Rome And Computers

"The Pugilist."

We learn that the title, "The Pugilist," is, like "Marius," a reference to Roman history.

In this fictional future, millions of computers, interconnected nationally:

keep records;

process bills;

operate automated factories;

calculate;

integrate;

monitor citizens;

transmit messages.

Sf prophecy. We knew that men would land on the Moon and that all human knowledge, stored in interconnected computers, would be accessible at the press of a button.

Whether our hero, Dowling, winds up in a happy place is another matter.

But this is just one story. We move on to the next. But not tonight.

Oppressive Conditions

"The Pugilist."

The bodily details of how Dowling has been transformed into a human weapon are distasteful. This had put me off rereading the story but I had forgotten every other detail.

Dowling, now a treble agent, is in the back of an enclosed car with three other Decaturists. There is a paragraph of four sentences that does not advance the action. However, these sentences are part of the text because, in them, Dowling's physical circumstances exactly match the restrictions placed on him by the oppressive society that he unfortunately lives in:

"Wind hooted around the shell. A slight vibration thrummed through my bones. The overhead light was singularly bleak. The big man on my left and the small man on my right crowded me." (p. 110)

Hooting wind.

Intrusive vibration.

Bleakness.

Crowding.

Unpleasant.

Two Fictional Futures

I am comparing and contrasting two volumes:

Poul Anderson, The Complete Psychotechnic League, Volume 1, (Riverdale, NY, October 2017). See here.

Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham, Miracleman: The Silver Age (New York, 2024). See attached image.

Differences

Prose fiction and graphic fiction.

(Usually prose books are considerably smaller than graphic works. However, in this case, the Anderson volume is outsized and nearly as big as the other.)

Similarities

Collections.

Colourful covers.

Set in the futures of alternative timelines.

Aliens.

Enhanced human beings.

Attempts to improve society.

Poul Anderson is an American sf writer. Miracleman, formerly Marvelman, began as a British superhero comic strip but is now published by Marvel and acknowledges its American origins.

I advise readers of fantastic fiction to enjoy both and I now definitely need a break from blogging.

My upcoming events to look forward to:

two restaurant birthday meals, one for an eight year old, the other for an eighty year old;

visits to the Gregson Institute, Andrea above the Old Pier Bookshop and the Buddhist monastery. 

Hungary And Suez Revisited

See Before The Smashup And Seventy Years Ago.

There is combox discussion of the Hungarian Uprising in relation to the Suez Crisis so we should check how these events were connected in the timeline of Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History:

"Conflict was inevitable once Eisenhower's death from surgical complications elevated Nixon to the U.S. presidency in June, 1956. Cold War paranoia distorted Nixon's reactions to unrest within the Communist bloc in the autumn of that year. Covert U.S. aid to the Hungarian rebels so enraged the Soviet Union that it backed Egypt past the limits of prudence during the Suez Crisis."

-Sandra Miesel, The Psychotechnic League IN Anderson, The Complete Psychotechnic League, Volume 1, (Riverdale, NY, October 2017), pp. 3-4 AT p. 3.

Observations

(i) Here, indeed, the US helps the Hungarians and this affects Suez.

(ii) Richard Nixon is active in two timelines! (My friend Andrea, whose opinions I respect but do not always accept, thinks that Nixon was not too bad - but made a mistake with Watergate.)

(iii) Since the US and Iran are a current issue and since we recently mentioned Titoism, let us also read the next two sentences of Miesel's account:

"The savage Mideast war that followed left Socialism dominant throughout the region and the U.S.S.R. in possession of northern Iran.

"The assassination of Tito shortly afterwards enabled the Soviets to bring Yugoslavia back under their control." (pp. 3-4)

We can imagine people living in that timeline although it is not ours. Having mentioned Nixon, we must follow these events a short way further but I will now summarize. Internecine strife made Russian policy unpredictable. Tension increased in 1958. Russia threatened a new Berlin blockade and China seized two Nationalist-held islands. Nixon taking a stand on both these fronts simultaneously precipitated:

"...a pre-emptive strike at the West on Christmas Eve, 1958." (p. 4)

Therefore:

"1958, the year the H-bombs fell, set human history careening in a new direction." (p. 3)

It would have done.

John Reed AFB, Vasiliev And Kunin

"The Pugilist."

I must correct a mistake before anyone else does it for me. Dowling's wife, Bonnie, writes to him at:

"...John Reed AFB, Willits, California 95491..." (p. 90)

"AFB" means "Air Force Base."

The political officer, Mannix, tells Dowling:

"'You're slated for Commander here at Reed, once the mutiny begins.'" (p. 100)

Thus, "John Reed" is part of Dowling's postal address, not a pseudonym. 

Poul Anderson's political fiction becomes more complex, and thus more authentic, with every page. Russia, described even in the US as the Motherland, is on the verge of civil war between Vasiliev and Kunin factions. Mannix categorizes these factions as:

"'Party versus army.'" (p. 99)

He elaborates:

"'The essential struggle is between those who are loyal to the principles of the party, and those who would substitute military dictatorship.'" (ibid.)

Mannix includes Dowling in the latter group and indeed Dowling reflects that he and his fellow Decarutists have said:

"'...better government by colonels than commissioners." (ibid.)

Better government by neither but what do we make of Mannix's formulation? Who speaks of "the principles of the party"? If a Stalinist says it, then it is anti-democratic. But, when John Reed and many others say it, it means greater and indeed genuine democracy, people discussing, debating and deciding, not billionaires funding TV ads. Yes to the principles of the party!

John Reed And Vishnu

Final pageview count for yesterday, according to the computer: 1,167,871.

In Poul Anderson's "The Pugilist," the narrator's name is indeed Dowling. Because he is a prisoner and his whereabouts must be concealed from his former fellow conspirators, his wife writes to him as "John Reed," a significant name. See John Reed (journalist). Dying in Moscow in 1920, Reed "...may have soured on the Soviet leadership..." Indeed. He would not have supported the People's Republic of the United States in "The Pugilist."

In Anderson's "Strange Bedfellows," Indian political parties include Conservationists and Vishnuites. Worshippers of Vishnu the Preserver are usually called Vaishnavites. They are my favourite monotheists, being the most comprehensive, even incorporating the Buddha as an avatar of Vishnu. Ultimate reality is either He or THAT - or indeed She since there is also Goddess-worship.

Poul Anderson gets us to discuss an American revolutionary and a Hindu god while I eat toast, drink coffee, look out at the rain, plan a visit to Audiology and look forward to several good events in the next few weeks. Probably more posts later today.

Psychotechs, Listeners, A Leader And A Titoist

"The Pugilist."

The Decaturists employ "psychotechs" (p. 98) to give them treatment to prevent them from talking under either serum or torture. 

Microminiature listeners slipped into food operate off body heat!

The Decaturists have a leader, Sotomayor, his identity and whereabouts unknown even to them.

The political officer, Mannix, identifies the narrator's politics as "'...Titoist.'" (ibid.)

Interesting details but there are nearly thirty more pages of this story. Not tonight! I try to leave some time for other reading.

Does anyone know how accurate pageview counts are? My computer screen tells me that this blog has had 1,071,487 pageviews since 1:00 AM., which I find hard to believe. This count will continue for another three hours.

More Of The Future History In "The Pugilist"

"The Pugilist."

In the Sacred War, Russian missiles destroyed the US's second-strike capability;

therefore, US cities became hostages, rendering their subs impotent;

however, the USSR was too damaged by US missiles either to control their Sino-Japanese antagonists or to occupy the US;

but a treaty imposed inspectors, advisers and arms limitations on the US;

Moscow determined who was an acceptable candidate for US President;

the US government began collectivization;

the Constitutional Convention proclaimed the People's Republic;

later, the narrator (he had to be born first) and others joined the Stephen Decatur Society.

The narrator's grandfather had expounded to him:

militarists, capitalists, imperialists, racists and the bourgeoisie were blamed for the war;

however, the liberals lowered the US's guard, the conservatives saved on taxes, the radicals disrupted and the copouts copped out!

Thus, some history and a comprehensive analysis.

Stone Mountain And Stephen Decatur

 

"The Pugilist."

I had not heard of Stone Mountain. The regime destroys the monument as a:

"...symbol of oppression..." (p. 94)

History should be preserved. In Britain, a crowd pulled down a statue of a slave trader and threw it into Bristol Harbour. The statue was rightly recovered and is now exhibited in a museum in its graffitied state. A jury found four people who had pulled it down not guilty of criminal damage. A new plaque on the now empty plinth tells the story. We live history and make it.

The narrator was a member of the Stephen Decatur Society. Here, more than ever, Poul Anderson's knowledge of history informs his futuristic sf. Remember the short story called "Marius." Another almost forgotten short story that I had approached with misgivings yields far more than expected.

Imposed Change And Future History

"The Pugilist."

There are changes that people, individually or collectively, want and implement for themselves and others that are imposed on them. Before the narrator's birth, the US government had tried to modernize, i.e., collectivize, Georgia but, because this was impracticable:

most small farms, stores, sawmills and repair shops were put on leasehold;

schools got taped propaganda instead of trained political educators;

the narrator's grandfather ranted that the black Sheriff was being used.

That grandfather had fought for the imperialist regime, suppressing the Mekong Revolution. The narrator's father was ten at the time of the Sacred War and the subsequent hungry years stunted his growth.

I am doing my best to summarize future historical details as they are disclosed to us. There are three generations here and there is always a wealth of information in a Poul Anderson short story.