John Ridenour

Ensign Flandry.

Lord Hauksberg considers which personnel to take from Starkad to Merseia:

"'Rather have that Ridenour fellow, 'course; he's the real authority, insofar as Terra's got any. But on that account, he can't be spared here.'" (p. 76)

I think that this is the first mention of Ridenour but, if readers wonder who he is, then we are soon informed:

"...Ridenour, the civilian head of xenological studies...was a tall, sandy-haired man..." (ibid.)

Using a vocalizer, Ridenour converses with the Siravo prisoner, Evenfall, then releases him from the boat into the sea. While awaiting a Siravo response, Ridenour studies his notes. Flandry reflects on how much Ridenour knows. For reasons of inter-species diplomacy, Dominic Flandry must join the undersea mission to the Siravo civilization but Ridenour tells him curtly to keep out of the way!

It is interesting to reread these passages knowing that Ridenour becomes a viewpoint character in a later instalment.

What Abrams Says To Flandry II

Ensign Flandry.

What Abrams had said:

First, he denied that all beings, or even all men, are brothers or ever have been.

Comment: I think that we can work towards "brotherhood" but are certainly not there yet.

Secondly, Abrams agreed that war is degrading but added that there are worse degradations and agreed that peace is wonderful but added that it is not always possible, further that it is possible only on the basis of "'...hard common interest...'" (p. 56)

Comment: That sounds to me like the Great Powers agreeing to preserve their existing borders and spheres of influence which are not necessarily in the interests of anyone else.

Thirdly:

"'Sure, the Empire is sick. But she's ours. She's all we've got.'" (ibid.)

Comment: Then some kind of change or reform is called for, not just the preservation of a "sick" status quo.

Fourthly:

"'Son, the height of irresponsibility is to spread your love and loyalty so thin that you haven't got enough left for the few beings and the few institutions which rate it from you.'" (ibid.)

But which are those beings and institutions? Abrams will limit the options to "us" and "them" while simultaneously eliminating "them"! There must be scope for different views and longer-term goals within the Terran Empire.

Of course, it is built into Anderson's narrative that the Roidhunate (not all Merseians) is pro-actively expansionist and supremacist, treating diplomacy as war by other means, but not all of history is like that.

What Abrams Says To Flandry

Scouring the early chapters of Ensign Flandry for any references to John Ridenour, I reread this interesting speech by Commander Max Abrams to Ensign Dominic Flandry:

"'They rammed you through your education. You were supposed to learn what civilization is about, but there wasn't really time, they get so damned few cadets with promise these days. So here you are, nineteen years old, loaded to the hatches with technical information and condemned to make for yourself every philosophical mistake recorded in history. I'd like you to read some books I pack around in micro. Ancient stuff mostly, a smidgin of Aristotle, Machiavelli, Jefferson, Clausewitz, Jouvenal, Michaelis. But that'll take awhile. You just go back to your quarters today. Sit. Think over what I said.'"

-Poul Anderson, Ensign Flandry (London, 1976), CHAPTER FIVE, p. 57.

What had Abrams said? We can return to that but, first, reflect on how much each individual is required to learn, most of it experientially, in their first two decades:

a spoken language, e.g., English with a regional accent;

ways to interact socially;

basic literacy and numeracy;

other school subjects (mostly forgotten);

some kind of preparation or training for work.

Possible extras:

more academic subjects in higher education;

religious indoctrination arbitrarily imposed by parents.

It is not surprising that this complicated process does not always run smoothly. Some individuals wind up badly out of joint with society. Personally, I was blind and deaf to much of the social training, resented and resisted much that I regarded as arbitrarily imposed, rationalized but then questioned received indoctrination and was very slow to formulate any kind of career aim. But I was not capable of doing anything else. My contemporaries responded in very different ways to very similar inputs.

Do I agree that Dominic Flandry should read some social philosophers? Certainly. Do I agree that he should focus on "a smidgin" of authors selected by Max Abrams? Certainly not.

Multiple Characters

Poul Anderson's Technic History presents more than just three main series characters with large supporting casts. Many substantial and interesting characters weave in and out of the narratives in high-profile, in-your-face roles with complicated interactions.

We read:

about Adzel and David Falkayn before either of them works for Nicholas van Rijn;

about Chunderban Desai and Aycharaych before either of them meets Dominic Flandry;

about John Ridenour after Flandry has worked with him on Starkad;

about Crown Prince Josip before he becomes Terran Emperor.

James Ching and Emil Dalmady each appear in only a single short story but Hloch, the Earth Book editor who does not appear in any of the stories, informs us of their subsequent careers. Christopher Holm appears only in The People Of The Wind but is the author or co-author with Hloch of works collected in the Earth Book.

Coya Conyon is van Rijn's granddaughter in "Lodestar" and Nicholas Falkayn's mother in Mirkheim and Nicholas is Nat Falkayn's father in "Wingless."

Van Rijn meets Sandra Tamarin and Eric Wace in his first novel, The Man Who Counts. He meets Sandra and his and her son, Eric Tamarin, in his third and last novel, Mirkheim.

Manuel Argos appears only once but, pivotally, founds the Terran Empire.

I want to focus on Ridenour but have cast the net widely first.

Conclusions

"Starfog."

Poul Anderson's Technic History concludes by recognizing our current predicament:

"According to historical records, Earth herself rain into the problem, and not terribly long after the industrial era began.'" (p. 790)

- the problem of overheating. Technic civilization moved industry into space.

After completing a chromosome analysis, Jaccavrie informs Laure that the Kirkasanters are not human. (This explains her discouragement of Laure's interest in Graydal, the captain's beautiful daughter.)

The Kirkasanters:

have lost night vision;

can ingest arsenic and other heavy metals unharmed;

in fact, metabolically require arsenic;

have a high radiation tolerance;

in fact, can repair radiation damage rapidly and flawlessly;

are no longer interfertile with other human beings;

are instinctually compelled to have children.

Laure and Graydal cannot marry.

Wind On A Planet In The Cloud Universe

"Starfog."

Poul Anderson describes the natural setting in detail but I have become used to focusing on the wind and usually find multiple references. When Laure, exploring the centre of the Cloud Universe cluster, lands on a planet:

"An unexpectedly strong wind shoved at him. Though thin, the air was moving fast. He heard it wail through his helmet." (p. 779)

When there has been a burst of radiation in the sky:

"...after a minute, no shock wave had hit him, no sound other than a rising wind..." (p. 780)

"The wind screamed louder still. He felt how it pushed him..." (ibid.)

"The wind yelled. It began driving ferrous dust against him..." (p. 782)

When he rises on his gravsled:

"No sense in resisting the wind. He was quite happy to be blown toward the night side." (ibid.)

When he has survived being cast against a mountain by the thin, high-velocity atmosphere:

"Wind hooted. Dust went hissing and scouring." (p. 783)

While he hopes for rescue by Jaccvarie:

"Jaccvarie could overmaster any wind. But the dust would blind both her and him. And deafen and mute them..." (p. 784)

"When he awoke, the wind had dropped from a full to a half gale..." (p. 785)

"The wind yammered." (ibid.)

Then he is rescued. But notice how large a part the wind plays.

Like The Road To Oz

Texts have meanings but also accidental associations for particular readers. When we reread a text, we remember where and when we first read it. This differs for each reader and is no part of the meaning of the text for anyone else. Another association might be reminders of our own attempts at writing fiction, if any. I did think of the idea of characters time travelling within slower than light interstellar spaceships before I read Poul Anderson's There Will Be Time but, of course, Anderson was eminently able to write fiction whereas I am not.

"The sky exploded."

-"Starfog," p. 780.

For what it is worth, these three words recall one of my few attempts at poetry:

"The sun explodes.

"The canal,

"Like the road to Oz,

"Rotates to another dimension,

"Where every particle is alive,

"And dryads dance to the water.

"We watch

"The light

"Come

"From the sun."

Some blog readers will recognize what kind of experience this verse expresses. 

Intergalactic Travel In SF Novels And Bridges Of Stars

Slower Than Light

Into Deepest Space by Fred and Geoffrey Hoyle

Tau Zero by Poul Anderson

Faster Than Light

The Triumph Of Time by James Blish

World Without Stars by Poul Anderson

We notice that:

intergalactic travel is rare in sf;

as ever, Anderson covers every angle or, in this case, both angles;

but it is Blish that cites an idea yet to be developed any further.

During an intergalactic voyage:

"Even the tenuous bridges of stars which connected the galaxies like umbilical cords - bridges whose discovery by Fritz Zworkyn in 1953 had caused a drastic upward revision in estimates of the size and age of the universe - provided no relief of the black emptiness..."

-James Blish, The Triumph Of Time IN Blish, Cities In Flight (London, 1981), pp. 467-596 AT CHAPTER SEVEN, p. 577.

We remember the Leonora Christine traversing the vast empty spaces between groups of groups of galaxies in Tau Zero. However, neither Anderson nor the Hoyles mention bridges of stars between galaxies. Could these "bridges" be used as bridges? Blish said in conversation that, on the one hand, an intergalactic journey along any such bridge should not be any quicker than travel by a direct route but, on the other hand, there must be some way that the bridges of stars could be worked into a story.

An ideal challenge for Poul Anderson or, in his absence, who else?

Survival On Kirkasant

"Starfog."

Small genetic pool.

Hostile environment.

Natural selection.

Intense radiation.

Mutations.

High birth rate.

Many deaths.

No intelligent competitors.

Rapid evolution.

Exploding population.

Mining and forging.

Respect for learning.

Wars.

A common tradition.

Rediscovered scientific method.

Rapid progress.

Knowledge of what had been possible.

Ancient texts.

The ancestral ship.

Moon rockets.

A first hyperdrive craft.

The respect for learning is described as practical but would also have been inherited from Aeneas which had begun as a scientific base. 

Two Lifetimes

"Starfog."

"...it was not too surprising that [the Kirkasanters] leaped in a single lifetime from the first moon rockets to the first hyperdrive craft -" (p. 730)

But we would be able to do that if anyone were to formulate a practicable theory of a hyperdrive. Poul Anderson pointed out in "The Discovery of the Past," in Past Times, that only sixty-six years separated the first powered flight from the first Moon landing and that his mother was alive for both. So, from powered flight to Moon landing to hyperdrive could be two lifetimes - if hyperdrive is theoretically possible, which is another question.

Speculative fiction can extrapolate current trends or postulate new discoveries which are at least possible, indeed will happen, but are inherently unpredictable. I hope that the Webb telescope will discover advanced civilizations nearby although as yet there is no evidence for them. One possibility is that they destroy themselves early, as ours is doing.