A Martian And Wind On The Moon

"Strange Bedfellows."

First, that wind. Sevigny searches for two men who are missing after a Lunar volcanic eruption:

"He saw no human figures. The wind squealed faintly through the volcano roar." (p. 171)

Wind on the Moon? Yes, the Moon is being terraformed and now has a thickening atmosphere. A squealing wind is not a good omen that the men will be found and rescued.

R'ku, the mantis-like Martian, who moves by springing or jumping, has a narrow insectoidal face with large, unblinking, turquoise eyes. He is yet another of Poul Anderson's many Martians. Anderson presents more intelligent Martian species than either Wells or Heinlein.

I have not got fully back into rereading this story yet. It can be a wrench to disengage from one fictional scenario, then to plunge straight into a completely different one, especially when the second narrative starts in the middle of the action and we have to pick up not only on what is going on but also on all the background stuff. Men are dying while interacting with a Martian on a changing Moon and one of the surviving men is from Venus and obviously there is going to be a lot more than that.

Someone once told me that he read sf to relax.

Cytherea And Cythera

Cytherea is another name for Aphrodite/Venus and also a Greek island.

"The Embarkation for Cythera" is a painting by Antoine Watteau.

"The Day We Embarked For Cythera" is a short story by Brian Aldiss.

In "Strange Bedfellows," Don Sevigny, a Cytherean, remembers Mount Victory looming over green Carl's Lake on Venus.

With men drilling on the Moon, a Martian and a human colony on a terrestroid Venus, the background of "Strange Bedfellows" sounds similar to that of Robert Heinlein's Future History.

We have left a fictional Solar System behind and now send probes into the real one.

On The Moon

"Strange Bedfellows."

Again, an author, in this case Poul Anderson, must convey a lot of information very quickly in order to inform his readers of where the characters are and of what they are doing there.

The text opens:

"Suddenly the plain exploded. A pillar of steam shot skyward, bone-white against darkness and the stars, tinged red with incandescent drops of metal." (p. 168)

See the image in the above-linked post. That image informs us immediately that these guys are on the Moon. On p. 169, the viewpoint character, Don Sevigny, looks at Earth above the horizon.

They are a mixed crew, their names including:

Sevigny

Aarons

Bergsma

Branch

Decker

Gourmont

Leong

Nakajima

Youkhannan

R'ku, who speaks with a vocalizer (an instrument that is becoming familiar) and turns out to be a Martian

The presence of R'ku tells us something. Men from Earth have not just recently reached the Moon. They have also travelled further into the Solar System where they have encountered at least one other intelligent species - or maybe the Martians have travelled to the Earth-Moon system? Either way, the existence of other Solarians was becoming a dated idea in 1964.

Sevigny is a Cytherean - a colonist of Venus? - and refers to other human characters as "'...Earthlings!'" (p. 170) These Cythereans have clan bonds like the "Venusians" in Anderson's Psychotechnic History. These various narratives are not set in a single timeline but they all originate in Poul Anderson's imagination.

Myths Or Not

I think that some fictional characters have become myths. See:

Modern Myths

From Fiction To Myth

Olaf Stapledon had a much more exalted conception of myths. See:

Myth And Science

"A true myth..." had to express "...the highest admirations possible..." Such definitions can become circular. In Philosophy, there is the example of the "No true Scotsman" argument, i.e.:

"All Scotsmen wear kilts."

"But Jim's a Scotsman and he doesn't wear a kilt."

"Then he's not a true Scotsman!"

A myth, surely, is just any universally known story, whether admirable or not? Consider Thor.

In the case of time travel, the modern myths are the Time Traveller, the Doctor and (maybe) Superman flying faster than light, rotating counterclockwise. (Superman is a myth anyway.) Important though they are to us here, Poul Anderson's Time Patrolmen and Jack Havig have not become myths although they are certainly significant literary successors of Wells' Time Traveller. Maybe film adaptations will make some difference?

"Strange Bedfellows": Introduction

 

Poul Anderson, "Strange Bedfellows" IN Anderson, Seven Conquests (New York, 1970), pp. 168-224.

(That Galaxy cover image illustrates Anderson's "Short Novel," whose title has been changed from "To Build A World" to "Strange Bedfellows.")

The author's introduction to this story:

"Progress does get made, however slowly and with however many setbacks. It is the work of those who are too brave to despair. Our descendants may yet create a society more sane than any which has gone before. But will this keep them from insanities of their own?" (p. 168)

My comments:

Progress has been made, albeit slowly and against setbacks, but is now under threat.

Those too brave to despair are our hope.

Our descendants might create a saner society.

We have to question any future advances.

However, sometimes questions are rhetorical, i.e., really statements. If "...will this keep them from insanities of their own?" is rhetorical, then I disagree with the implied statement - that further insanities would necessarily be inevitable. On the other hand, on the face of it, Anderson is merely asking a question which is a valid starting point for an sf story.

As an aside, I am fascinated and frustrated by the ways in which communication can fail. I once asked my friend, Fran, a question, seeking information. Fran thought for a few seconds, then said, "I think you're right..." I was bewildered. I had not said anything. I had asked something. But he had interpreted my question as rhetorical, therefore as a statement, and I did not know what the statement was!

Back to Anderson's reference to progress, my summary of specifically human activities is as follows:

Economics is production and distribution.

Politics is power and resistance.

History is progress or regression.

Amazing progress. Long regressions. No guarantees about what comes next. Sf writers write future histories...

A Happy Ending

"License."

OK. I advise everyone out there to (re)read this story and its concluding section for themselves. Kidnapper and victim discuss the history and contradictions of civilization in true Andersonian style. The identification of the conflict between primitive man and the unnatural state of civilization parallels the way this same issue is presented in Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History. The Smashup and its psychosociological consequences are explained more or less. Incredibly and entirely unexpectedly, the young woman who has been the victim turns the tables, saves the day and arranges a happy ending for (nearly) everyone concerned and certainly for our hero, villain or whatever he has been.

I had approached this story with misgivings but have devoted a lot of time to it. Only one (longer) story remains in Seven Conquests. After that, there are several other Poul Anderson collections. It is never the end.

Before The Smashup And Seventy Years Ago

"License."

The plot twists are intriguing. The CIO jet swoops low enough to drop Rheinbogen and his kidnap victim, Marie Dulac, into a lake, then flies on, pursued by the Delta-wing owned by Marie's father. Leaving the lake, kidnapper and victim take off their clothes to let them dry in the breeze. When Marie asks for a cigarette, Rheinbogen realizes that she has probably only recently learned to smoke, then:

"Holy Hermes, patron of thieves, she could still be a virgin!'" (p. 155) (See Three Saints And A God. Hermes = Mercury.)

He assures her:

"'...you have nothing to fear. You're under the protection of the law and my union. All we're going to do is keep you for a while in a certain place with an adequate staff and good facilities. I'm sorry to put you to this indignity but there was no choice.'" (ibid.)

He explains further that:

"'Back in the old days, before the Smashup and the reconstruction...'" (p. 156)

- amateurs kidnapped rich men's children, even babies, then often panicked and murdered them. Now she is legally protected but her detention incommunicado will put pressure on her father. Professional ethics prevent him from telling his victim who his client is. She spits, "'Ethics!'" (ibid.)

Right now I am torn between reading what happens next and reading some news about current conflicts plus a summary of what happened in Hungary seventy years ago. Back then, I was seven and thought that people in Hungary were hungry just as, earlier, I had confused Germans with germs.

(In Ian Fleming's Thunderball, a young woman kidnapped by SPECTRE is raped while detained. Blofeld electrocutes the rapist and returns part of the ransom money with an apology to the young woman's father.)

The World In "License"

"License."

South Africans patrol their territory with rifles but the Peace Authority prevents them from attacking anyone else.

The Chinese, having failed to adjust to the combination of large population with high technology, huddle "'...like hogs in a pen.'" (p. 148)

The Russians have split into "'...a hundred religious sects.'" (ibid.)

Americans have square miles of crowded projects tenements, grow algae in Lake Superior, have legalized crime and can even be licensed for crooked gambling.

So far, we have reread only thirteen pages of this short story but it seems to have the density of a future history series.

Is our world less mad?

Escape Craft

"License." 

When Rheinbogen and the stunned and kidnapped Marie have been winched up from Lake Minnetonka into a jet disguised as a helicopter, the jet sheds its rotors and false rear and easily outruns two pursuing helicopters. If the falling helicopter parts do any damage, then Rheinbogen will have to pay claims. The jet flies low to avoid radar but also has:

"...a temporary permit to break traffic rules." (p. 152)

However, a mother ship placed in the stratosphere above his place by Dulac releases a Delta-wing which pursues the kidnappers' jet. The pilots, who know each other as members of the two criminal unions, exchange greetings. Rhenbogen has to decide whether to surrender as they fly above land that had been devastated by forest fires during the Smashup and that really is as far as I go with this story this evening. As usual, it has much more going for it than I had expected.

One Last Dip Into "License" This Evening

"License." 

Labour chief Tom Swanson manages the CIO local, its benefit funds, banks, stores, factories etc. He knows Dulac's chief goon because both of them are prominent Rotarians.

Projects tenements rise on either side of the freeway with not more than three or four to a room, faces at every window and pedestrians like ants below. They are fed and entertained. A protein factory processes algae from Lake Superior. There is crowding everywhere on Earth but also a Peace Authority.

Dulac must have guided missiles in his home defence system because he has filed intent to shoot down any over-flying aircraft that is not police or Peace Authority.

The narrator, Rheinbogen, and his colleague, Nygard, check into a hotel where the bellhop asks if they want girls. "'Later...'" (p. 149) Posing as politicians' union executives, they must maintain their character and therefore add girls to their expense account.

Rheinbogen checks the taps. Water brands are not good since clan feuds wrecked the last great distillery.

The story reads like a very condensed future history background synopsis. I have read it at least once before but have no memory of the details and do not know what is going to happen next.