Coya

"Lodestar."

Coya Conyon:

 

twenty five years of age;

daughter of Malcolm Conyon and Beatriz Yeo;

granddaughter, through her mother, of Nicholas van Rijn;

an astrophysicist at Luna Astrocenter;

has traveled around most of the Solar System;

has also visited the extra-solar planet, Ythri;

followed the adventures of the Muddlin' Through crew in her teens.

When we read about the Muddlin' Through crew, we knew nothing of Coya Conyon but maybe she could be retconned into screen adaptations? Authors are always free to add to the pasts of their characters. David Falkayn's mother, Athena, appears once briefly in Mirkheim. A few details of his early life had been mentioned on the occasion of his first appearance in "The Three-Cornered Wheel." These could be expanded in any dramatizations.

Tongues Of Angels II

Dimble asks Ransom what he should say to Merlin:

"'What shall I say in the Great Tongue?'

"'Say that you come in the name of God and all angels and in the power of the planets from one who sits today in the seat of the Pendragon and command him to come with you. Say it now.'

"And Dimble, who had been sitting with his face drawn, and rather white, between the white faces of the two women, and his eyes on the table, raised his head, and great syllables of words that sounded like castles, came out of his mouth. Jane felt her heart leap and quiver at them. Everything else in the room seemed to have been intensely quiet; even the bird, and the bear, and the cat, were still, staring at the speaker. The voice did not sound like Dimble's own: it was as if the words spoke themselves through him from some strong place at a distance - or as if they were not words at all but present operations of God, the planets, and the Pendragon. For this was the language spoken before the Fall and beyond the Moon and the meanings were not given to the syllables by chance, or skill, or long tradition, but truly inherent in them as the shape of the great Sun is inherent in the little waterdrop. This was Language herself, as she first sprang at Maleldil's bidding out of the molten quicksilver of the star called Mercury on Earth, but Viritrilbia in Deep Heaven."

-CS Lewis, That Hideous Strength IN Lewis, The Cosmic Trilogy (London, 1990), pp. 349-753 AT CHAPTER 11, p. 587.

 

That is a very helpful exposition of what is not the case. "...Language herself..." is Platonic, the antithesis of scientific. No meaning is inherent in any syllable in the way that the Sun is reflected in a drop of water. Intelligent beings give meanings to syllables by their communicative skill and preserve meanings in their traditions. There is no "Language herself" on any uninhabited planet. No deity bids it to spring from an inanimate environment.

 

Poul Anderson wrote some mythologically based fantasies but, in his hard sf, he speculated about how intelligence might really emerge on other planets - by natural selection, not by special creation. Ythrians learn to communicate through sounds and feather movements. Their Old Faith might include a god of language but, if so, then he is just another myth creatively imagined by an already linguistic community.

Tongues Of Angels

When, in Poul Anderson's "Lodestar," Hirharouk speaks Anglic and van Rijn speaks Planha, we consider fictional languages in general. Some authors merely name an imagined language whereas others, notably Tolkien, invent words, phrases etc.

For Alan Moore, see:

Fictional Languages 

Fictional Languages II 

A Fictional Language

A Fictional Language II

 

For SM Stirling referencing Tolkien, see:

 

Sindarin And Sign 

 

For discussion of Poul Anderson's Time Patrol language, Temporal, see:

 

Temporal

 

CS Lewis, a theological sf author, wrote a passage about language that is worth quoting at length in order to disagree with it and instead to champion the views of hard sf writers, like Anderson, who accepted scientific method and evolutionary theory. That will be another post.

Valenderay And Merseia

In Poul Anderson's "Supernova"/"Day of Burning" the planet Merseia is threatened by radiation from the supernova, Valenderay.

In Anderson's "Lodestar," Epsilon Aurigae, Sirius B and Valenderay are listed as famous supernovae.

In his The People Of The Wind, the Terran High Admiral's super-dreadnaught flagship is called Valenderay.

Part of the pleasure of reading a future history series is recognition of such background references to events in earlier installments.

More significant than Valenderay is Merseia:

needing League help in "Day of Burning";

discontented Merseians in Mirkheim;

the Merseian Rhoidunate growing in The People Of The Wind;

the Roidhunate a major threat to other civilizations in the Flandry series;

however, some Merseians have settled peacefully on the human colony planet, Dennitza, in the Flandry novel, A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows.

Languages

"Lodestar."

Hirharouk speaks fluent Anglic, using a vocalizer to get the sounds right. Van Rijn replies in Planha. How many languages does van Rijn speak? The answer is in Mirkheim and somewhere on the blog.

Anyone who suddenly speaks in a language unknown to some or all of his hearers displays knowledge in a context where knowledge is power or, at least, communication is an essential part of power. No wonder magicians casting spells and priests reciting liturgies were regarded with awe. Van Rijn's command of alien languages is entirely pragmatic but he is able to translate Shakespeare etc to deliver an inspiring speech on Diomedes.

I cannot speak even one other language fluently. Once, when I saw someone wearing the Esperanto badge, I managed -

Me: Cu vi parolas Esperanton?

He: Jes, jes, flue! Kaj vi?

Me: Ne, ne flue!

And, at a handfast, I recited Poul and Karen Anderson's "Tene Mithra, etiam miles, fides nostris votis nos."

There will be more on languages.

Coya Conyon

"Lodestar."

Now that we are back in Coya Conyon's point of view (pov), I want stay in it as long as possible. I sympathize with Coya when she notices a value difference between her generation from that of her grandfather. During my childhood and teens in the fifties and sixties, our elders made a big deal of something called a "generation gap" although, later, in the late seventies and the eighties, I never experienced such a gap with my daughter - who was brought up completely differently. I once heard the suggestion that the only generation gap in history was between those born before or after the atom bomb. Van Rijn and Coya are born at different stages in the history of the Polesotechnic League. He saw freedom. She sees monopolization.

It is not completely accurate (see previous post) that Coya remains the pov character throughout the rest of the narrative. On pp. 379-280, van Rijn and Hirharouk argue although their confrontation is described from neither of their povs. The omniscient narrator steps in again. The Ythrian captain's large, golden eyes and the Master Merchant's small, black ones give look for look but the reader does not look out through either of these sets of eyes. Then Coya enters her grandfather's stateroom and regards them both. We are back in her pov to which we will probably return some time tomoz.

Fair winds forever.

Ten Years Later II

See Ten Years Later.

After the double space between paragraphs, we read:

"This happened shortly after the Satan episode..." (p. 375)

"This..." means the incident that had ended with Falkayn growing tense where he sat. "...the Satan episode..." means the events of the novel, Satan's World. If we have been reading Poul Anderson's Technic History as it was originally published, then ideally we have read:

Mirkheim

The People Of The Wind

nine previous stories in the Earth Book

preferably also "The Star Plunderer" and "Sargasso of Lost Starships"

 

- between Satan's World and "Lodestar." If, instead, we are reading Baen Books' seven-volume The Technic Civilization Saga, compiled by Hank Davis, then we have read just one Earth Book story, "A Little Knowledge," between Satan's World and "Lodestar." Either way, that "Satan episode," climaxing in "...a ship which had run out of beer..." (ibid.) should be in our past as it is in van Rijn's.

 

Next, the omniscient narrator summarizes for our benefit the ensuing decade of van Rijn's life. Van Rijn's favorite granddaughter, Coya Conyon, is mentioned. This is chronologically Coya's first appearance and she features in only one other work, Mirkheim, which we may or may not have read yet. Then, in a new paragraph but without any double space to indicate a change of scene, we read:

"I can't say I like most of those money-machine merchant princes, Coya reflected..." (p. 376)

Thus, the omniscient narrator has segued into Coya who remains our viewpoint character until the poignant concluding sentence when van Rijn:

"...moved to pour from a bottle; and Coya saw that he was indeed old." (p. 408)

Ten Years Later

Poul Anderson, "Lodestar" IN Anderson, The Earth Book Of Stormgate (New York, 1979), pp. 370-408.

I especially appreciate one particular change of scene and of narrative point of view in Poul Anderson's "Lodestar." The opening section of this story ends with the following single-sentence paragraph:

"And then his glance passed over the Nebula, and as if it had spoken to him across more than a thousand parsecs, he fell silent and grew tense where he sat." (p. 375)

The viewpoint character is David Falkayn. Thus, we have been told what Falkayn was perceiving, thinking and feeling since the beginning of the story. In the second sentence, he heard a blaster shot and smelled ozone. In the second, he felt a near miss. In the third, he was dazzled. Thus, it must have been he who saw the lightning which "...reached..." (p. 370) in the opening sentence.

However, in the concluding sentence of the section, the viewpoint begins to withdraw from Falkayn. We are told that he sees the Crab Nebula, that he thinks something about it - as if it spoke to him - and that what he thinks causes him to grow tense where he sits but we are not told what it is. He is having an Andersonian moment of realization, as I have remarked before.

After this enigmatic sentence, a double space between paragraphs indicates a change of scene. We imagine a screen adaptation in which the camera pulls back from Falkayn, then from the spaceship, Muddlin' Through. If Falkayn is beginning to disclose his thoughts to his team-mates, then we are not hearing them.

Next, the omniscient narrator takes up the story but I am being interrupted here so I will publish this much now. We will transition to ten years later.

Future History Continuity

In Rise Of The Terran Empire, The People Of The Wind is immediately preceded by a very dissimilar work, "Sargasso of Lost Starships," originally published in Planet Stories, January 1952, which makes this a very early Technic History installment.

The Early Technic History In Planet Stories

"Tiger By The Tail," January 1951

"Honorable Enemies," May 1951

"Sargasso of Lost Starships," January 1952

"The Star Plunderer," September 1952

"The Ambassadors of Flesh," Summer 1954

These five stories are, at least, an early Terran Empire series with no conception as yet of any future history series. The earliest Nicholas van Rijn story was published elsewhere in September 1956 and had to be revised to make it consistent with the emergent Technic History.

In the opening chapter of "Sargasso...," we find:

the planet Ansa

tailed green Shalmuans

Terrans

the Imperial Fleet

a quadrupedal Donarrian who is also a loyal slave

Thus, if we are sufficiently familiar with the Technic History, then we appreciate much future historical continuity. Van Rijn likes Ansan soup and Helen Kittredge possibly visits Ansa. See here.

Conflict

Possible lessons from the experience of conflict:

avoid it;

resolve it;

conduct it more effectively!

 

It is necessary to know, not assume, which lesson someone else has learned. Lord Hauksberg assumes that there is a peace party within the Merseian Roidhunate (!) whereas any human Dennitzan who assumes that every Merseian Dennitzan is a Roidhunate sixth columnist would be equally off his trolley. Same species; different conditions.

 

Five Wars against Men tamed the kzinti until Speaker accepted a human female as an ally. Avalonian Ythrians, sharing a planet with human beings, should be able to advise other Ythrians on basic human psychology while at the same time acknowledging the "different conditions" of Avalon and Empire.

 

It is possible to be serious about avoiding conflict without conceding anything to a potential aggressor. Reverend Wilfrid, a Zen monk who travels by train, reflected that maybe a drunk football fan whose team has just lost a match has a right not to be confronted with the fact of organized religion if he doesn't want to be! Wilfrid can cover his shaved head with a hat and his monastic garb with an overcoat and thus can do his best not to provoke aggression - but that in no way excuses the aggression if it comes anyway.