Here is another example of a man and his reputation parting company. When Kossara Vymezal's captors discuss "'...this, uh, Captain Flandry...,'" obviously never having heard of him before, Kossara thinks:
"Hoy? Chives said Flandry is famous. - No. How many light-years, how many millions of minds can fame cover before it spreads vanishingly thin?"
-Poul Anderson, A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows IN Anderson, Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight Of Terra (Riverdale, NY, 2012), pp. 339-606 AT p. 473.
This puts Flandry in exactly the same position as Falkayn in Mirkheim. Anderson deduces one implication of a number of civilizations interacting on an interstellar scale. Nowadays, some politicians and celebrities are known all over one planet but who could possibly be known throughout hundreds of cubic light years?
Edwin Cairncross hopes to be remembered through the lifetime of the universe! See here.
Credit Where Credit Is Due Department
The book cover copied here accurately depicts a scene in the novel:
Flandry flies into the cave in combat armour;
the Merseian, Glydh, grabs Kossara;
with a blaster needle beam, Flandry shoots Glydh in the head;
steam, brain matter, blood and bone spurt across Kossara.
Can you conceive of the mentality of a human being who willingly serves the Roidhunate? I reread this passage hoping to find some interesting information about Glydh's assistant, Muhammad Snell, but failed. Anderson gives us the minimal biographical data that we have come to expect:
The Merseian
Personal name: Glydh.
Vach: Rueth.
Nickname: Far-Farer.
Rank: afal.
Corps: Naval Intelligence.
Glydh's Assistant
Human name: Muhammad Snell.
Eriau name: Kluwych.
Place of birth: somewhere in the Roidhunate.
Neither survives his encounter with Flandry.
8 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And I agree! While it is possible, on this SINGLE planet of ours, for SOME politicians and pop stars to be known all around it (except in its most primitive and obscure corners), that can't be expected once we start thinking in interstellar terms. So, Kossara was right, it's not reasonable for even men as famed as Flandry to become known to everybody over hundreds of cubic light years.
And I would not think well of humans like Mohammad Snell serving a racist regime like that of the Roidhunate (which was also willing to EXTERMINATE entire species). And you missed something else about Snell: his given name makes me wonder if he was a Muslim! Did a large number of Muslims either emigrate to the Roidhunate or was it a Muslim settled planet which simply ended up inside the expanding Merseian domain? Plenty of room for further speculation!
Sean
Sean,
The Technic History is endless and has some of the complexity of real history.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I absolutely agree! And that's one reason why I want to reread some of the Nicholas van Rijn and Dominic Flandry stories.
Sean
Fame is also socially specific. You tend to know people who are famous in your field or type of work, for instance.
Dear Mr. Stirling,
But, in that case, shouldn't Mohammad Snell and his boss have known about Flandry? I am sure Merseian Intelligence knew too painfully well of how damaging an opponent Flandry was to His Supremacy!
Sean
Mohammad Snell, a name to refract upon ;^)
Kaor, Jim!
Or a name to "reflect" upon!
Ad astra! Sean
No.
Very definitely to refract upon.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snell%27s_law
Post a Comment