Establishing Communication

I have been rereading two sf novels in which space travelers have to establish communication with alien intelligence(s).

Poul Anderson, World Without Stars

The Azkashi are easy to deal with because they have:

"...no obviously alien semantics." (VII, p. 49)

They have individual names, use comprehensible sign language and both accept and bring gifts. When their gifts include an animal that might poison the Earthmen, Valland accepts this gift by burning it. This response is acceptable to the Azkashi.

Caution remains necessary. Valland appears to claim that he has come from the galaxy. To ya-Kela, this implies that Valland has claimed:

"...to be the emissary of God." (VIII, p. 52)

The Azkashi partially resemble kangaroos.

James Blish, Welcome To Mars (London, 1978)

The dune-cat's resting stance is kangaroo-like and he has an abdominal pouch. Each hand has five fingers and a thumb so he counts in twelves.

Communication is difficult. Neither can pronounce the other's language so they develop a pidgin and some information is exchanged by drawing maps and pictures.

Life On Mars

This post, occasioned by rereading James Blish's Welcome To Mars, is not comprehensive but does cover successive stages of the fictional treatment of Mars, our point as always being that Poul Anderson makes several alternative contributions.

In works by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Ray Bradbury and CS Lewis, Mars is humanly habitable. One novel and one short story by Lewis are set on different versions of Mars.

In Larry Niven's Known Space future history, a human protector diverts an ice asteroid onto a collision course with Mars and thus exterminates the Martians although some of their species still survive in the Map of Mars in the Ringworld.

In Anderson's Psychotechnic History, there are native Martians. In his Technic History, there are extra-solar colonists of Mars. In his The Fleet Of Stars, there are human colonists of Mars. In his The Winter Of The World, interplanetary travel has ceased but Mars is green, indicating that it has been terraformed and has now become humanly habitable.

Angels And Planets

World Without Stars.

When ya-Kela looks at the night sky:

"...the last coals of sunset went out, and the sky was empty of everything save God, the angels, and three planets..." (I, p. 6)

I said in God Rising that I did not know what the angels were. I still don't. When Felipe Argens looks at the sky on that same night, he sees only the galaxy ("God") and:

"...three glitters which we now knew were planets." (VII, p. 44)

Can natives see something that human beings cannot? Or are the "angels" those stars that can be discerned as individual points at the ends of the spiral arms? I think that it is more likely that they are divine attendants that are imagined or believed in although not seen. But I remain unsure as to what Poul Anderson was alluding to.

God, The Galaxy

World Without Stars.

"God was rising in the west, and this time the sun was down -..." (I, p. 5)

"This evening the galaxy rose directly after sunset." (VII, p. 43)

This is the same event described twice and from different povs. Later in I, ya-Kela must investigate:

"...strange newcomers..." (p. 6) 

Later in VII, Hugh Valland, on watch, spots:

"'Somethin' out there. Approachin' real slow and careful. But two-legged, and carrying things. Let's not scare 'em off.'" (p. 47)

Ya-Kela and his "...bold followers..." (p. 5) approach and soon there will be yet another First Contact. We have become used to reading about these at least. Has there ever been a First Contact between two intelligent species and, if so, what was it like? Willingness to communicate and learn? Misunderstanding and conflict? There was an Arthur C. Clarke story in which astronauts had been instructed not to retaliate if attacked! Give the other side the opportunity to say, "Our man in the field acted wrongly..." Extreme caution, at least for the First Contact. Thereafter, respond as indicated.

Thousands Of Races

World Without Stars, VI.

On the planet where they are stranded, the Meteor crew glimpse some human-sized bipeds with powerful legs and tails. The first person narrator, Captain Felipe Argens, comments:

"I, who have met thousands of different races, still feel that each one is a new epoch." (p. 42)

Thousands? In that timeline, yes. In our timeline, it seems that multicellularity might be rare.

Argens adds that stars, planets and biologies can be categorized whereas minds cannot:

"...you never know what strangeness will confront you." (ibid.)

But most alien minds in sf are recognizable. 

I am being pulled in another direction because I want to reread more of James Blish's Welcome To Mars and to contrast it with his last Haertel Scholium volume, Midsummer Century. Fortunately, there is time for Anderson, Blish and more, especially when retired. (Later: See Radio, Dirac And Cats.)

Intricacies And Complexities

Following James Blish On Poul Anderson, we have posted:

Versions Of Mars

Haertel Timelines

Regular readers of Poul Anderson Appreciation know that we enjoy analyzing the intricacies of Anderson's Technic History. Contemplation of the complexities of Blish's Haertel Scholium affords a comparable enjoyment but what is remarkable is that, since this morning, we have realized some previously unnoticed discrepancies between Blish's two instalments set on Mars. It pays to reread and compare.

We might return to Anderson's characters stranded in the "world without stars" some time tomorrow when there will also be a talk at the Lancaster City Museum. Living in a historic city, we study future histories.

James Blish On Poul Anderson

Comparing Poul Anderson's works with those of his contemporary and fellow Campbell future historian, James Blish, has refocused my attention on Blish and I will shortly add to the James Blish Appreciation blog.

Blish commended Anderson's Tau Zero and After Doomsday. In particular, he appreciated the passage of the relativistic spaceship through the period of inter-destruction in Tau Zero and also the recounting of the Battle of Brandobar not in the narrative present but in a later-sung ballad in After Doomsday.

Although Blish understood that Anderson particularly liked his flamboyant merchant prince character, Nicholas van Rijn, he also thought that that character was about played out. However, I think that the van Rijn sub-series of Anderson's Technic History had just about come to an end by the time that Blish expressed that opinion. Because I had been a Blish fan long before I became an Anderson fan, I asked Blish's advice on reading Anderson and, as part of this, asked whether I should disregard Dominic Flandry. Blish agreed with this suggestion at the time! I now realize that it was entirely mistaken, of course. The Flandry series became much more than its earliest-written segment, the "Captain Flandry" series, which continues to be worth anyone's attention in any case.

Blish appreciated and made multiple references to CS Lewis. He valued the moral and psychological insights in That Hideous Strength and The Great Divorce and the chilling account of Weston's possession and damnation in Perelandra and, for these reasons, wished that Lewis had written more fiction. 

He also preferred ER Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros and Zimiamvia Trilogy to Tolkien's Middle Earth History. It seems that some readers like Eddison or Tolkien but not both. I could not get into Eddison and have read little Tolkien - The Lord Of The Rings only twice.

All of this is relevant to Poul Anderson. I regard CS Lewis' Ransom Trilogy as a Christian response to twentieth century science fiction falling, both chronologically and conceptually, between Wells and Stapledon earlier in the century and Blish and Anderson in later decades. And Anderson was transforming Norse mythology into modern fantasy at the same time as Lewis' friend and colleague, Tolkien - although more people know about The Lord Of The Rings than about The Broken Sword.

Urgency And Strain

World Without Stars, VI.

Captain Argens tells Bren and Galmer to make precise measurements of:

gravity

air pressure

humidity

magnetism

ionization

horizon distance

rotation period

solar spectrum lines

anything else detectable

Information-gathering is as urgent as building a stockade. 

When Rorn bellyaches:

"'What do you propose to do about our troubles?' I asked sharply. A gust of wind made the thin metal walls shake around us." (p. 39)

Wind appropriately underlines dramatic dialogue.

Despite the strains, Argens and Valland hold the men together until Rorn finds a different loyalty.

Food Plant

World Without Stars, VI.

I have been back home for several hours but too busy to post. I said this morning that we would return to the food plant but we find that we have described it in detail already. See Food II. A blog search for "Food Plant" also brought up The Atmosphere Plant which links:

grass equivalents in Poul Anderson's works;

the "atmosphere plant" which is a grass equivalent on SM Stirling's Mars;

the atmosphere planet (different meaning) on ERB's Mars -

- and should also have mentioned Adolph Haertel's extraction of water from Martian vegetation and electrolysis of oxygen from the water in James Blish's Welcome To Mars. (I have just reread several chapters of this novel to find the references.)

Three versions of Mars - by Burroughs, Stirling and Blish, respectively - and one extra-solar planet by Anderson.

Now it is time for us to return to Argens, Valland and co on the "world without stars."

Some Environmental Details

World Without Stars, VI.

Day is "days" long, therefore the (very dark) night will be equally long so the men work hard to make camp.

Colours are difficult to identify in the dim light.

As usual on terrestroid planets in Poul Anderson's works, there is an equivalent of grass:

"...those tussocky growths which seemed to correspond to grass..." (p. 36)

There are no seasons because there is little axial tilt. Also:

"Photosynthesis under a red dwarf star can't use chlorophyll." (ibid.)

Scientific knowledge is crucial in sf.

Local wild life lacks certain amino acids, vitamins etc but the men eat packaged supplies, then get their food plant working. This is described in detail and we will return to it this evening when I have returned from a day trip to Blackpool. Chapter V has presented a plausible explanation of why the food plant at least had survived the wreck of the ship and its two ferries. Poul Anderson sets his characters up for several years on this planet.