"The Ai Chun had no interest in a spaceship as such. Their gangs had been stripping away metal for more prosaic uses." (XIII, p. 92)
That statement alone is sufficient condemnation of Ai Chun culture.
"Where the West had soared from the rock of Earth like a sequoia, the Soviets spread like lichens over the planet, tightening their grip, satisfied to be at the bases of the pillars of sunlight the West had sought to ascend."
-James Blish, Earthman, Come Home IN Blish, Cities In Flight (London, 1981), pp. 235-465 AT PROLOGUE, p. 238.
Hugh Valland has been more than one kind of engineer, has considerable xenological skill, has soldiered more than once, can work as a gunner, teaches the Azkashi unified command and action under doctrine and inspires them both with bagpipes sounds from his omnisonor and by using a scientific instrument to demonstrate that God, the galaxy, is still overhead even when invisible to normal eyesight. Valland's abilities match van Rijn's. See Van Rijn's Inspirations.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I agree, the unimaginatively prosaic attitude of the Ai Chun towards a space ship is sufficient condemnation of them. I would like to think most intelligence races, newly discovering such things, would regard space ships with awe, wonder, admiration, etc!
I like that metaphor of Blish, comparing the West, at its best, to a giant redwood leaping into the sky. That is the kind of society I would admire, striving to achieve GREAT things!
And, given 3000 years of life, Hugh Valland would have the TIME needed to gain all the knowledge and skills described here. A pity we only see Valland once, in WORLD WITHOUT STARS.
Sean
Sean,
We want a biography of Valland and a history of his civilization or at least I do.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I agree, or at least the notes Poul Anderson may have written as he was planning out this book.
Again, I think of that overflowing loose-leaf binder of notes, charts, essays, etc., compiled by Anderson for his Technic Civilization stories. I hope it survived and that some fragments are publishable.
Sean
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