Traditions

In Poul Anderson's Technic History, one large quadrupedal Wodenite, Adzel, converts to Mahayana Buddhism and another, Axor, later, to Jerusalem Catholicism. We welcome this re-use of a fictional species which adds substance and continuity to a future history series. Individuals, then planets and their inhabitants, recur while historical periods pass. The species re-used most frequently in the Technic History are Merseians and Ythrians. Each of these species has its own distinctive polytheism and monotheism which need not concern us here. I wanted to focus on the Terrestrial Indian contemplative and Abrahamic prophetic traditions represented by Adzel and Axor.

In a prophetic tradition, it is necessary to be neither polytheist nor atheist but monotheist. Also, monotheism can become monist but this is regarded as heretical whereas, in a contemplative tradition, it is possible to be polytheist, monotheist, atheist or monist! Vaishnavites (Hindu worshippers of Vishnu) mythologize the Buddha, founder of an atheist/monotheist tradition, as an avatar of their deity, a role that he shares with Krishna. I really dig spiritual diversity. We can practice alongside others who reflect reality differently. Traditions coexist in Anderson's Terran Empire. 

Lamentations

Sean Brooks suggested in the combox that a recent post could have ended with the conclusion of Anderson's "The House of Sorrows" which quotes from Lamentations 1 and 5 in a timeline where the Jews had been unable to return from Babylon. I agree and also apologize for brevity here. Places to be. Things to do.

Onward and upward.

"...Will Not Taste Death..."

 

My main reading at present is an analysis of the New Testament:

"Amen I'm telling you that there are some of those standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God come in power." (Mk, 9:1)

"Amen I'm telling you that there are some of those standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom." (Mt, 16:28)

Matthew edits a Markan passage in which Jesus predicts an imminent political and spiritual liberation.

This makes me even more appreciative of Poul Anderson's reproduction of such expectations and aspirations in a work of fiction. Tatiana Thane asks Chunderban Desai:

"'Still, Commissioner, what if bein's five or ten million years ahead of us should decide Terran Empire is in need of reconstruction?'"

-Poul Anderson, The Day Of Their Return IN Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, February 2010), pp. 74-238 AT 7, p. 131.

Gabriel Stewart announces to Tatiana that the Builders will make her son more than human while his eyes shine with belief. One of the Aenean Riverfolk asks whether the dead will rise when the Old Shen return...

On Aeneas, as in Palestine, people and generations live on after these prophecies have not been fulfilled.

An Elder Race does make contact in Anderson's The Avatar.

Acres And Wildfowl

Before anyone else points this out, while quoting passages in the preceding post, I skipped past a relevant paragraph in There Will Be Time. This was because it was rather long and did not quite fit in with the others but here it is in full - I do not seem to have quoted it before -:

"...Jesus might be nothing more than an Osirian-Essene-Mithraic myth. Suppose he wasn't, though? Suppose he was, well, not the literal incarnation of the Creator of these acres, those wildfowl, yonder universe...but at least the prophet from whose vision stemmed most of what was decent in all time to come. Could a life be better spent than following him on his ministry?

"Well, Havig would have to become fluent in Aramaic, plus a million details of living, and he would have to forget his quest...."

-Poul Anderson, There Will Be Time (New York, New York, March 1073), VI, p. 60.

Obsevations

(i) The ministry was short so a life would not be spent.

(ii) But fluency in Aramaic would be difficult.

(iii) But it could be gained there and then.

(iv) The mutant time travellers also need longevity.

(v) If I had Jack Havig's power, then Jesus is certainly one of the people that I would research and want to meet.

(vi) He could not possibly have suspected what future millennia would make of him.

(vii) Most decency has not stemmed from a single prophet.

Search The Scriptures (Or At Least The Time Travel Texts)

"Let's Go To Golgotha" by Garry Kilworth

Behold The Man by Michael Moorcock

The Nantucket Trilogy by SM Stirling

The Time Patrol series by Poul Anderson

There Will Be Time by Poul Anderson

Past Times by Poul Anderson

Somewhere on Stirling's Nantucket, the question is asked: if time travellers go BC and prevent Christianity, will they thus also prevent salvation? A question for Christian theologians. Knowing them, indeed knowing people in general, they will give different answers.

The Time Patrol

"'England will be one kingdom, with Saxon strength and Roman learning, powerful enough to stand off all invaders. Christianity is inevitable, of course, but I will see to it that it is the right kind of Christianity, one which will educate and civilize men without shackling their minds.'"

-Poul Anderson, "Time Patrol" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, December 2010), pp. 1-53 AT 5, p. 40.

"'Maybe you don't know how much Christian belief and ritual is of Mithraic origin, but believe me, it's plenty. Not to mention Judaism, which you, Cyrus the Great, are personally going to rescue. Remember?'"

-Poul Anderson, "Brave To Be A King" IN Time Patrol, pp. 55-112 AT 7, p. 87.

"....without the balance-of-power effect of Rome, the Syrians did suppress the Maccabees; it was a near thing even in our history. Judaism disappeared and therefore Christianity never came into existence.'"

-Poul Anderson, "Delenda Est" IN Time Patrol, pp. 173-228 AT 4, p. 197.

"...how could I in honesty have argued for a heathenism in which I had no belief and which I knew was going under? For that matter, how could I in honesty have argued for Christ?"

-Poul Anderson, "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth" IN Time Patrol, pp. 333-465 AT 1858, p. 404.

"'Patrol units are concentrated on guarding Palestine. You can well imagine what emotions are engaged, through how many centuries. Fanatics or freebooters who want to change what took place in Jerusalem, researchers crowding in and multiplying the chances of a fatal blunder, and the situation itself, the near-infinity of causes radiating into that episode and effects radiating out from it....'"

-Poul Anderson, "Star of the Sea" IN Time Patrol, pp. 467-640 AT 2, p. 492.

"'...this goddess would be the supreme figure, around whom everything gathered. She would give folk as much, spiritually, or almost as much, as Christ could. Few would ever join the Church.'"

-ibid., 11, p. 568.

"The habits of disguise took over. Koch crossed himself, again and again. Or maybe he was a sincere Catholic."

-Poul Anderson, The Shield Of Time (New York, July 1991), p. 313.

One Patrolman cannot in honesty argue for Christ but another might be a sincere Catholic.

There Will Be Time

"'...what he was, or if he was, makes only an academic difference. What counts is what people through the ages have believed. My life expectancy isn't enough for me to do the pure research I'd like.'"

-Poul Anderson, There Will Be Time (New York, 1973), VI, p. 56.

A thirteenth-century man-at-arms who tries to rescue the Saviour is stunned by the question:

"'How do you know that man really was your Lord?'" (p. 62)

"I do not know if my friend ever looked upon Jesus." (p. 64)

Past Times

"Thank you, Holy Father. This holy fire you have given us - we must never let it die."

-Poul Anderson, "The Little Monster" IN Anderson, Past Times (New York, November 1984), pp. 142-163 AT p. 163.

A bit cryptic in parts, maybe? OK. Just read them all.

Language

Diverted from rereading The Anubis Gates, we are concurrently reading two recently acquired volumes, one about interpretations of the Bible, the other describing a divergent timeline in which paper and printing with punctuation, upper- and lower-case letters and spaces between words are introduced in the Roman Empire in 167 CE. This convergence of texts focuses our attention on communication and we will now post about that subject, referring of course to our favourite authors, including Poul Anderson, but placing them in a wider context. 

That cooperative manipulation of the environment which generated speech differentiated homo sapiens from all other animal species. Consider the following progression:

spoken language

written language

literature

scriptures

We have evolved a long way from non-, then pre-, linguistic organisms and indeed before them from inanimate matter. The latter is not just inert and dead. Its capacity to change (energy) overcomes its resistance to change (inertia). Without these two contradictory forces, no events would occur and no objects or organisms would remain in existence from one moment to the next. There is spiral development to more dynamic levels of energy-inertia interaction, from inanimate matter through unconscious organisms and animal consciousness to ascending levels of human (and other?) intelligence and self-consciousness. At this stage, we can imagine more highly developed consciousnesses helping and guiding less developed consciousnesses as in the Cosmenosist philosophy in Anderson's The Day Of Their Return. However, this is unnecessary. Ascent to more dynamic and creative levels of consciousness continues - at present - even if only in a single species. At the same time, social inertia pulls us back towards self-destruction. Interaction continues but with unpredictable outcomes: continued ascent or abrupt descent?

Spoken Language

Until they spoke, our ancestors were at most pre- or proto-human. They developed oral traditions which - those that survived - have long since been written down. We read Homeric epics and Buddhist scriptures in Penguin paperbacks.

Written Language

The earliest written language was still largely oral, i.e., with no spaces between written words, people read aloud to make sense of the text and also for the benefit of those who were still illiterate. It was a big discovery that it was possible to read without being heard! Scriptures are still ritually read aloud in places of worship.

Literature

Written language could be just signs, hand-written notes or instructions, shopping lists, private correspondence etc. However, literature, writing handed down the generations, transmits knowledge and culture, improving on the work of the earlier oral traditions. All our friends are here, including Poul Anderson following:

the Bible

the Verse and Prose Eddas

the Sagas

Shakespeare

Mary Shelley

HG Wells

L. Sprague de Camp

Robert Heinlein

etc

Scripture

We have already mentioned Buddhist scriptures, the Bible and the Book of Thoth.

Scripture is literature regarded as authoritative and foundational. Every religious tradition has scriptures. Also, I regard certain texts as proto-canonical, i.e.:

the Greek "Homer and the poets" formally parallel the Hebrew "Moses and the prophets" and were also regarded as divinely inspired authorities on theology and morality;

the Eddas are not called "scriptures" only because that was not done in pagan traditions but they are our sources for Norse myths, knowledge of the gods.

When a text is canonized, it is universally known that it is officially regarded as authoritative even by those who can neither read nor understand it and it becomes effectively a blank screen onto which later generations project whatever they want. Christian Nazis: Jesus was Aryan, not Jewish. An extreme example but nevertheless an example. He is also a shaman, a yogi, a Bodhisattva, an astronaut and everything else imaginable.

SM Stirling's American time travellers arrive after the closure of the Christian and Jewish canons but nevertheless they radically change history and also introduce printing very early. How will that affect later uses of the Bible in public worship, private reading, social ideology etc?

One of Poul Anderson's time travellers must avoid changing the content of the Germanic literature that he studies.

In one of Anderson's divergent timeline, a medieval theocracy survives into the twentieth century. Clergy rule in the name of the Bible but, obviously, most people will not need to read even a word of it. It will not even have been translated into the vernacular. The church controls printing.

Now I want to get back to some reading! (And a little eating and drinking. Satisfy the inner man.)

Other Reading, All Relevant II

Two books arrived via eBay today:

The Winds Of Fate by SM Stirling (that is one amazing cover, reproduced very indistinctly here);

Jesus Of Nazareth: an independent historian's account of his life and teaching by Maurice Casey.

I met Maurice once briefly through his student, James Crossley. Checking through this newly arrived book, I realize that I had misunderstood one detail of what Maurice had said in that single conversation but that is hardly surprising. Learning continues.

In Poul Anderson's works, two sets of time travellers skirt around the origins of Christianity but Anderson avoids answers which we must seek where we can find them elsewhere.

All this is relevant.

Other Reading, All Relevant

Hello. Yesterday I returned from four days in London. While there, I bought a newly published book on "Imperialism," which brings the story right up to 2026, and finished reading it today. We have read about Roman imperialism in history, in historical fiction and in alternative historical fiction and about Terran imperialism in futuristic sf but there is also modern economic and geopolitical imperialism preparing for its Third World War. 

Before departing, I had begun to reread The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers. On the opening page of this text, we read:

"...the old man turned around to watch the sun's slow descent. The Boat of Millions of Years, he thought; the boat of the dying sungod Ra..."

-Tim Powers, The Anubis Gates (London, 1986), p. 11.

This reminds us, obviously, of Poul Anderson's title, The Boat Of A Million Years.

Hieroglyphs shining from ancient papyrus:

"...were written here in the world's youth by the god Thoth, the father and spirit of language itself."

-ibid., p. 16.

This might remind us of:

"This was Language herself, as she first sprang at Maleldil's bidding out of the molten quicksilver of the star called Mercury on Earth, but Viritrilbia in Deep Heaven."

-CS Lewis, That Hideous Strength IN Lewis, The Cosmic Trilogy (London, 1990), pp. 349-753 AT CHAPTER 10, 4, p. 587.

"For the lord of Meaning himself, the herald, the messenger, the slayer of Argus, was with them: the angel that spins nearest the sun. Viritrilbia, whom men call Mercury and Thoth." 

-ibid. CHAPTER 15, 1, p. 687.

The Boat Of A Million Years is hard sf with a mythological reference in its title.

The Anubis Gates is a hard sf-fantasy synthesis: scientific laws work in some times and places whereas magic works in others.

The Cosmic Trilogy is a soft sf-fantasy synthesis: some beings are both extraterrestrial and supernatural.

(Lewis is hopelessly Platonic: "Language herself"! Human beings created language, not Mercury/Thoth. All meanings are arbitrary. None are "...inherent..." (p. 587))

Power's description of a time traveller's perception of London in 1810 reminds us of Poul Anderson's description of two time travellers' perceptions of London in 1894. Historical sf.

Again Heinlein And Anderson

The previous post again prompts reflection on how Poul Anderson succeeds and supersedes Robert Heinlein.

"Life-Line" was:

Heinlein's first published work of fiction;

published by John W. Campbell in Astounding, August 1939;

the opening story of his Future History;

set in 1951 -

- and, although not a time travel story, it presented a temporal paradox.

Thus, this single short story prefigures much. Heinlein wrote the Future History; Anderson wrote eight future histories. Heinlein wrote three works about the circular causality paradox; Anderson wrote three works about that paradox and a series about both causality paradoxes. Anderson's culminating future history, Genesis (2000), re-presents the Frankensteinian theme on a Stapledonian scale.

Heinlein and beyond.

(And what a half-century to have lived through. I was born in '49.)

Causal Circles

I prepare for early train travel tomorrow. My travel reading will be The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers which might lead to some comparisons of mythological writing, historical fiction and time travel paradoxes.

The Anubis Gates, like Poul Anderson's There Will Be Time and Robert Heinlein's "By His Bootstraps," is set in a single immutable timeline where past events can be caused but neither prevented nor altered. In such a story, when a causal circle has been completed, the story is complete and there is no room for a sequel. 

Poul Anderson's Time Patrol series also features causal circles but in a context of potential causality violation where closure of circles prevents alterations. One paradox is used to prevent another:

"'The single way to make [an incipient causal loop] safe is to close it. When the Worm Ouroboros is biting his own tail, he can't devour anything else.'"

-Poul Anderson, "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, December 2016), pp. 333-465 AT 1935, p. 449.

There are causal circles without time travel in:

Robert Heinlein's "Life-Line";

Brian Aldiss' "Man In His Time";

James Blish's The Quincunx Of Time.

Heinlein's character, Pinero, has invented a machine that accurately predicts dates of death. A young couple consult him. He says that, since there is something wrong with his machine, he will have to give them their readings the following day and then keeps them talking for as long as possible. When they finally leave, they are killed by a clock falling from the front of Pinero's building. That clock would have fallen at that time. If Pinero had not been the kind of guy who would keep them talking but instead had let them leave immediately then either they would have died of some other cause at the time that the machine had predicted or they would not have died so soon, the machine would have predicted later dates of death, Pinero would have given them their readings and would not have kept them talking. What kind of guy Pinero is becomes a causal factor.