Hell-Wind And Realization

"Son of the Sword."

And here it is again in a more threatening form. When Pepy, the slave, has spelt out just how desperate the fugitives' situation is:

"Thoas nodded tiredly. The wind ruffled the plume on his helmet - the wind, the hot dry wind of Egypt, the cursed hell-wind blowing out of the north." (p. 148)

It cannot be stated any more strongly than that. This wind is cursed and from hell. But then something else familiar happens. Thoas reflects on something else that Pepy has said. Then he suddenly stands dead still. Ankhsenamen recognizes his stare as that of a man who has seen a revelation. Her father had looked like that coming from Aton's temple but Thoas' god is fiercer. He mutters, then shouts orders. His men swarm.

Poul Anderson's readers recognize a moment of realization as well as they recognize a meaningful wind. These are perhaps his two most memorable literary trademarks. Thoas has realized how to defeat the enemy but we will have to wait to learn how he is going to do it. And that will not be this evening. Other reading calls.

Good night.

Mounting Wind

"Son of the Sword."

Still on the Nile - not yet out at sea - Thoas' crew, led by the wrathful Cyprian, Megacles, begins to mutiny:

"They stirred uneasily on the benches, growling, reaching for the knives at their belts, and some glared at Thoas and some at Megacles." (p. 142)

Ok. What do the Andersonian elements do on such an occasion? In the very next sentence:

"The sun wavered in its veil of heat, and the wind mounted, and the ship drifted idly on the river." (ibid.)

The ship drifts because the men have stopped rowing and the wind mounts as their hostility does. We can usually count on a one-to-one correspondence between wind and human activity. There follows another Andersonian fight scene, the second in this story, although this one we are not going to summarize here! (Read it, though.)

Can Anyone Help With This?

See Krishna.

On this blog, we quite often link to earlier posts on the same blog. When we do, we frequently find minor errors requiring correction, e.g., a name misspelt etc. In the post linked above, we have quoted from SM Stirling's The Peshawar Lancers but have omitted the page reference. My copy of this novel encompasses 458 pages of text. I might reread them all anyway - not a bad idea - but, meanwhile, does any other reader out there know the page reference for Athelstane King's reflection on the god Krishna?

The Peshawar Lancers and Conquistador are my two favourite SM Stirling novels, each conveying a sense of adventure on a new (to us) parallel Earth. These works are culminating peaks of an alternative history tradition that also includes both HG Wells and Poul Anderson. What's not to like?

See also:

blog search result for -

"Thy Merchants chase the morning down the sea

And, For The Third Time...

Somewhere in Lewis Carroll's The Hunting Of The Snark: If a man says something three times, then it is true! (This is not a serious suggestion but let's just stay with it for a while...)

The opinions of a character are not necessarily those of the author but sometimes they are, sometimes it is reasonably clear that they are and they definitely are when the author himself expresses that same opinion elsewhere. Thus -

Max Abrams (a character):

"'I say [Aknhaton's pacifism] stinks.'"

-see here.

Thoas (a character):

"'Cities stood ablaze for want of the troops [Akhnaton] could have sent.'"

-see here.

Poul Anderson (the author):

"Sometimes we are disillusioned, of course. Akhnaton, the Egyptian Pharaoh who preached monotheism, turns out to have been a dreadful wimp and a disaster to his country..."

-Poul Anderson, "The Discovery of the Past" IN Anderson, Past Times (New York, November 1984), pp. 182-206 AT p. 201.

We remember a favourable reference to the monotheist Pharaoh in a book by CS Lewis, a man strong on theology, less so on politics.

Pirate Of Space

 

Résumé :

Planète lointaine, la Nouvelle-Europe est l'objet d'une guerre avec les Alérioniens, un peuple extraterrestre qui y a massacré de nombreux colons humains. Parmi les survivants, certains ont choisi de prendre les armes et de résister à l'envahisseur. Néanmoins, la Fédération mondiale est disposée au dialogue... voire à l'abdication de ses revendications sur Nouvelle-Europe, quitte à laisser ses derniers habitants aux mains des Alérioniens.
Cela, Gunnar Heim, ancien soldat désormais à la tête d'une puissante compagnie, ne peut l'accepter. Comme le dit le proverbe, on n'est jamais aussi bien servi que par soi-même : Gunnar obtient du gouvernement les autorisations nécessaires pour affréter un astronef, le Star Fox II, et guerroyer contre l'ennemi.
Face à lui se dresse Cynbe ru Taren, maître de guerre d'Alériona, formé aux méthodes de la pensée humaine au point de s'aliéner sa propre race. Tout au long du roman, Heim et Cynbe développeront un respect mutuel pour leurs compétences respectives. L'issue finale du conflit n'en sera que plus tragique...
Roman d'aventure mené tambour battant, Corsaire de l'espace est un space opera questionnant les limites de la paix comme celles de la guerre...

-copied from here.

How good is your French, anyone?

I am having breakfast before going out and did not intend to post but found Corsaire De L'Espace online.

Thoas, Abrams And Christie On Akhnaton

"Son of the Sword."

Thoas criticizes Akhnaton:

"'Rather than fail in his love for all mankind, he let those men who loved him be hacked down and their wives and children be sold into slavery. Cities stood ablaze for want of the troops he could have sent. But no, he loved everyone and Aton forbade killing.'" (p. 139)

So Thoas agrees with Dominic Flandry's mentor, Max Abrams. See Pacifism And Reformism.

Abrams says that we have a duty to act and thus connects with SM Stirling's Athelstane King. See Krishna.

We find that Agatha Christie has inserted herself again. See Akhnaton.

That is enough for this evening but the connection between Thoas and Abrams was a good one.

Philosophy On The Nile II

"Son of the Sword."

Death is an issue in religion, philosophy and detective fiction.

Thoas to Ankhsenamen:

"'...you Egyptians think too much about the next life. You should cling to this one and enjoy it as best you can and forget about the rest.'" (pp. 133-134)

Enjoy, yes. Forget? Explore everything beyond our lives including any alleged evidence for survival. Genuine objective research into the paranormal is almost impossible in the present climate! The Society for Psychical Research did a good job on the deceased CS Lewis' appearance to JB Phillips. (Mrs Phillips confirmed that her husband spoke as if conversing with someone but also that she herself neither saw nor heard Lewis.)

One of the worst features of religion is Christians gloating at the supposed fates of unbelievers and even of heretics in the hereafter. Milton did it in Paradise Lost. An American Evangelical told me online that she would love to see my face on the Day of Judgement... Right. Let's all keep trying to find the truth for ourselves. If the ultimate reality is after all a person, then He or She will sort everything out. 

Philosophy On The Nile

"Son of the Sword."

Thoas is alone on deck on the Nile:

false dawn

moonset

darkness

vaulting sky

wheeling stars

unseen banks

glimmering fires

gleaming river

lapping wavelets

cool, wet, low, sad, murmuring wind

howling dogs or jackals

slapping crocodiles

splashing hippopotami

sleeping men

dream whimpering

Ankhsenamen joins him and says in part:

"'...I don't know what to believe. Was Amen or Aton the false god, or were all gods a lie and this life a brief meaningless accident...'" (p. 133)

How the question is put is culturally conditioned. We do not now speak about Amen or Aton but the names do not matter. Gods are lies when used to oppress but not when they delight or enlighten. Life is a brief accident but not meaningless. It alone bestows meaning.

Thoas says that he has:

"'...heard nothing from the lips of any who have themselves died. So I will wait and see.'" (ibid.)

Or not see.

Wind And The Crew

"Son of the Sword."

One factor in whether Thoas' ship can escape to Cyprus is:

"'...whether we get a wind or not.'" (p. 130)

Egyptian slaves can outrow Thoas' mixed crew but, with a good breeze or in the open sea, the latter can outrun the former.

Consequently, we are reassured when the following narrative passage opens with:

"Toward morning the breeze stiffened to a murmuring wind that filled the sail, and Thoas let his weary oarsmen sleep." (p. 131)

Poul Anderson's winds nearly always mean something. This wind murmurs, so it maybe comments on the action, but it does not roar or threaten and might confirm their escape.

That mixed crew - described as barbarians, as port sweepings and as "...a mixed and ragged band..." (p. 127):

Syrians

Cretans

Cyprians

Nubians

Phoenicians

indescribables

robbers

paupers

runaway slaves

- all armed with edged metal.

Thoas might not be safe captaining them.

An Acknowledgement And A Contrast

Before we return to our usual topic of Poul Anderson, let me record that I have received an acknowledgement from British author, Alan Moore, although it was not addressed just to me. At the end of three pages of ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

"And thanks to the tiny percentage of you readers who have read to the end of these acknowledgements. To be honest I usually skip them, so your efforts are truly appreciated.

"Alan Moore

"Northampton

"January, 2022"

-Alan Moore, Illuminations (London, 2023), p. 456.

Back to "Son of the Sword":

Unusually, Thoas has the same memory twice in the space of a few pages:

"He thought of the timber hall that was his, that his father had built in the wild hills of Cyprus, and of the windy trees and the long slope of mountain down to the sea, salt air and anchored ships and gulls flying overhead." (pp. 116-117)

"Thoas remembered again the great draughty hall on the heights of Cyprus and the far blue sea and sunlight streaming down windy slopes to shatter in a million pieces on its waves." (p. 126)

Deja vu. We're like "Have I already read this?" The Cyprian scene is well worth describing twice in different words.

Each time, the memory has both a context and a corollary. 

First context: Thoas has just reflected that the Egyptian palace is built of mud that could crumble after one or two generations of weather.

First corollary: "Suddenly Egypt was stifling." (p. 117)

Second context: Thoas has just reflected on the strangeness of Egypt, "...riotous with life..." (p. 125) but brooded over by death, and the Nile of laughing lotuses where crocodiles eat murdered corpses.

Second corollary: "Aye, it would be good to come home, if ever they did." (p. 126)