Miscommunication

"Conversation in Arcady." 

Interstellar explorers must cope not only with extra-solar aliens but also with Terrestrials of later periods. In this respect, interstellar space travellers resemble futureward time travellers, like Wells' Time Traveller and Poul Anderson's Martin Saunders. "The Star Beast" and "Conversation in Arcady" both address this issue with respect to space travellers.

The Explorers

Earth became overcrowded.

Explorers departed, watched by billions.

With great difficulty, they discovered a colonizable planet and returned with this news.

Meanwhile, On Earth

Robotic technology was developed.

A Bio War killed most people but did not damage either buildings or technology.

The few survivors had everything that they needed and did not need to work and their descendants, still enjoying all the benefits of advanced technology, have no interest in extrasolar colonization.

One big culture clash.

This is what sf writers do: think of a premise, then think out its consequences.

Dissatisfaction

A whole agenda of new blog posts opens before us but they will have to be written and published as and when time allows. "...if time allows..." is a brilliantly appropriate phrase spoken by the Emperor Frederik in a divergent timeline and quoted more than once on this blog. See here.

Why Joel Is Dissatisfied With The Company Of Human Beings

Peggy:

"...had been one of the few humans with whom he could talk at all.

"Had been. He exhausted her possibilities in a year, as he drained most people in a month. He had known how she would react to any situation, what she would say to any remark of his, he knew her feelings with a sensitive perception beyond her own knowledge. And the loneliness had returned." (p. 36)

At University:

lectures about the obvious were pointless;

assignments were about problems that had been addressed many times before;

he could anticipate the professors' replies;

and those replies were increasingly trite!

Only when he has hypnotically changed Peggy's feelings does she become unpredictable but that would not have lasted.

By the same token, he has been feral too long to be incorporated into the society of his own species. Personality is determined in early childhood. Unused attributes have atrophied. Induced amnesia is the only humane (kind and wise) treatment.

Joel And Dupin

 

I missed something in Poul Anderson's "Earthman, Beware!" Let's backtrack.

When Joel asks Peggy a question:

"From her first word, his mind leaped ahead to the answer, but he let her say it out." (p. 31)

When she starts to think that he might be partly telepathic:

"He nodded. 'I'm partly telepathic,' he said, 'and I can fill in the gaps for myself - like Poe's Dupin, only better and easier." (p. 34)

Here Poul Anderson refers not to Sherlock Holmes but to another character referred to by Holmes!

Here, we are about to set out on a river walk on so I will quote some further relevant passages from "Earthman..." later. Have a good day, everyone.

Recognizable Narrative Elements

Poul Anderson, "Conversation in Arcady" IN Anderson, Dialogue With Darkness (New York, February 1985), pp. 223-233.

We recognize:

yet another hovering bird of prey -

"High overhead a fish hawk went circling." (p. 223);

a small shuttle boat that descends to Earth because an interstellar mother ship is too big to land;

interstellar travellers who should have benefitted from time dilation and from "Anti-Eld" (p. 224) but not from FTL;

a life of comfort and ease on Earth.

We remember time travellers visiting future periods in "Flight to Forever."

We expect the conversation to be a culture clash but will find out tomoz.

Four More Collections

After rereading a Poul Anderson collection entitled Alight In The Void, how are we choose between volumes entitled:

Dialogue With Darkness

The Dark Between The Stars

Kinship With The Stars

Homeward And Beyond?

I have presented these titles in a proposed conceptual order instead of, e.g., their publication order. But now let's consider the latter:

Homeward And Beyond (Berkley Medallion Books, New York, July 1976)

The Dark Between The Stars (Berkley Books, New York, December 1981)

Dialogue With Darkness (TOR, New York, February 1985)

Kinship With The Stars (TOR, New York, October 1991)

There is a certain amount of information summarized there. 

A 1991 collection can include stories published later than 1976 but might include earlier stories as well. Kinship's FOREWORD informs us that it presents "...tales told decades ago..."

As usual, we find stories that we know are in other collections although none of the volumes listed here overlap. It is now my task to pick one story from one of these collections. It will be either "Time Heals" in Dialogue With Darkness in accordance with our recent focus on time travel or "Conversation in Arcady," also in Dialogue..., in accordance with our recent focus on interstellar travel, but, as I often say, not tonight.

Good night. 

Mutants And Aliens

"Earthman, Beware!"

When Joel says that he is not human, Peggy asks whether he is a mutant but then says that he couldn't be and he confirms that:

"'...all this could never happen in one mutation.'" (p. 39)

He is an alien. 

A Brian Aldiss story, title forgotten, refers to aliens but then says that these aliens have not come from another planet. Instead, they have been born among us! Of course, the word for this is "mutants" but Aldiss was playing with language. He gained the connotations of "aliens" just by using the word.

"Earthman, Beware!" was published in 1951, the same year as Captain Comet, a mutant born ahead of his time - and this character was apparently based on Captain Future, first published in 1939. Another time and another world. Read what Captain Future's Solar System was like.

We have exhausted "Earthman, Beware!" and Alight In The Void for the time being and will look through some other Poul Anderson collections.

Mental Powers

"Earthman, Beware!"

Joel to Peggy:

"'I have some powers over the mind,' he said slowly. 'With your co-operation, I could adjust your feelings about this.'" (p. 48)

She says, "'No -'" (ibid.) but is unable to resist his strong will and telepathic brain. Is he right to do it when she has said no? And, if we were offered it, should we consent to someone else adjusting our feelings? In zazen, we practice "sitting with" whatever thoughts or feelings come up.

Although he adjusts her feelings towards him, he does not erase her memory of his extraterrestrial origin. In fact, she suggests how he might contact his people. However, when the elders of his species arrive, they:

"...make certain changes. Your memory and that of others, your body, the work you are doing and have done -" (p. 60)

He wakes up thinking that he is a Terrestrial human being. But have they also changed his body, changed Peggy's memory, removed all trace of his many inventions and discoveries and erased everyone's memories of them? God-like powers, indeed.

The Same Ultrawave

For previous blog posts about "Earthman, Beware!" see here.

"...the concept of waves was hardly applicable to something that traveled with an 'infinite velocity'..." (p. 52)

Indeed. And the very next comment is that "infinite velocity" is:

"...a poor term semantically, but convenient." (ibid.)

Anything that travels from A to B instantaneously either extends from A to B or exists at both A and B but not at intermediate points simultaneously.

Joel reflects that:

"...ultrawave effects...did not appear unless there was a properly tuned receiver somewhere. They seemed somehow 'aware' of a listener even before they came into existence." (ibid.)

Ramacan in "The Star Beast" explains that:

the ultrawave is "'...not electromagnetic...'" but "'...ties in with wave mechanics...'" (p. 72);

"'...it's 'aware' of the receiver and only goes to it. There must be a receiver as well as a transmitter to generate the wave.'" (p. 73)

This establishes that Joel and Ramacan refer to the same ultrawave.

Joel discovers it and Ramacan says that it:

"'...was discovered - oh, it must be a good seven or eight hundred years ago now.'" (p. 72)

I have not quite reread to the end of "Earthman, Beware!" yet. The implication of this story might be that the ultrawave is not remembered on Earth after Joel's discovery of it. But what has been discovered once can be discovered again.

Joel's Physics And Psychology

 

"Earthman, Beware!"

Joel describes his attempt at interstellar communication:

"'Energy fields vibrating a certain way produce detectable effects in a similar setup well removed from the first... these effects are transmitted with no measurable time lag or diminution with distance.'" (p. 46)

Two Observations

(i) This sounds exactly like James Blish's instantaneous Dirac transmitter.

(ii) When Margaret/Peggy hears Joel's account, she comments:

"'I see. It's a sort of ultrawave.'" (ibid.)

But it sounds like action at a distance and not like a wave. Joel had intially said:

"'...you might call it radiation, though it has no relation to the electromagnetic spectrum.'" (ibid.)

But radiation crosses space - and at finite speed - between two "setups" whereas what Joel describes is an instantaneous remote effect.

When Joel reflects not on physics but on psychology:

"Humans were that way, groping through a darkness of solitude, calling to each other across abysses and never, never understanding." (p. 32)

That is how we appear to someone with his insight and mental abilities but it is also a one-sided account. If solitude and lack of understanding were absolute, then there would be no communication and therefore also no self-consciousness.

Alaskan Forest

"Earthman, Beware!"

OK. What do we have here?

This viewpoint character can detect things that we cannot. With "Something in his brain...," (p. 29) rather than with additional sense organs, he detects, as he approaches his cabin, metal, oil, rubber and plastic which he identifies as a newly arrived helicopter. There are also fragments of thought, nervous energy and cellular and molecular interactions. He identifies these "...vibrations of human presence..." (p. 30) as a single person and, more specifically, as an acquaintance named Margaret. This telepath (?) is an inventor who has devised an odourless repellant that keeps mosquitos away from his cabin.

Poul Anderson describes the "darkling" Alaskan forest in which:

"A faint evening breeze rustled the dark pines..." (ibid.)

The breeze is faint. Nothing threatening yet! However, our multi-talented hero is saddened, annoyed and dismayed by Margarets' arrival. Read on.

We discover yet again that it is possible to reread a story by Poul Anderson and to find many forgotten and interesting details. 

This has been yet another breakfast post, folks.