Horst's orderly reads a journal produced by Lanz von Liebenfels. If you want to see how interesting ideas can go wrong, then read the Wiki article and the links from it.
Luz and Horst are in a divergent timeline but most of their history is also ours. The two enemies approach each other. The reader is in suspense. The showdown will be spectacular.
14 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Frustrating, how long I will have to wait till THEATER OF SPIES is published! These references to St. Benno and Lanz von Liebenfels, both of whom I had never before heard of, are tantalizing!
I looked up both of these men and I far prefer St. Benno to Liebenfels, the latter of whom preached a weird mix of racism, anti-Semitism, "eugenics," occultism, etc. I would far rather Horst's orderly had subscribed to a serious, sober, and orthodox Catholic journal!
Sean
You may recognize the orderly...
Can't say that I do, as of now...
OK, he's a short, black-haired, blue-eyed Austrian serving in the German army, decorated with the Iron Cross First Class (very rare for an enlisted man in WW1), violently anti-Semitic and interested in volkisch-mystical Aryanist theories...
Meine Gott! (Sorry I missed that one.)
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
When I read your comments, I knew exactly what person you were hinting about. But I won't spill the beans! The soldier you mentioned had a VERY distinguished and honorable war record if he was honored with the Iron Cross, First Class.
Sean
Essentially, for an enlisted man to get the Iron Cross First Class in 1914-18, he had to do something nonsurvivable and do it while an officer was watching.
It's a miracle that you-know-who survived four years on the Western Front -- he was wounded four times and gassed badly enough to be hospitalized once.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree! You Know Who had one of the most dangerous of front line jobs, and it was amazing that he SURVIVED!
Sean
Very tempting for a time criminal in the Time Patrol timeline...
Kaor, Paul!
And the Patrol would be force to stop that time criminal. S.M. Stirling wrote a Time Patrol pastiche in which Manse and Wanda had to reverse time criminals efforts to prevent the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand in 1914. Albeit, I would have some sympathy for people trying to prevent a world where Lenin, Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler, Mao, et al, came to power.
Sean
Sean: it would probably be a better world... at least for a while. Long term, how could anyone tell? Poul addressed that in the first Time Patrol story, talking to a fellow trainee at the Academy whose fiancee had been killed by a V-bomb in the Blitz.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I know this is a late comment, but I have some thoughts to suggest.
I still can't help but think a world which never had a WW I and hence no USSR, Nazi Germany, and all their imitators, would have been better than the dismal 20th century we did get. But, yes, it is possible something even worse than a Lenin, Stalin, or Hitler would have come if there had been no WW I, despite me finding that hard to imagine. Could something like the Draka have arisen in our timeline?
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: I think the 20th century would have been "better" in many respects -- tho' a good many desirable changes would probably have come more slowly. Though again, probably more thoroughly.
But it's impossible to tell how the -long-term- history would have been affected.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
But that again leads me to continue regretting we had the Sarajevo Assassination and all its dismal consequences. No Sarajevo means some desirable changes would have come more slowly but also more "thoroughly"? I interpreted that to mean some of those possibly beneficial changes might have come with less bitterness, anger, opposition, etc. Which would surely be worth some slowness.
Ad astra! Sean
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