"'There's a deal of antiquarianism in the inner Empire these days, revival of everything from fencing to allemandes - uh, sport with swords and a class of dances.'"
-Poul Anderson, The Rebel Worlds IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 367-520 AT Chapter Five, p. 414.
Thus, the consecutive reader of Poul Anderson's Technic History is prepared for the anachronism of space opera with sword fights (see here) in the earlier written Captain Flandry series. On a barbarian planet where matters of personal honor are still settled with swords, Flandry survives and succeeds because, as a civilized but decadent Imperialist, he is already well trained in scientific fencing.
In fact, like Nicholas van Rijn, Flandry (more than) survives in the most daunting of alien environments, surrounded by, in my opinion, sometimes horrific alien beings. As Brechdan Ironrede said of mankind, with people like van Rijn in mind:
"'They were magnificent once. They could be again.'"
-Ensign Flandry IN Young Flandry, pp. 1-192 AT Chapter Ten, p. 92.
In case we are in any doubt about Merseian intentions, he adds:
"'I would love to see them our willing subjects...Unlikely, of course. They're not that kind of species. We may be forced to exterminate.'"
-ibid.
Brechdan told his son that the Terran Empire has brave, devoted and shrewd men with a long history who will fight like demons. Indeed. Brechdan will shortly meet Abrams and Flandry.
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And some of those brave, shrewd, and devoted men still existed in the highest ranks of the Empire, such as some of the members of the Policy Board and Sir Ilya Kheraskov in the Naval Intelligence Corps. And Fleet commanders like Admiral Walton.
Bottom line, the Empire might have been decadent, but it was not going to be a push over!
Sean
Kaor, Paul!
And we see non humans like Aycharaych quoting pre-space flight like Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poem "A Musical Instrument" in A KNIGHT OF GHOSTS AND SHADOWS. So Terran arts and literature interested some non-humans.
Sean
I've never tried 'sport with swords', but all my life I have listened to music from the past several centuries. Mostly the European tradition since that has the written form to preserve music for centuries. I also play violin.
The old isn't necessarily better, but the better stuff tends to be remembered longer.
Kaor, Jim!
I agree. The better stuff, in literature and the arts, has a tendency to survive. If preserved!
Happy New Year! Sean
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