Because religious and philosophical issues are involved, this post is first being published on the Religion and Philosophy blog and will later be copied to Poul Anderson Appreciation where it is also relevant.
I used the phrase "many mansions" here, then found it used in SM Stirling, The Sword Of The Lady (New York, 2009), Chapter Twenty-One, p. 640. For the original, see here. Mind-blowing explanations are given and a short story in Poul Anderson's collection, All One Universe, is relevant.
I have finished reading The Sword Of The Lady and have just started the sequel, The High King Of Montival. Rudi Mackenzie, the future High King, now wields a mysteriously generated sword that enhances his reasoning ability so that his future combats will somehow differ from what went before. Will Rudi be to some extent like Fionn Mac Cumhaill who gained knowledge, including military intelligence, when he put his thumb in his mouth?
Addendum on Poul Anderson Appreciation: Today has been another long day trip with no time for blogging until half an hour before midnight. Other preoccupations might interfere with blogging although I could cut way down and still be publishing posts regularly. Thank you for 760 page views so far today. Yesterday, counting from 1.00 AM, there were 798 so today might exceed that. It will take a while to analyze Stirling's Emberverse metaphysics and the relevant Poul Anderson story.
Addendum (ii): The page view count for today has increased by 70 in under an hour. Some novels by Anderson are also relevant, not only those that speculate about consciousness surviving the universe but also The Day Of Their Return in which Aycharaych invents a world view involving a cosmic conflict.
Total page views at 1.00 AM: 869.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Congratulations on your blog getting so many visitors! I simply wish, wish, wish that more of them would step out of the shadows to deposit their own remarks here. You won't bite them and neither will I! (Smiles)
And of course I'm familiar with the concept of "many mansions" from Christ using it in John's Gospel. I don't know if many commentators have given much thought to John 14.2, but I could speculate that it means there are different ways the Blessed with God see and experience Him, according to their abilities and natural inclinations.
I think you had "Requiem For A Universe" in mind when citing the collection ALL ONE UNIVERSE?
And the abilities and assistance given by the Sword to Rudi reminded me in some ways of what the ancient battle computer "Center" did for Raj Whitehall in Drake/Stirling's THE GENERAL books.
Hope you had a good time with your day trips!
Sean
Sean,
Yes, "Requiem For A Universe," which I am about to reread.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
A story very much worth rereading multiple times!
Sean
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