In Poul Anderson's capstone volume, Going For Infinity, I have reread "Gypsy" and read, for the first time ever, "Sam Hall." Every single story by Anderson raises different questions or initiates lines of inquiry in different directions. Where to start with "Sam Hall"?
Anderson bases his fiction-within-the-fiction, the faked ID of "Sam Hall," on a song that he and his friends used to sing. I have heard and prefer the earlier version of the song in which "Jack Hall" is a chimney sweep and burglar, not a murderer:
"My name it is Jack Hall,
"Chimney sweep, chimney sweep,
"My name it is Jack Hall,
"Chimney sweep.
"And I have robbed them all,
"Great and small, great and small,
"And I have robbed them all,
"Great and small.
"And my neck will pay for all,
"When I die, when I die,
"And my neck will pay for all,
"When I die."
Without checking the text, I am reasonably certain that the successful revolutionaries on Earth in Anderson's Three Worlds To Conquer are called "Sam Halls" so can we (please!) call the story "Sam Hall" a prequel to that novel? Because of those "Sam Halls," I had thought that the name of Sam Hall was somehow associated with the American Revolution and had not connected it with "Jack Hall" - and I had heard the latter in a solo performance by a blind man in an Irish band so I had not realized that Jack Hall was English - but it is good when things come together.
After the successful revolution, when it is known that there had been no Sam Hall but that different revolutionaries had used this name, someone would then be able to celebrate the revolution by writing a biographical novel, a work of fiction, with Sam as viewpoint character, although he should not be the narrator. The novel should read like a historical reconstruction, leaving it open where Jack is now... He could be off Earth, since the story presupposes interplanetary travel.
I have experienced a "Sam Hall" scenario closer to home. Our National Comics Writer, the uncrowned King of Northampton, Alan Moore, created the British character, John Constantine, who was Americanized in the film Constantine, which I haven't seen. I know someone who registered for the vote as John Constantine and I posted Alan a photocopy of the voting card. Some British Anarchists, when stopped by police, have given the name "John Constantine" and one of them said, "I don't know where it comes from. It's just a name we use."
Moving on, the next stories in Going For Infinity are "Death and the Knight" and "Journeys End" which, like Finnegans Wake, is above apostrophes. (It seems that "Journeys..." is plural and "...End" is a verb, whereas Neil Gaiman's Inn of the Worlds' End has an apostrophe but in an unexpected place.)
For me, "Journeys End" is yet another difficult story. I read it before, found it emotionally unpleasant and do not want to reread it - but that is Poul Anderson's diversity for you.
(I should add that Alan Moore has seen John Constantine twice, once during a ritual when John told Alan about magic, and once in a London cafe when John nodded knowingly at him. The look on Alan's face is reproduced in Swamp Thing.
(Alan has referred to a house where apparitions of a man with a wide-brimmed hat and a cloak have been seen. Research revealed that the house had been occupied by the creator of The Shadow. So do reality and fiction overlap, as in the Old Phoenix?)
5 comments:
Hi, Paul!
Very nice, the pictures of the young lady you included with this piece of yours. Altho I am puzzled over the relevance they have to Poul Anderson's story "Sam Hall." (Smiles)
I would like to stress that readers should prefer the text of "Sam Hall" found in GOING FOR INFINITY. Earlier versions found in other collections were mangled by editors for one reason or another. Anderson restored his preferred text for GOING.
Yes, I can see how "Journeys End" will be a difficult story for many readers. My view is that the way the two telepathic characters eventually reacted to finding each other rings true to me. I do think many, not all (think of the Catholic priest mentioned in the story), would react with anger and dismay to how INTIMATELY telepathy enabled them to know each other.
Your last paragraph reminded me of Fr. Herbert Thurston's investigations of possible ghosts and poltergeists. I have one of his books on that subject.
Sean
"Journeys End" indeed lacks the apostrophe, because the source from which it's quoted also lacks an apostrophe. It's taken from a song in one of Shakespeare's plays, which has the line "Journeys end in lovers meeting"—which is ironically appropriate to Anderson's story.
It's one of several stories Anderson wrote where he took classic SF tropes, reexamined them, and came up with less happy outcomes. Another is "The Man Who Came Early," which casts doubt on the scenario of de Camp's Lest Darkness Fall.
Whswhs,
So yet another Shakespearean title! thank you.
Paul.
Hi, whswhs!
My understanding was that Anderson WANTED the plural in "Journeys End." That is, alluding to how the two telepathic characters "journeys" toward each other ended.
Sean
Sean,
That is correct.
Paul.
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