-Poul Anderson, The Avatar, XLIX, p. 397.
What better option for criminals than to become colonists? Ira Quick's choices might be prison, a pistol - or a planet.
Next I will quote a passage from Anderson's A Midsummer Tempest for two purposes, first to show that it echoes the passage already quoted from The Avatar and secondly to demonstrate how, in this text, Anderson's prose can be rearranged into blank verse.
Charles I proclaims:
"Ye know the most of what we shall proclaim
"Tomorrow to the people and the world.
"Let us, however, in curt courtesy,
"Lay it before you here to think upon.
"We both, we Crown and commoners, were sent
"Through a sharp school which birched us in the lesson
"Our Lord first offered freely on the Mount.
"Hereafter may we do our sums aright!
"'Tis true high treason cannot be ignored.
"The unrepentant leaders of revolt
" - As Cromwell, Fairfax, Shelgrave, and the rest -
"Must go from us, their riches confiscate
"To loyalists who formerly were poor.
"But they may fare as exiles where they wish,
"Or, if they like, be granted ships and help,
"That in New England they may found new lives.
"It can well use such steadfastness as theirs.
"And to the most, the vast majority,
"Is given pardon unconditional.
"Let us be reconciled with one another,
"Rebuild this house we wasted in our rage,
"Then dwell together in a common love.
"Toward that end, the Crown must do its share.
"Uprising, though unjustified, had causes
"Which partly lay in King and Church and nobles.
"Not simply folly and extravagance,
"But outright tyranny, archaic use
"A crust across the growth of a new age,
"Unwillingness to listen or to change -
"Such things from us; and from the Parliament
"An arrogance, intolerance and haste -
"Unholily engendered civil war.
"Let us instead join better qualities.
"Let a new Parliament be called to us,
"And with us write new laws which long may stand
"Because they serve the welfare of our land."
-Poul Anderson, A Midsummer Tempest (London, 1975), xxv, pp. 222-223.
Lastly, the Time Patrol sends time criminals to an exile planet.
6 comments:
"A world to win, an empire to build."
— Khan Noonien Singh, when offered the choice of prosecution (for attempted piracy) or exile on a "barely habitable planet," in "Space Seed," Star Trek.
Kaor, Paul!
That was a beautiful passage you quoted from A MIDSUMMER TEMPEST! And I agree with the sentiments and ideas expressed in it. I only wish something like this could have happened with the Charles I and Parliament of our timeline. Or with the yet bloodier civil wars which devastated the France of the Revolution or the US of our Civil War.
Yes, unrepentant leaders of rebellion could not be pardoned, but, if possible, alternatives other than execution should be found. Either exile to the New England of MIDSUMMER, or the leaders of the anti-Stellar cabal of THE AVATAR could be given the choice of starting new lives on Demeter.
Sean
David,
Singh had interesting histories in the films.
Sean,
I would have preferred if England had remained a republic although not a repressive one.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I'm relatively indifferent merely to FORMS of government. Because of Poul Anderson's influence, what matters to me is whether a gov't, whatever form it has, is LEGITIMATE, that its people believes it to have the RIGHT to govern. And since the vast majority of the British, English, Scots, and Welsh, then and now, want the monarchy, then that form of gov't is legitimate for Great Britain.
As for the Cromwwellian "Commonwealth," if Old Oliver had been succeeded as Lord Protector by his ABLE son Henry, instead of the ineffectual Richard, we might have seen a Cronwellian dynasty becoming firmly established.
Sean
Sean,
Often, I accept that I am in a minority.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
That makes you far better than too many others who may have shared views similar to yours! That is, you are unwilling to fanatically and violently force your ideas on a resistant and resentful people. Unlike, say, Cromwell, Robespierre, Lenin, Pol Pot, etc.
Sean
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