According to Ydwyr:
"'...centuries of effort lie ahead.'"
-Poul Anderson, A Circus Of Hells IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 193-365 AT Chapter Seventeen, p. 331.
He explains:
there will be no big change in Djana's lifetime;
the goal is Merseian liberation;
Merseia welcomes partners;
"'...our endeavor is, ultimately, to impose Will on blind Nature and Chance.'" (ibid.)
Observations So Far
(i) Djana inwardly adds Junior partners but then, given her current view of Merseian superiority and human inferiority, does not see this as bad.
(ii) In Anderson's The Shield Of Time, a Danellian explains:
"'In a reality forever liable to chaos, the Patrol is the stabilizing element, holding time to a single course.'"
-Poul Anderson, The Shield Of Time (New York, 1991), p. 435.
And:
"'In truth, left untended, events would inevitably move toward the worse. A cosmos of random changes must be senseless, ultimately self-destructive. In it could be no freedom.'" (ibid.)
I am not sure about this: Dominic Flandry prolongs the Terran Empire because generations can live peacefully within it but the Time Patrol preserves a history in which some generations live peacefully whereas others experience events like the Holocaust. However, the main point here is that the Patrol does impose Will on blind Chance.
What would Djana's life as a spy for Merseia be like?
Ydwyr thinks:
mostly unremarkable;
though with "'....a good share of glamour and luxury.'" (Young Flandry, p. 332);
possibly as the mistress or wife of a Terran official;
only infrequently in contact with her organization;
fewer risks than in her previous life;
considerable material rewards;
the real reward in the service itself;
her name in the Secret Prayers of the Vach Urdiolch;
fully alive with a purpose beyond herself;
"'I am sure you realize the spectacular escapades of fiction are simply fiction.'" (ibid.)
Anderson must have intended that last quoted remark to be read as ironic in view of the spectacular stunts that Flandry is pulling even as Ydwyr speaks.
At any time, various possible futures stretch ahead. This novel tantalizes its readers with several possibilities:
Flandry remaining in Ydwyr's service;
Djana spying for Merseia;
later, Djana working for Terran Intelligence;
Djana, reconciled with Flandry, not putting her curse on him...;
Djana's vision of the Merseian Christ leading Merseians and human beings, including a descendant of Dominic;
Flandry's speculation about the Domrath breaking out of their hibernation cycle and going interstellar;
Ydwyr's hope that a joint Merseian-Terran scientific base on Talwin will have good consequences longer term...
Last post so I am trying to make it a long one.
I take possession of my new car tomorrow but, in view of the current icy conditions, might ask the garage to drive it here. What happened to those air cars in the twenty first century?
I will continue to reread and take notes from Young Flandry. I expect that we will meet again here tomorrow. Meanwhile, I might post on other blogs, e.g., see Talwin And Beringia and Cosmic Dawn.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Just a few random jottings here.
Merseian LIBERATION? Why the hypocritical cant, Ydwyr? BE candid and simply say CONQUEST by Merseia! Even including a possible attempt at exterminating the human race! (Snorts!)
And exactly how, concretely, would Merseia impose Will on a blind Nature and Chance? What does that even MEAN?
And Ydwyr's comment about the spectacular antics of spy fiction was just that, fiction, interests me. It indicates Merseian literature had as one genre, spy novels. And sometimes it can be as implausible as human novels. But, as you said, Flandry was the EXCEPTION to that general rule.
And Flandry would have remained in Ydwyr's service only if he gave up hope of escaping back to the Empire, then or later. My view is that he would have eventually contrived a means of doing so--and probably doing some really spectacular damage to Merseian schemes!
I remember Flandry wondering how the Domrath might somehow break out of the rigid straitjacket imposed by blind Nature and Chance. Now that would be something I could approve of!
AIR CARS??? Oh, how much I wish we had them! It was in AGENT OF THE TERRAN EMPIRE that I first came across that idea. I'm so tired of the boring, 19th century "horseless carriage" technology! True, besides the merely scientific and engineering aspects, we would need a civil service competent to handle flying cars. An ex Major of the US 82nd Airborne living in Arkansas pointed out that the bunglers of his own state's civil would make a hash of the job. And by extension, that includes the other states as well.
Sean
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