Old Michael Shaugnessy, having returned to the extrasolar planet where his wife is buried to die there, remembers Earth. He lists familiar place names but also says:
"Shwe Dagon recalled another faith..." (p. 90)
I wrongly took this to refer to the god Dagon.
The planet to which Shaughnessy has returned is called Feng Huang but has a valley of the Kshatriya. (This must mean that a river is named after an Indian caste?)
Of the Terrestrial places listed by Shaugnessy, we recognize two that appear in other works by Anderson, York Minster and Machu Picchu. He also mentions an Empress Theodora. Relying for the moment on memory, I think that one Empress Theodora, although maybe not this one, features in Anderson's The Last Viking Trilogy?
Chapter 12, just over two pages in length, mainly tells us that time is passing and also that times are not currently good on Earth. Meanwhile, the Envoy, with its massive time dilation factor, remains in flight...
7 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I'm almost sure the Empress Theodora mentioned by the aged Michael Shaughnessy whom he had in mind was Theodora, the wife of Emperor Justinian. She was by far the most famous of the various Eastern Roman empresses named Theodora. And PA mentioned in another of his works the famous mosaic portrait of Justinian's Theodora to be found in one of the churches of Ravenna.
Btw, as per your suggestion, I've been revising and expanding my comments about the three phases of Anderson's writing career. One point I'm stuck on is the difficulty I'm having trying to find some comments by a critic about Anderson's early story "Genius." Comments I agreed with. I think they were written by Sandra Miesel, but "Genius" is not mentioned at all in her monograph AGAINST TIME'S ARROW. Maybe in others of her essays?
Sean
Sean,
You are right about Theodora. Shaughnessy mentions the Ravenna portrait.
i don't know about comments on "Genius."
Paul.
Kao, Paul!
Thought so, re Empress Theodora.
Darn, if I don't find those comments about "Genius" which I had in mind, I may have to remove the tentative paragraph I wrote about that story.
Sean
Sean,
You can say you remember reading something and someone else might know the reference.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
That's one way of handling it. Briefly, this commentator criticized "Genesis" as one of Poul Anderson's very few "wretched" stories because it contradicted his known ethical values. Hope I can find the exact quote and its author.
Sean
Sean,
You mean "Genius"?
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
The person whose name I can't recall said "Genius" was a bad story. If true, I would classify that as one of the false starts PA made during his early phase as a writer. Which is why I would like to discuss it in my "Three Phases" article.
Looked thru the Introductions to the NESFA Press volumes of Anderson's shorter works. Did not find the comments I recall. Drat!
Sean
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