"Wings of Victory" describes first contact with Ythri and explains Ythrian biology;
"The Problem of Pain" describes Ythrian-human cooperation and presents Ythrian psychology and theology;
in "How To Be Ethnic In One Easy Lesson," Jim, yearning to go into space, thinks:
"Wild wings above Ythri!"
-Poul Anderson, "How To Be Ethnic In One Easy Lesson" IN Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, 2009), pp. 175-197 AT p. 183.
These stories display three stages in the development of a pyramidal future history:
an alien race is introduced;
members of that race become protagonists in a later story;
they also become background material for later installments of the History.
Meanwhile, the emblem of the Polesotechnic League is:
"...a golden sunburst afire with jewels, surrounding an ancient rocketship..."
-"Margin of Profit," p. 138. (For full reference, see here.)
That sounds like later sun and spaceship of Empire.
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I think you made a mistake, it's more accurate to say observers on Earth can see city lights on the Moon in the darkened portions of the side facing Earth during the Moon's phases.
Yes, a stylized sunburst was a symbol of the Terran Empire, centuries later, but not a space ship. The Spaceship and Sun was the symbol of Asimov's Galactic Empire.
Sean
Sean,
Anderson writes "dark side." (THE VAN RIJN METHOD, p. 184)
Thank you for clearing up my confusion between Anderson's and Asimov's interstellar empires!
Paul.
Paul and Sean:
I've commented on this fact here before, but Asimov on one or more occasions specifies that the spaceship in the Galactic Empire's symbol is an "oblique cigar shape" — and yet illustrators consistently make it something more like an arrowhead or an airplane. Hilariously, to my mind anyway, the Atomic Rocket site (most of the way down the Symbols and Insignia page) shows two varying pictures of such designs EACH directly over a separate identical quote from the text saying "cigar shape."
Kaor, Paul and DAVID!
Paul, what I was trying to say is that one side only of the Moon permanently faces Earth--not the Far Side, which is what I believe Poul Anderson meant. I don't recall enough to say flatly if the Moon's Dark Side is permanently facing away from the Sun (altho Anderson's name for the Far Side is suggestive).
David, yes, I recall how ACCURATE depictions of Asimov's "Spaceship and Sun" symbol for his Galactic Empire had that cigar shape for the Ship.
Glory to the Emperor! Sean
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