Maximus And Gratillonius

Poul and Karen Anderson, Roma Mater (London, 1988). 

Maximus tells Gratillonius:

"'You'll burn for ever after you die, unless you take the Faith.'" I, 1, p. 23.

He describes Gratillonius not as a man of a different faith but as:

"'...obstinate...'" (ibid.)

Here is a man who states his own belief as if it were an incontrovertible empirical fact like: "The sun is above us." Dialogue starts when two men acknowledge that their beliefs are beliefs and that something has to be said to back them up. Dialogue continues when there is listening, not mere assertion. And it continues for life both for those who deepen whatever belief they started out with and for those who change it. 

But, unfortunately, we meet Maximus's successors on the street to this day. Some propagandists are offensive but it would be a worse situation if they were banned.

Gratillonius On Hadrian's Wall

At present, I am more interested in Gratillonius of the Roman Empire than in Wing Alak of the Galactic League. On the opening page of Roma Mater, Gaius Valerius Gratillonius, a Romano-Briton and Roman centurion, standing on Hadrian's Wall, fifteen feet high and seventy-seven miles long, at noon on the Birthday of Mithras, sees: 

clear sky;

low blazing sun;

southward, hills, ditch, earthworks, fields, fort and settlement;

northward, the Wall's shadow on a descending cliff, forested heights, flashing icicles and flying crows;

westward, a nearby tower;

eastward, the Wall stretching over the horizon with observation turrets, mile-castles, gleaming metal, cloaks and standards and, below it, the legionary base.

And that is a good start to a historical Tetralogy.

The League And Lancaster

"Enough Rope."

It seems that League Patrol bluff can fail. The League adopts a three-stage approach to any problem:

first, reason;

second, bluff;

third, any other means short of force, e.g., bribery, blackmail...

The "...any means..." (p. 225) are said to include "...fomented revolution..." (ibid.) which of course is force but it is not war waged by the League or even by whichever government the League is dealing with. Revolution within a realm is meant to prevent any external wars waged by that realm.

I will persevere with this story although I am finding its opening passages unpromising. A powerful ruler proposes to embark on interstellar conquest and Wing Alak will have to bluff, bribe or blackmail him out of it? However, I must not prejudge the story. I have read it before at least once but years ago and have no memory of what happens next.

We said that we might reread parts of The King Of Ys (with Karen Anderson). Volume I, Roma Mater, opens on Hadrian's Wall which is a short distance to the north from where I now write. However, all that existed at the site of the future Lancaster back then was a Roman fort overlooking the River Lune. Lancaster Castle, which occupies the site of the former fort, is medieval, most likely dating from the late eleventh century. The Andersons' map of Britannia shows Carlisle, York, Chester and other major cities but nothing corresponding to Lancaster. Nevertheless, this is our part of the world.

A Telling Point

"The Double-Dyed Villains."

A frivolous story can make a serious point. The premier and his wife are relieved when their kidnapped daughter is returned unharmed. They have been through hell. But then Wing Alak asks the premier:

"'Have you ever thought how many millions of mothers this holy war of yours would have left without any prospect of getting their children back?'" (p. 173)

He explains:

"'...I had to think of the whole Galaxy, not Luan. Sometimes someone must suffer a little lest someone else suffer a lot more.'" (p. 176)

That is Alak's motivation and everything that he has done suddenly appears in a different light.

Wrong And Right

 

"The Double-Dyed Villains."

Galactic League Patrol agents act wrongly in every conventional sense. They deceive, thwart, seduce or betray their clients/victims. However, it also turns out that this is how the Patrol saves lives and keep the peace. It is all one big act and joke.

As has been pointed out in the combox, bluffs can be called:

Robert Heinlein's Future History includes a volume in which, although technology has progressed, society has regressed;

Isaac Asimov's Foundation series includes an installment in which Seldon's psychohistorical predictions are wrong;

James Blish's Okie series includes an installment in which the germanium-backed Oc dollar collapses, bankrupting the flying cities;

Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History includes an installment in which the Psychotechnic Institute has failed and has been overthrown and outlawed;

Anderson's Technic History includes an installment in which the Polesotechnic League is cartelizing and is thwarting the development of planets and species lacking the necessary start-up capital;

the League Patrol series needed an installment in which someone called the League's bluff.

Some Late Night Other Reading

James Bond looks out of the window of his room in the St Regis Hotel, New York. We could compare sights seen by Bond with those seen by Poul Anderson's Time Patrolmen, including Manse Everard, in the same city. However, since it is nearly midnight here, we will focus instead on a single detail, relying on our regular readers to recognize its relevance:

"The wind sighed sadly outside in the velvet dusk, lending his room still more warmth and security and luxury."

-Ian Fleming, Live And Let Die (London, 2004), 4, p. 35.

This wind comments twice. It is sad - why? - and, by contrast, it emphasizes Bond's expensive indoor comfort.

And, this time, that really is all that we have time for tonight.

Good night.

Space Patrols

Poul Anderson, "Enough Rope" IN Anderson, Kinship With The Stars (New York, October 1991), pp. 216-248.

In the author's introduction:

"The scars of World War Two were not yet healed when I, in a story called "The Double-Dyed Villains," raised the question of whether armed forces - which science fiction was widely using in the form of various kinds of space patrols - really were a good answer to the problem of maintaining law and peace." (p. 216)

We will refer to:

Robert Heinlein's Scribner Juveniles;

Heinlein's Future History;

Anderson's Psychotechnic History.

Space Cadet is a Scribner Juvenile about the Interplanetary Space Patrol which prevents nuclear war by monopolizing nuclear weapons. A hero of the Patrol is John Ezra Dahlquist who died preventing a coup by his superior officer.

"The Long Watch" is a Future History short story about Dahlquist's death.

In the Psychotechnic History, the armed force of the Solar Union is the Solar Guard which is split by civil war when Earth withdraws from the Union.

And that is all that there is time for tonight.

League Patrol Policy And Deceit

"The Doubled-Dyed Villains."

An anticlimax, really. Alak kidnaps the Premier's daughter to make him call off the war but then carefully explains that:

Patrol agents are not allowed to kill;

they lie about having a large battle fleet;

he would not have harmed the daughter, whatever had happened;

the Patrol deploys such deceits because the only alternative would be genocidal interstellar wars waged by themselves or others;

as part of this, he explains the three other cases that we have been shown during the story.

Not much of a basis for an extended series although there are two other stories to check out.

In different timelines:

the Polesotechnic League preserves mercantile freedom - for a while;

the Time Patrol preserves human history;

the League Patrol preserves Galactic peace. 

Another Of Poul Anderson's Many Taverns

"The Double-Dyed Villains."

On p. 163, Wing Alak visits Yamen's tavern:

photoelectric doors;

crowded;

the sweepings of space;

many nonhumans from remote planets;

dim light;

smoke;

live show;

tiny stage;

small table;

dark corner;

coin into vendor for warm, thin beer from chute;

approached by a slithering, dragonlike, reptilian, drug-peddling Rassalan with "beadlly" (?) eyes, addicted to acrid, poisonous vurzin.

Some of Poul Anderson's taverns are underworld joints and this is.

Wind And The League

"The Double-Dyed Villains."

This Galactic League does rule some non-human beings. Sirians have tendrils and Mordhans have four arms. 

Poul Anderson had an early grasp of pathetic fallacy. Red firelight seems to splash the twelve Mordhan earls with blood. And is their number significant?

"Outside the windows, the mighty autumn wind flung sleet and rain at the castle walls and roared about its towers." (p. 161)

Atmospheric and dramatic! By now we always notice Andersonian wind. We expect it to underline or punctuate the dialogue and it does. The text continues:

"Dorlock who had called the meeting, spoke first. His deep voice was low, and the storm snarled over and around its rumble..." (ibid.)

One passage about Sirians and another about Mordhans inform readers that the League rules through deceit, deception, corruption and seduction. Sf is about alternatives.