Dune is praised in such extravagant terms that I think that a comparison with Poul Anderson is valid.
Poul Anderson Appreciation
Monday 18 March 2024
Unique?
A Philosophy For The Terran Empire
Emperors In DUNE And The Technic History
A spectacular film has an undeniable visual impact at least. Having seen Dune, Part 2, will I reread Dune? Will I compare and contrast it with Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization? Will that draw disagreement from defenders of Frank Herbert's works? A major theme of this blog is that anything that can be found in Foundation, Dune, the Future History, Star Trek or Star Wars can be found better in the Technic History.
One obvious comparison is that both series have not only an interstellar Empire but also an individual Emperor. In Dune, Part 2, Paul Atreides confronts and subordinates the Emperor. What does Poul Anderson give us? First, a history with the Terran Empire beginning, developing through at least two discrete stages and eventually ending. In addition, there are several different characters:
(i) the Founder of the Empire in "The Star Plunderer."
(ii) In Ensign Flandry, Emperor Georgios' birthday. Georgios does not appear in the novel but a film could cameo him during the birthday celebrations in the opening scenes.
(iii) Also in Ensign Flandry, Crown Prince Josip, the future Emperor, receives guests at the Coral Palace.
(iv) In A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, Crown Prince Dietrich, a future Emperor, receives while his younger brother, Gerhart, another future Emperor, gets imperially drunk with cronies. Later, Emperor Hans, the first of the Emperors to appear while Emperor, confers with Dominic Flandry.
(v) In A Stone In Heaven, Emperor Gerhart confers with Edwin Cairncross.
That is all but it is a lot, considering the biographies and impacts of these individuals.
Sunday 17 March 2024
Question And Answer, Chapter I
Anderson's Question And Answer (New York, 1978) begins with Ecclesiastes, ix. 16-18, which we discussed here.
The alternative title, Planet Of No Return, identified the latter novel as sf whereas Question And Answer is genre-neutral. An opening Biblical quotation does not identify genre so how soon in the text do we realize that we are reading sf? The novel is copyright 1956. The opening sentence refers to "...a robot..." (CHAPTER I, p. 1). When alarm lights flash red and a siren hoots:
"Three of the techs dropped what they were doing and shoved for a purchase against the nearest wall." (ibid.)
They shove for purchase because they are in free-fall. They are in space which, in 1956, was sf. The techs flee from gamma radiation which alone is enough to locate the narrative in a science-based context. We all remember phrases from books that we have read in the past. In the 1960s, I read an sf paperback, title and author's name long since forgotten, that began by informing us that its protagonist's hair was receding so fast that you would think that his nose was radioactive. This amusing opening immediately established a scientifically oriented setting. In Question And Answer, CHAPTER I, the viewpoint character, named Kemmel Gummus-lugil, must cope with the radiation threat after the techs have fled. We do not yet know much else about the background.
Many Details
The Quotations In After Doomsday;
Next to be reread is Question And Answer, also known as Planet Of No Return, yet another one-off novel of faster than light interstellar travel and alien contact. I remember very little about it.
Three Years
After Doomsday.
The text is very condensed. Three years pass between two chapters. In that time, human beings have led their allies to victory in the war against Kandemir. Grateful freed beings have let Donnan make his base on their planet. There has been time for the "The Battle of Brandobar" ballad to be composed and to be sung in another civilization-cluster where it is heard by the women of Terran Traders.
Several TV series could be set in those three years (a "three year mission"):
Saturday 16 March 2024
Loud In The Trees
After Doomsday.
A song sung by a spaceman in Yotl's Nest tells the women of Terran Traders that other human beings are alive. Sigrid says that there can only be two such days in her life. Of course Donnan asks what is the other one:
The Wind Of Spring
After Doomsday.
The male and female crews have met:
"We are together, the two halves of the human race. We know now that man will live; there will be children and hearthfires on another Earth - in the end on a thousand or a million other Earths." (14, p. 112)
A new beginning - a novel's length away from the end of Earth in the opening sentence. In a work by Poul Anderson, it is time for an appropriate wind to blow and, right on cue:
"When Sigrid stepped out, the wind blew odors of springtime at her." (ibid.)
It could have been autumn or winter when Sigrid agreed to meet Donnan on the planet Varg but of course it has to be spring. How many readers notice that the seasons match the cycles of the narrative like this? We are affected by reading Poul Anderson's texts whether or not we consciously reflect on them.
The Day After
After Doomsday by Poul Anderson and The Day After Judgement by James Blish are almost interchangeable titles, especially since the former was originally The Day After Doomsday.
After Doomsday is cosmic sf and begins:
"Earth is dead. They murdered our Earth!'" (1, p. 5)
The Day After Judgement is theological fantasy and begins:
The Ballad Of The White Horse
This poem by GK Chesterton is the source of the phrase, "Before the gods that made the gods," which is the title of PART SIX of Poul Anderson's The Shield of Time.
One stanza from the poem:
I tell you naught for your comfort,
Yea, naught for your desire,
Save that the sky grows darker yet
And the sea rises higher.
- is quoted at the beginning of Chapter 15 of Anderson's After Doomsday.
I have only just found out all this by googling.