 249)

I think that this just means, "League human beings were speciesist."

- and, of course, this requires elucidation. One example given is "...Tanni Jones plays goddess for the Telks..." (ibid.)

We thought that Tanni was forced into this role and had to be rescued from it but now we know that our informants were contemptibly bourgeois.

M**s*l hints at dark revelations "...when the unexpurgated critical edition of Tanni Jones' diary is finally published." (ibid.)

It is fortunate that M, to abbreviate the name further, seems to be unaware of the illustrations showing Tanni and Hokas with the naked Alex Jr playing Mowgli.

Afterword II

In the Afterword to Poul Anderson's and Gordon R Dickson's Hoka (New York, 1985), S*ndr* M**s*l describes Rudyard Kipling as "...a jingoistic journalist..." (p. 243). I had thought that the slang term "jingo" became associated with nationalism because of a poem by Kipling and therefore that Sandra Miesel was consciously ironic when she made her alter ego in the Hoka timeline apply the adjective "jingoistic" back onto Kipling himself. This may be so but will require more research for confirmation. A quick google search has disclosed a long history for the term "Jingo" and its use by many other people.

"...the obsessively imitative behavior of the Hokas toward humans is a servile response typical of oppressed peoples. They emulate their vile oppressors in the deluded hope of thereby bettering their own condition." (p. 246)

There is a real point in there somewhere! Ango-Indians, Anglo-Irish, the latter denigrated as "West Britons" by some of their countrymen. A black work colleague once told me that he was "...a field nigger!" (I would not use this word if I were not quoting Negel's own self-description.) He elucidated, "Your house niggers are your cooks and your maids who feel that they are part of the family. Your field niggers are your field workers who want to burn the house down!" Yeah, right. I must assure everyone that he was usually a mild-mannered man who only said this once.

But the Hoka's imitativeness is not of that Anglo or "house" sort, although Miesel has cleverly made this comparison in order to show how M**s*l's ideological approach would misrepresent the beings that the latter claims to represent. If the Hokas had wanted to ingratiate themselves with humanity, then they would have mimicked the life-styles of the plenipotentiary and his wife and would have maintained an obsequious relationship with them. Instead, they imitate every possible historical figure and fictitious character with a thoroughness that causes endless problems for the plenipotentiary and then suddenly switch to following another fashion with bewildering rapidity.

M**s*l says that Alexander Jones:

"...led his first delegation of Hokas to Earth shortly after his appointment as plenipotentiary (the chaotic expedition is described in 'Don Jones')..." (p. 246)

In fact, in "Don Jones," Jones is merely assigned to host a visiting delegation. The story ends:

"'Ah, there, Jones. No hard feelings, I trust? There's something that just occurred to me. How would you like to be a plenipotentiary -?'" (Earthman's Burden, New York, 1979, p. 60)

But, again, Miesel has a point to make. Crucial historical details like the date on which an individual became a plenipotentiary become hotly disputed with opposed interest groups citing contrary sources and arguments. If Jones was not already the plenipotentiary, then why was he in charge of that delegation? - and so on.

Again:

"'Undiplomatic Immunity' boasts of the collaboration by Hoka pawns in human-engineered espionage schemes...'" (p. 247)

Excuse me, surely it was the Hokas who nearly wrecked everything by role-playing espionage to the ludicrous extent of really breaking into other delegations' apartments? But then why should we believe Anderson's and Dickson's highly implausible account? - and so on.

Afterword

Should I read the thirteen-page Afterword to Poul Anderson's and Gordon R Dickson's Hoka (New York, 1985)? It is written neither by Anderson nor by Dickson but by S*ndr* M**s*l, who is described in a footnote as "Academician of the All-Systems Institute for Historico-Literary Investigations" (p. 241)!

A Publisher's Note introducing the Afterword describes left-wing intellectuals as particularly "dumb" whereas the ones that I know are both intelligent and informed.

However:

as the footnote already quoted should make clear, this is a parody;
I have indeed read some left-wing, in particular Maoist, tracts that were as insulting to the intelligence as M**s*l's:

"We eagerly await that glorious day when fully liberated Hokas assume their rightful place in the classless Union of Beings even now being forged in our own Sector and that will soon and inevitably liberate our entire Galaxy from the capitalist oppressors." (p. 253)

So I will read on... I will be interested to see whether Sandra Miesel, to name the eminent Anderson scholar as opposed to her revolutionary opposite number, combines satire with some discussion of the stories.

For fictional purposes, should we really see the Afterword as fitting into the same timeline as the stories? I would hate to think of Anderson's and Dickson's gentle Interbeing League being replaced by M**s*l's intolerant Union of Beings but we can console ourselves that the claimed inevitability of its Galactic hegemony is mere propaganda!

The Hoka Series As A Whole

The first volume, Earthman's Burden (New York, 1979), is six stories; the second, Hoka (New York, 1985) is four; total ten.

The first story describes Alexander Jones' arrival on the planet Toka as an Ensign. From the third story, he is the plenipotentiary of the Interbeing League to Toka. The second story, written later, fills in the gap by describing a Tokan delegation to Earth and ends with Jones being appointed plenipotentiary.

The third, fourth, fifth and sixth stories are a linear sequence of events on Toka. After the sixth story, Jones writes a letter in which he states that, after an important baseball game, he will take a delegation to Earth to apply for an upgrading of Toka's status in the League.

The seventh story, to continue the numbering from the first volume, describes the baseball game. In the eighth, the delegation is on Earth but must surmount an obstacle to its application. The story ends with the obstacle overcome. The ninth story recounts what meanwhile happens to Jones' wife Tanni back on Toka.

The tenth story again starts with Tanni on Toka and recounts some events prior to the ninth story. When the action has again moved forward, Kratch obstruction to the Tokan application delays Jones on Earth while the situation on Toka deteriorates. If Jones does not return, the Tokan situation may become so catastrophic that the upgrading will be prevented and Jones' career ended but, if he is known to have returned, then the Kratch will stop obstructing parliamentary discussion of the Tokan application and have it debated without Jones there to put his case or reply to their objections.

Solution: Jones returns in secret. The story ends with the potential catastrophe averted but we still do not know the outcome of the application although it should be a foregone conclusion since the Kratch have been discredited as the fomentors of the crisis.

Thus:

the series, basically a comedy, becomes darker as it proceeds - the comic figures may be led into tragedy;
more could be told and I am yet to learn whether the novel, Star Prince Charlie, continues this narrative or goes off at a tangent.

Starting To Consider The Hoka Series As A Whole

I have finished reading the second collection of stories in Poul Anderson's and Gordon R Dickson's Hoka series and can now start to reflect on the series as a whole - although I have yet to read the novel, which should be in the post.

When reading the first collection, Earthman's Burden (New York, 1979), I forgot to remind readers that the song "Sam Hall," of which a few lines are sung on p. 137, provided the name for a revolutionary alias in a Poul Anderson short story and that revolutionaries collectively called the Sam Halls were referred to in his novel, Three Worlds To Conquer.

One Hoka story ended with "THE WORDS": "Elementary, my dear Watson!" (p. 121) and the second collection ends with another famous quotation: "Publish and be damned!" (Hoka, New York, 1985, p. 240). The story states, and google confirms, that the Duke of Wellington commendably gave this advice to a would-be blackmailer. As with the pirates' names in the first volume, we learn a little history by reading the series, although a lot more from Anderson's historical and time travel fiction. I am sure that there is a reference to Colonel Blimp in Hoka although I cannot find it on re-scanning the text. Since Anderson also references Blimp in "Delenda Est" (Time Patrol), this time I googled and learned the history of this cartoon character, including the meaning of his surname.

Previously, I asked rhetorically why I was unable to deduce in advance what further use the authors would make of their superjovian-dwelling character, Brob. Sure enough, Brob makes himself helpful one more time in a way that follows logically from what we have already been told about his personality but that I was completely unable to anticipate.

Brob On Toka

Here is another logical yet significant deduction about the inhabitants of the superjovian planet called Brobdingnag by human beings. It is OK for one of their number, called "Brob" because no human being can pronounce his real name, to spend weeks at sea with the British fleet on Toka because:

"Brob had eaten before they left Mixamaxu, and one of his nuclear meals kept him fueled for weeks."
-Poul Anderson and Gordon R Dickson, Hoka (New York, 1985), p. 200.

Consuming isotopes, he does not need to eat two or three times a day.

Needless to say, Brob's role in the story is more than just either light relief or a means of quick transportation for Alex Jones from Earth to Toka. Like a superhero, Brob is powerful enough to defeat an enemy without either suffering or inflicting any physical injury. As he swims towards the French fleet, their cannonballs bounce off him. Catching a mast with a hooked chain, he dives and swims until he has overturned the ship enough to soak its gunpowder. When he has done this twice, the remaining ship flees. Thus, a battle has been prevented with no harm either to the enemy or to their single adversary, just as Superman would have done it.

My only question here are:

Surely Brob should be so heavy that he sinks like a stone instead of being able to swim?

Why can I not logically deduce in advance whatever is the next contribution that the authors will have this character make to the plot?

Brobdingnagian Culture And Technology

In Poul Anderson's and Gordon R Dickson's Hoka (New York, 1985), the Brobdingnagians, large nuclear-powered inhabitants of a supernova-blasted superjovian planet, are strong enough to pull apart with their bare hands even "...the collapsed metal armor of a warcraft, rather like a man ripping a newsfax in half." (p. 184) "...collapsed metal..." sounds as if it means that the particles are pressed together, thus that the material is artificially super-dense?

It follows first that they have no natural enemies, not even on Brobdingnag, and secondly that they "...have no reason not to be full of love for all life forms..." (ibid.) and, of course, they tend to assume the same attitude in others. Although the space-traveling Brob knows from experience that this is not the case, he retains an unAndersonian inclination, for example, to give the benefit of the doubt to aggressors since they are probably only misguided...

In conversation with Brob, Alex must practice patience but he has learned how to do this by dealing with the Hokas. Here, several species interact.

Two comments on the super-strong bur peaceable Brobdingnagians:

(i) they would make excellent Marvel Comics superheroes;
(ii) might they be unFallen?

I no longer subscribe to the belief that humanity was created in, and has fallen from, a Paradisal state. On the contrary, I now think that we have risen through natural selection followed by manual and mental labor. However, the question of whether some rational species are "unFallen" arises at least twice in sf:

CS Lewis' Ransom Trilogy;
Poul Anderson's character, Fr Axor, in the Technic Civilization History.

Alex needs to return to Toka quickly and Brob's battered, corroded trading ship takes him there quickly. Brob's power-plant matches that of a dreadnaught and his drive is as finely tuned as a courier's because the Brobdingnagians "...could work on a nuclear reactor as casually as a human could tinker with an aircar engine..." (p. 183) 

The authors are thorough in deducing every implication of their premises.

Brobdingangian Biology And Sociology

In Poul Anderson's and Gordon R Dickson's Hoka (New York, 1985), having described the bizarre Brodingnagian biology, based not on oxidized organics but on fissioned nuclei, the authors deduce some sociological implications.

Although not dangerous, traveling Brobingnagians are often feared and avoided:

"Having delivered a cargo to Earth, Brob found himself unable to get another..." (p. 174)

Seeking company, he frequents a pub and is "...pathetically grateful..." (ibid.) when Alex Jones not only talks to him but stays in touch afterwards. On Earth long enough to study Terrestrial culture, Brob likes Japan and adapts the tea ceremony. Since tea sipped by a Brobdingnagian becomes steam:

"...he contemplated the white clouds swirling out of his mouth..." (p. 175)

I suppose he would. More may happen later but, so far, Brob's only role in the narrative is to provide Alex with much-needed discreet transportation back to Toka. Thus, conscientious sf writers, in this case Anderson and Dickson, work extremely hard on all the background details like the natures of alien races that add interest and substance to this kind of imaginative fiction.

Evil Masterminds

In Poul Anderson's and Gordon R Dickson's Hoka (New York, 1985), the comedy threatens to become tragedy as a malign influence stirs the Hokas up into conflicts that could turn into massacres. Thus, the series approaches a climax as Alex Jones tries to get the planet upgraded but realizes that it could instead retrogress catastrophically.

Listing the villains that have appeared so far in individual stories, Alex wonders:

"'...if some evil masterminds aren't at work behind the scenes...'" (p. 178)

Unwittingly, he then goes on to identify the masterminds:

"'It's either believe that, or else believe we're only characters in a series of stories being written by a couple of hacks who need the money.'" (ibid.)

He has identified the true nature of his predicament although he cannot know it. This theme of author as villain was presented appropriately in a stage adaptation of Sherlock Holmes where scenes from Holmes stories including "The Final Problem" alternated with scenes in which the same actors played the parts of Conan Doyle and his mentor. Frustrated by Holmes' success when he preferred to write historical fiction, Doyle ended one scene by saying, "I could always kill him off!" And, like all villains, he failed...

An Inhabited Mirkheim!

In Poul Anderson's and Gordon R Dickson's Hoka (New York, 1985), a nearby supernova blew away the atmosphere of a superjovian planet and covered its solidified core with heavy elements, including radioactives. This is familiar Anderson territory, a cosmic accident with an unlikely but nevertheless possible outcome.

It is also the planet Mirkheim revisited but with one big difference: life, taking energy from local radioactive material "...rather than the feeble red sun." (p. 174) Animals eat isotopes concentrated by plants. A Brobingnagian (for such is the human name of the planet) does not oxidize organic materials, "...like most creatures in known space..." (ibid.), but fissions nuclei and is correspondingly strong.

His internal processes produce little radiation which is, in any case, absorbed by his stomach but he must take precautions when disposing of body wastes. Brobdingnagians, evolved on an airless planet, have neither nose nor ears and instead communicate by transmitting and receiving vibrations through the ground via tympani on their meter-long feet. The large round head and body are covered by blue fur and the brown eyes are bone dry.

How much of this is serious scientific speculation and how much is comical exaggeration in keeping with the comedy of the rest of the Hoka series? 

Interconnected Narratives

In Poul Anderson's and Gordon R Dickson's Hoka (New York, 1985), three stories overlap:

while Alex Jones is on Earth applying for the upgrading of Toka, as recounted in "Undiplomatic Immunity," Leopold Ormen arrives on Toka, where he is greeted by a Hokan Gimli the Dwarf, and gets Tanni Jones' agreement to travel around the planet making a documentary, as in the opening section of "The Napoleon Crime";

then Tanni heads off the War of the Rings, gets caught up in the Jungle Book affair, as recounted in "Full Pack (Hoka's Wild)," and receives a letter from Alex explaining that he must remain on Earth indefinitely because the Kratchen delegation has started to use parliamentary tricks in order to delay the upgrading of Toka;

thus, when, later in "The Napoleon Crime," Tanni perceives an impending catastrophe resulting from Ormen's activities and urgently contacts Alex, "The Napoleon Crime" has, I think, disentangled its plot from those of the two earlier stories and is now free to present an independent narrative, although I have yet to learn what Ormen is doing.

If the title were "The Napoleon of Crime," it would suggest Moriarty but we have already had the Hokan Holmesian story so we can expect instead something referring to the original Napoleon - although anything is possible!

Tanni On Toka

Now this is neat. The third story in the second Hoka collection, Hoka (New York, 1985), by Poul Anderson and Gordon R Dickson, tells us how Tanni Jones copes back home on Toka while Alex Jones is on Earth in the second story. Alex Jr with his copy of Kipling's Jungle Books accompanies Tanni into a jungle area where the Hokas cast him as Mowgli and themselves as Mowgli's animal companions.

Tanni must follow her husband's advice and find a way to manage the Hokas by turning their own logic against them. Thus, when she wants to stop them interfering, she reminds them that, by the Law of the Jungle, the wolves should be asleep during the day...

The texts describe Tanni as blonde and beautiful so she is drawn thus in the illustrations which could easily be extended into a comic strip or animation. The Joneses have been on Toka for twelve years so the timeline has not been advanced.

The fourth story, which I have yet to read in full, also starts with Tanni coping while Alex Sr is away, whether on the same trip or another. An illustration of a Tokan street scene shows a Childe Cycles shop advertising bicycles built for brew and a Three Hearts and Three Lions Tavern:

The Childe Cycle is an unfinished series by Dickson;
"A Bicycle Built For Brew" is a story by Anderson;
Three Hearts And Three Lions is a novel by Anderson.

Thus, this illustration is similar to Kevin O'Neil's panels in the Alan Moore-scripted The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen (see here): backgrounds must be studied for literary references. There is another sf reference on an earlier page of Hoka:

"...here is the race that shall rule the sevagram!" (p. 47)

The Penny Dropped

At last I understand something. At the end of Poul Anderson's and Gordon R Dickson's Earthman's Burden (New York, 1979), I thought that Alexander Jones had contradicted himself when he said both that he was preparing to travel to Earth and that he had decided against resigning his post on Toka. I asked whether, in that case, the trip to Earth was to be a holiday.

Jones goes on to say that his doubts are being resolved but then addresses another concern. A rule of the Cultural Development Service would have kept his wards, the Hokas, in "Class D" for a minimum of fifty years even though they had in every other respect qualified for upgrading at least to Class C - the object of this exercise being for them, like other intelligent species, to rise up through the Classes towards full status in the Interbeing League. Having blackmailed an inspector to waive the fifty-year rule, Jones is now preparing to take "...a Hoka delegation to Earth to apply for advancement." (p. 188)

I did read Jones' letter through to the end. However, the paragraphs about resolution of doubts separate the apparent contradiction from the explanation of the delegation. Consequently, I failed to connect the end of the letter back to its beginning.

I suspect that the letters between the stories did not appear as addenda to the individual stories when these were originally published but were instead inserted in the collection. Of the ten stories in the two collections:

two were originally published in Other Worlds Science Stories;
one in Universe Science Fiction;
five in The Magazine Of Fantasy And Science Fiction;
one in Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact;
one in the first collection.

Jones' letter at the end of the first collection states that he and his delegation will travel to Earth after a baseball game and is followed by a Hokan memorandum disclosing that members of the delegation will engage in cloak and dagger activities when they arrive on Earth. Thus, the letter and the memorandum prefigure the first two stories of the second collection: baseball on Toka followed by advancement application marred by indiscreet espionage on Earth.

I must now read further to learn the outcome of the application.

Baseball Etc

Here is a detail that I missed when summarizing the contents of Poul Anderson's and Gordon R Dickson's Hoka (New York, 1985). On the cover and the title page, the title is Hoka whereas, on the second title page, the title is Hoka!

I do not understand baseball and certainly do not understand the Hoka-Sarennian baseball game in "Joy In Mudville":

"...to lay down a bunt..." (p. 41)

"...the first six men up scored two men and loaded the bases." (p. 42)

"Lefty bounced the next pitch off the right field wall for a stand-up triple." (p. 47)

"The tying run was on, and there were two outs left to bring it home." (p. 54)

OK?

But it ends with yet another insight into Hokan psychology:

"To Hokan taste, it was almost an anticlimax after the glorious victory of the fictional Casey when the factual one playfully tapped a home run over the left field and won the Sector pennant." (p. 63)

That fits with everything that we have been told about the Hokas in the six previous stories.

At the end of Earthman's Burden, Alex said that he would visit Earth after a baseball game and, sure enough, he is back on Earth at the beginning of "Undiplomatic Immunity" so maybe I am about to read something more comprehensible?

Hoka: A Late-Night Reconnoitre Of The Text

In Poul Anderson's and Gordon R Dickson's Hoka (New York, 1985), the text starts on p. 11 and ends on p. 240. It is preceded by:

the cover (see image);
the blank inside of the cover;
an illustration (p. 1);
a blank page (p. 2);
the title page (p. 3);
the publishing and copyright information (p. 4);
that occasional sort of second title page which is merely the title without authors' or publisher's names (p. 5);
another blank page (p. 6);
a three page Prologue that could have fitted onto two (pp. 7-9);
a third blank page (p. 10).

It is followed by:

a thirteen page Afterword by Sandra Miesel (pp. 241-253);
another blank page;
a list of other works by Poul Anderson;
a list of other works by Gordon R Dickson;
the back cover.

Between the beginning and the end of the text, I counted thirty full page illustrations and one blank page. Thus, the text comprises 199 pages of larger type than in the previous volume whose page count for the text is 167 but including a few partly blank pages. Illustrations, present in the first volume, have become more prominent in the second.

We are mainly interested in the content of a book but it sometimes of interest also to consider it as a physical artifact.