Tuesday 30 July 2019

The Spirit And A Druze

"... but man, proud man, Drest in a little brief authority, Most ignorant of what he's most assured, His glassy essence, like an angry ape, Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven As make the angels weep;
-copied from here.

I compare that passage with this one:

"'Holy Avatars of the Spirit...'
"Raj forced himself not to wince; technically that term included him, now. I am not worthy! something cried within himself."
-The Forge, CHAPTER EIGHT, p. 121.

In accordance with his received religious beliefs, SM Stirling's and David Drake's character, Raj Whitehall, believes that he has become an Avatar, indwelt by the Spirit, because he is now in mental contact with a self-conscious strategic computer which he can only understand to be an angel of the Spirit. However, each of us is in fact indwelt by God/the Spirit/the cosmos/our glassy essence/potential Buddhahood/Brahman-Atman etc and none is individually worthy.

Raj's wife converses with a Druze and I knew nothing about them until I googled here.

I am signing off for this month. CHAPTER EIGHT contains some violence which I prefer to skip past!

Extraterrestrial Trees And Bushes In Two Timelines (Probably Not A Complete List)

See recent discussion of trees in Thongtree.

On SM Stirling's And David Drake's Bellevue
thongtree

In Poul Anderson's Technic History
On Aeneas
starkwood
daggerbush
delphi
rahab

On Avalon
king's-crown
chasuble bush
boomer tree
surgeon tree
hell shrub
ironleaf tree

On Ythri
braidbark
copperwood
windnest
lightningrod
sword-of-sorrow
hammerbranch

On Llynathawr
rasmin

Sources:

Life On Aeneas
Who Knows Of Avalon?
A Mixed Ecology, 3 July 2014
Another Mixed Ecology
Trees
A Mixed Ecology, 11 November 2014
Some Remaining Details Concerning Aeneas

Economic Development

The Forge, CHAPTER EIGHT.

Raj Whitehall speaks to a man with shares in trade but also in manufacturing, mines and city properties. He describes himself by an unfamiliar term that sounds as if it means "person-of-doing" and that he defines as "One who risks moneysavings in affairs of profit." (p. 111) Investor. Entrepreneur.

"Extraordinary, Raj thought. Getting rich without inheriting or stealing it. Odd, and rather unsettling; and if he had so much wealth in cash and goods, why didn't he buy land, the only wealth that was really real?" (ibid.)

Raj does not know that the moneyed class defeated and displaced the landed class as the ruling class in England and Europe back on Earth.

In Howard Fast's Spartacus, a Roman character is disturbed, as well he might be, by a close encounter with some strange, silent men who work, tirelessly and efficiently, in a perfume factory in exchange for a wage. Neither slave owners nor slaves, the industrial working class is stepping onto the stage of history.

Monday 29 July 2019

Crucifixions

Crucifixion is torture to death by impalement or asphyxiation. And that is all that it is. I say this because, in Western civilization, the word, "crucifixion," has acquired enormous connotations that I think are simply irrelevant when all that we are really talking about is a lot of people, not just one, being gruesomely and horrifically killed.

The matter arises because SM Stirling's and David Drake's Raj Whitehall has a group of looters and rapists not shot but crucified as an example. He says that he had to do this. He did not. Center seems to have warned Raj against summarily slaughtering the criminals but what would have been wrong with a simple firing squad?

In Poul Anderson's The Rebel Worlds, crucifixion victims on Shalmu are innocent of any crime but their population is being oppressed for a political purpose. Even worse. Or is it? Is the torture of a rapist less reprehensible than any other torture?

Every Detail Matters

I post about details that strike me. They might be linguistic, stylistic, historical, philosophical etc. Themes have emerged like food, multi-sensory descriptions, the pathetic fallacy, moments of realization etc. However, there are many details that I miss through lack of interest or specialist knowledge. I am a philosopher, not a scientist, and also have no particular interest in military history or hardware, unlike Andrea who knows every detail of every European War at least from the Napoleonic period to WWII. (The Russians had better tanks.) I must ask him about the Crusades.

Blog readers who are able to analyze the accounts of military organizations or the background scientific information in the sf novels discussed here are invited to do so. Between us, we should be able to construct an adequate appreciation of the works of Poul Anderson, SM Stirling and at least some of their predecessors and contemporaries. I have not kept abreast of most recent sf but would anyone like to tell us about it?

Some Telling Details

The Forge, CHAPTER SEVEN, pp. 98-99.

The colonized planet, Bellevue, has two moons so what are they called? Miniluna and Maxiluna.

Do they cast moonlight? No, "moonslight." (p. 98)

A soldier scouting possible bandits at night carries "...a wire cord with wooden toggles on both ends..." (ibid.) So what is it? A "...garrotte..." (p. 99)

Soldiers who have been brought up as hunters make little noise when stalking at night. Poul Anderson's Dominic Flandry has reflected that hunting skills are transferable to resistance fighting. See here.

Raj Whitehall, leading this night-time excursion, smells barley, hears gurgling water and sees pale silver light flickering through leaves.

We should pause to appreciate these telling details in SM Stirling's narrative before we read on to learn the outcome.

A Meal in The Command Tent

The Forge, CHAPTER SEVEN, p. 93.

SM Stirling also excels, and surpasses even Poul Anderson, in loving descriptions of food:

pan-fried trout
roasted lamb with spiced sausages on saffron rice
salads
quick-fried vegetables
chocolate compote (for more images, see here)
palatable wine

Always glad to add to the ever-growing Food Thread, we look forward to more descriptions of meals in the remaining nine chapters of The Forge.

Looting And Rape

Raj Whitehall says:

"'...if you let men be jackals, don't expect them to fight. Looting and rape are their privileges on foreign soil, not among our own people. Otherwise we're bandits...'"
-The Forge, CHAPTER SIX, p. 92.

Looting and rape are privileges, not war crimes! Give me strength! - as Raj prayed here.

SM Stirling excels not only in villains but also in heroes of societies so different from ours that the criteria of heroism are also very different. See the combox discussion for Who Are The Good Guys?

Thongtree

Poul Anderson fans are on familiar territory when they read this description of a scene on the planet, Bellevue:

"It was in heavy forest, oak and wild cherry and pine..."
-The Forge, CHAPTER SIX, p. 77.

We might think, "Oak, cherry and pine? This is an extra-solar planet!" However, the sentence continues:

"...and native thongtree, tall reddish-ochre things with smooth bark and a cluster of thin whippy branches on top, big sword-shaped leaves set like feathers along the edges of each." (ibid.)

That is more like it: the by now familiar mixed ecology - which was already evident in CHAPTER ONE, p. 3, the opening page of the text, where a spersauroid killed a rat:

"One of the few pleasant things about living in East Residence was that Terran life had mostly replace the local. But not in the catacombs, it seemed." (p. 3)

Here is a quiz for Poul Anderson fans:

How many extraterrestrial trees are there in the Technic History?
On which planets?
And which of them has lethal thin whipping branches?

Sunday 28 July 2019

Who Are The Good Guys?

SM Stirling's and David Drake's Raj Whitehall solves a problem by ordering his men to point their rifles at a civilian. Bad news. Maybe we have to regard Raj like Centurion Eric von Shrakenberg in Stirling's Draka History, a basically good guy but in a bad system?

Usually we expect to read about central characters that we can regard as the good guys. Thus, we expect Poul Anderson's Time Patrolmen not only to guard the Danellian timeline but also to act in accordance with what we regard as civilized values. However, the timeline to be guarded encompasses both many horrific events and many contradictory value systems. Does the Patrol have agents in high positions in the SS and Gestapo and, if so, how much are they prepared to do to make sure that the Holocaust happens on schedule? And what of the many other periods, past or future, when the prevailing values are not our values? Agents recruited from some periods will regard torture as acceptable. Of course, the Patrol has technology that makes torture unnecessary so maybe technological advance is part of the answer.

The Future Of Religion In Many Timelines

See Religion In Future Histories on the Science Fiction blog which links to "CS Lewis and James Blish" on the James Blish Appreciation blog. Having addressed this subject at length before, I will be brief here. This post is occasioned by a (to me) new input from SM Stirling and David Drake. It is also the kind of post mentioned recently that compares many futuristic sf series, including several by Poul Anderson.

Wells' The Shape Of Things To Come
Religions are eradicated.

Stapledon's Last And First Men
The Daughter of Man, the Divine Child and divine birds.

Stapledon's Star Maker
The Cosmic Mind has a vision of the Star Maker creating universes.

Heinlein's Future History
The US becomes a theocracy.

Heinlein's Stranger In A Strange Land
Christian and Hindu theologies are reproduced as Fosterite and Martian.
Martian Old Ones are visible, audible ghosts.

Asimov's Foundation and Herbert's Dune
Cynical manipulations of popular religions.
In the Dune history, Israel becomes "Secret."

Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles
The Martian Old Ones are one with nature and do not need Christian ministry.

Lewis' Ransom Trilogy
Ransom meets the presiding angel of Malacandra (Mars).
Ransom prevents the Fall of Perelandra (Venus).
A demon manifests on Thulcandra (Earth) but Merlin returns and planetary angels descend.

Corwainer Smith's Instrumentality of Mankind future history series
Christianity goes underground.

Blish's Cities In Flight
Believers/Witnesses proclaim imminent immortality as antithanatics are discovered.
Interstellar nomads invoke "gods of all stars!"
Jorn the Apostle leads the Warriors of God in the Greater Magellanic Cloud.

Blish's The Seedling Stars
Adapted Men believe that they were placed on an extra-solar planet by supernatural "Giants," not by the Colonization Council.

Blish's After Such Knowledge Trilogy
Roger Bacon might have been demonically inspired.
Demons appear and act on Earth.
A planet explodes when a priest exorcises it.

Anderson's Technic History
The Ythrian New Faith troubles a Christian.
Wodenites convert to Terrestrial religions.
Fr. Axor seeks evidence for the Universal Incarnation.
Olaf Magnusson, indoctrinated, accepts the racist monotheism of the Merseian Roidhunate.
Do some human choth members on Avalon embrace the Ythrian Old Faith?

Anderson's The Corridors Of Time
Matriarchal mysticism meets militant materialism.

Anderson's Time Patrol series
We do not know about the Danellians.

Anderson's Genesis
A far future planetary intelligence re-creates extinct human beings and guides them in the form of gods in which they would in any case have believed at an early stage of their development.

Niven's Known Space future history series
Mad Kdapt-Preacher believed that God made man in His own image because men kept winning wars against kzinti.
Kdaptists prayed wearing human masks.

Pournelle's CoDominium future history series
A dark nebula with a single bright star resembles a hooded, one-eyed face so the Church of Him is founded.

Aldiss' Helliconia Trilogy
The Helliconians are in direct contact with their hereafter.

Stirling's Emberverse
Gods manifest and human beings enter a hereafter.

SM Stirling's and David Drake's The General series
Human beings isolated on an extra-solar planet after the Fall of interstellar civilization reflect anthropocentrism and their interstellar past by calling God "Spirit of Man of the Stars."
The Spirit is believed to be served by angels and to indwell miraculous Avatars.

SF As Collaboration

Poul Anderson wrote:

many entirely original works;

several new installments of already existing series created by other authors, e.g., one US Robots story, one War World story and three Man-Kzin Wars stories (Asimov, Pournelle and Niven, respectively);

one story in the Murasaki volume;

two stories set in a fictional universe created by Isaac Asimov for other authors to use.

SM Stirling has written:

original works;

two (?) War World stories;

one contribution to Anderson's Time Patrol series;

collaborations with Jerry Pournelle set in the Man-Kzin Wars series and in Pournelle's own CoDominium History (of which the War World represents a single period);

The General series based on outlines created by David Drake specifically for Stirling to use.

That list is as comprehensive as I can make it with the minimum of checking and, I think, covers just about every possible kind of sf collaboration.

Ideas And Implications

James Blish said in correspondence that sf writers copy each other's ideas to an extent that would be regarded as plagiarism in any other field.

Examples:

Heinlein's Future History, then Anderson's Psychotechnic History;

Heinlein's Magic, Inc., then Anderson's Operation Chaos.

Sf is a debate. One sf writer presents both an idea and an implication of that idea. A second writer replies with an alternative implication of that same idea. In the Psychotechnic History, Anderson presents:

an unemployed robot;

a dead end immortality;

the application of a predictive social science (Asimov) to the population of an interstellar "generation ship" (Heinlein).

By the time we read Anderson's Time Patrol series, we were already familiar with the idea that time travelers might accidentally or deliberately change history.

These reflections were prompted by the mention of three interstellar "Falls" in the previous post.

Saturday 27 July 2019

An Interstellar Tragedy

Imagine:

human beings traverse interstellar distances and colonize extra-solar planets;

interstellar travel and communication cease;

some colonized planets, losing technological civilization, revert to barbarism and superstition.

Examples in sf:

Asimov's Fall of the Galactic Empire;
Anderson's Fall of the Terran Empire;
SM Stirling's and David Drake's "The Fall."

A tragedy? Certainly. But nowhere near as big a tragedy as the human race remaining on a single planet and becoming extinct here. A barbarian bigot remains a human being. He is our brother even if he would burn us at the stake for saying so. And, if civilization is lost but human beings survive, then they might rebuild civilization later.

Upward or, failing that, at least outward!

Good night and glory to the Emperor!

"Give Me Strength!"

When people (feel that they) lack a quality like strength, they ask for it, sometimes saying, e.g., "Give me strength!"

When reading Poul Anderson's Orbit Unlimited, (see here) I thought that the prayer, "'Strengthen me, God...'" might be Biblical. Googling revealed, furthermore, that it was uttered by the Biblical strongman, Samson. (Samson and Hercules are, respectively, the Biblical and Classical precursors of Superman.)

In SM Stirling's and David Drake's The Forge, Raj prays:

"Spirit of Man of the Stars, give me strength!"
-CHAPTER FIVE, p. 58.

- to which Center inwardly replies:

"that is not my function." (ibid.)

Center is what we call a conscious computer mentally linked to Raj although he thinks that it is an angel of his deity, the Spirit of Man of the Stars. Thus, Center's response is not inappropriate. It gives Raj military advice but not personal strength. In polytheism, petitions for multiple gifts have to be addressed to different gods. Raj is on the verge of such a system. Other entities might be designed to give different sorts of help.

A Reliable Battalion

The Forge.

Raj and his wife discuss a particular Battalion. Suzette asks:

"They're useless?'" (CHAPTER FOUR, p. 52)

Raj replies:

"'No, not useless. Reliable enough putting down strikes and riots.'" (ibid.)

Is this what troops are for? Why do workers strike or riot? See Battle of George Square.

I read an account of an incident during the Russian Revolution. Cossacks marching in one direction met workers marching in the opposite direction. The Cossack officer ordered his men to aim their rifles at the crowd. They obeyed. He ordered them to fire. They hesitated. He pointed his revolver at the head of one of his own men and repeated the order. Someone on the workers' side had a gun and killed the officer. Then the Cossacks fraternized and handed over their guns to the demonstrators. A soldier is an armed worker who can question where his loyalties lie. Do I like the regime that Raj defends? So far, no. Raj remembers rifles and rivulets of blood  - not of the enemy but of "...the mob - the people..." (p. 52)

Inga And Ilis

For Inga, see City Life.

Poul Anderson's Technic History includes some texts that have been revised to fit them into this future history series. Similarly, Anderson's For Love And Glory, which was potentially a new series, contains revised versions of Anderson's two contributions to the multi-authored Isaac's Universe (or Isaac Asimov's Universe) series.

At least in the opening passages, only the names have been changed:

Inga becomes Ilis;
Harul Vargen becomes Gerward Valen;
Laurice Windfell becomes Lissa Windholm;
the Brettan people become the Brusan people;
the planet, Ather, is renamed "Asborg";
the Ronaic Alps become the Hallan Alps;
"Erthuma settlement" becomes "human settlement";
a spaceship name is changed from "Darya" to "Dagmar";
etc.

Having recently reread FLAG closely, I will decision-make as to whether to continue to check the two texts for any further comparisons.

Inspiration

In The Forge, Center's private advice to Raj is printed in bold. Thus, the reader can see it coming:

"observe." (CHAPTER THREE, p. 42);

"tewfik will also find it difficult to shift forces in the northeast..." (p. 43);

etc.

When Raj's advice has been accepted and his colleagues have left the room, his superior, the Vice-Governor, commends his work without entertaining the slightest notion of where Raj's ideas have come from. However, the military action on which they are about to embark does not sound commendable:

"'Kill and burn... don't leave a mosque standing...'" (p. 45)

Center's inner dialogue even extends to a comment on the Vice-Governor's wife who is present:

"deadlier than the male..." (p. 47)

We foresee a long and fruitful collaboration between Raj and Center. We also recognize that we are reading the distinctive sub-genre of military sf where knowledge and experience of warfare are deployed in an exotic setting that mixes high- and low-tech hardware.

One insightful observation:

"...there were plenty of men who could handle physical danger, the immediate and unexpected challenge, but who froze when they had to make the big decisions." (p. 46)

Raj judges that this Vice-Governor needs staff who can handle the pressures that he cannot, also that his wife has enough backbone for both of them. Thus, credible characters in a dramatic narrative.

Friday 26 July 2019

Gods And Dogs

Theists believe:

that prayers, even if not outwardly spoken, are heard;

that petitionary prayers can be answered;

even that sometimes the answers are literally heard.

In SM Stirling's and David Drake's The Forge, Raj Whitehall inwardly converses with a sentient artificial entity that describes itself as a:

"...Sector Command and Control Unit..." (CHAPTER TWO, pp. 13, 23)

- and that Raj himself refers to as "...Center..." (p. 22)

Raj inwardly addresses Center which hears, replies and even conveys information visually. Thus, Raj prays - not to the single deity of the monotheist faiths but to a superhuman intelligence nevertheless. This intelligence was humanly constructed just as the many gods of polytheist traditions were humanly projected. I have met people who claim to have conversed with them. Personally, I just sit to meditate but also think, "From delusion, lead us to truth. From darkness, lead us to light," and will be grateful if any superhuman entity hears and responds.

In Raj's time, dogs have grown big enough to be ridden like, and instead of, horses. Since horses started small, this is possible. 

Some Interesting Facts About Magazine And Post-Magazine SF

Martin H. Greenberg (Ed.)., Isaac Asimov's Universe, Volume I: The Diplomacy Guild (London, 1990).

This anthology contains one story each by:

Robert Silverberg
David Brin
Robert Sheckley
Poul Anderson
Harry Turtledove

I will probably read only the story by Anderson just as I have read only the Man-Kzin Wars stories by:

Larry Niven
Poul Anderson
Jerry Pournelle & SM Stirling

- which means that I own but have not read Man-Kzin War stories by several other authors. I am interested in "The Burning Sky" as part of Poul Anderson's complete works, not as part of a multi-authored series.

Isaac Asimov: Introduction INVENTING A UNIVERSE IN Isaac Asimov's Universe: Volume I.

Summary
(i) After only ten or fifteen years of writing, Asimov came to be classed as one of the "Big Three," along with Heinlein and Clarke.

(ii) They remained the Big Three for nearly fifty years.

(iii) Heinlein died aged 80 in 1988 whereas Asimov and Clarke were still writing in 1990.

(iv) Publication of Heinlein's works, including a posthumous novel, continued.

(v) The Big Three remained on the shelves of bookshops whereas new works were continually replaced by newer.

(An aside: Bob Shaw once said in conversation that he had considered asking Asimov, out of his love for sf, to stop having his books republished. It seems, from this Introduction, that Asimov did feel responsible for keeping newer writers out.)

(vi) Not only the Big Three but several other important writers "...started in the early days of science fiction..." (p. vii):

Lester del Rey
Poul Anderson
Fred Pohl
Clifford Simak
Ray Bradbury

- and those who died young:

Stanley Weinbaum
Henry Kuttner
Cyril Kornbluth

(vii) Back then, magazines paid at most one cent per word.

(viii) There were no sf book publishers and few films.

(ix) For decades, the pioneers built the popularity of sf.

(x) As a result, a new writer earns more from a single novel than his predecessors did from ten years of effort.

(xi) In 1958, Asimov decided that he preferred writing nonfiction and wrote almost no sf until 1981.

(xii) However, his earlier sf remained in print while his articles in FSF kept his name before the public as a current author, still one of the Big Three.

(xiii) In 1981, in response to publisher insistence, then to bestseller status, he began to write one new novel per year.

(xiv) However, he also co-edited over 100 anthologies, lent his name to other publications, e.g., "Isaac Asimov Presents" and "Isaac Asimov's Robot City," and created "Isaac's Universe"/"Isaac Asimov's Universe," for other authors to write in.

But these endeavors still have Asimov's name all over them. I have argued on this blog that:

Anderson's History of Technic Civilization is better in every way than Asimov's Robots and Empire future history;

Anderson's many works on time travel are better in every way than Asimov's few;

Asimov invokes an sf cliche of "hyperspace" whereas Anderson presents an ingenious multiple quantum jumps hyperspace as well as several other original rationales for faster than light travel;

Anderson's Chunderban Desai analyzes actual history whereas Asimov's Hari Seldon wrongly states that individual actions cancel out in a galactic population just as molecular motions cancel out on a macroscopic scale so that mathematical psychohistory can become a predictive science;

Anderson's Psychotechnic Institute is a more convincing application of science to society than Asimov's Second Foundation;

Anderson's Time Patrol series is a much more concrete synthesis of sf with historical fiction than Asimov's Foundation series.

In my opinion, Anderson is the Big One and Heinlein is important as his precursor.

Information Overload

I am experiencing information overload and can only enumerate several disparate inputs, mostly Poul Anderson-related, whether directly or indirectly.

(i) SM Stirling's and David Drake's Raj Whitehall is a military leader mentally advised by a self-conscious strategic computer, the technological equivalent of supernatural inspiration, which is what he regards it as. A neat idea.

(ii) Today, I visited the Old Pier Bookshop in order to buy a few remaining Dornford Yates titles but also found a copy of Isaac Asimov's Universe, Volume I: The Diplomacy Guild, containing "The Burning Sky" by Poul Anderson.

(iii) I also visited Andrea who lives above his brother's bookshop. Andrea told me of another reason for war-time French resentment of Britain. French POWs understood that they would be released at the end of the war - which the British indefinitely prolonged! (Like Anderson's Avalon refusing to surrender when expected.)

(iv) Yates mentions Francois Villon.

These inputs will generate further posts.

Coincidence Department II

See The Second Feat, Continued.

Poul Anderson's and Gordon R. Dickson's Hoka character, Hector, referred to Sassenach guile. This led to a combox discussion of "Perfidious Albion." Dornford Yates refers to "Perfide Albion" in As Berry And I Were Saying. However, Yates attributes this view of Britain to the French. In his opinion:

the French expected the British to follow their lead in surrendering to the Germans and were put out when they did not;

then they expected the British to be conquered and were put out when they were not;

winning the war put an end to Frenchmen profiting on the black market;

very few French resisted the German occupation;

the occupation would have been impossible if more had resisted it.

I do not subscribe to Yates' sweeping nationalistic generalizations. He loathed Germans.

For black marketeering immediately after WWII in a Poul Anderson novel, see Post-War Crime.

Thursday 25 July 2019

Coincidence Department

"So he took Boy to Cholmondely Street."
-Dornford Yates, As Berry And I Were Saying (London, 1952), p. 137.

We have already had our fill of Cholmondoley although going through the process of spelling it out has made me realize that it is spelt slightly differently.

Boy is driven to Cholmondely Street in London but the image is of Cholmondely Avenue, London, which was the closest that I could find and I have made myself sit up late to post that.

Viewing Counterfactuals

If alternative histories happen in parallel timelines, then maybe it would be possible to observe events as they occur in one of those timelines? But would it be possible to observe events that have never occurred anywhere or anywhen?

"'Those...battles. They're what might have occurred if...if what?'"
-The Forge, CHAPTER TWO, p. 21.

The sentient artificial entity has shown Raj moving images of events that he knows did not happen - like someone showing you Hitler being assassinated early in World War II.

Are the images merely simulated? Do they show what might have occurred, or what it is somehow known would have occurred, if some specified condition had differed?

See Probabilities Observed.

A computer screen shows a simulated alternative reality where an “anti-atomic ray” saved Krypton and where, in 1965, a spaceship from Earth, missing the Moon, reached Krypton, bringing Lois Lane as a stowaway. Need I go on? (There is more like this in the story.)
-copied from here.

Poul Anderson's Time Patrol agents cannot view the divergent timelines that they must prevent although occasionally they inadvertently visit them. Of course, they do use computers:

"'And I have my connections,' Everard said.
"The histories, the data files, the great coordinating computers, the experts of the Time Patrol. The knowledge that this is the proper configuration of a plenum that has powerful negative feedback. We've identified the random factor that could bring on an avalanching change; what we must do is damp it out."
-Poul Anderson, "Star of the Sea" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 467-640 AT pp. 607-608.

After The Fall

The Forge is set long after the fall of technological civilization on a human extra-solar colony planet with a mixed ecology, thus in a period similar to the Long Night in Poul Anderson's Technic History.

"...New Residence was the largest city on Earth."
-SM Stirling and David Drake, The Forge IN Stirling and Drake, Warlord (Riverdale, NY, 2003), pp. 1-305 AT CHAPTER ONE, p. 4.

Is the word "Earth" correct here? (On first opening a futuristic sf novel, we have to learn the context and can be disoriented for the first few pages.)

A voice that addresses Raj Whitehall confirms that it is a computer although not as he uses the term and further explains that it is:

"...a sentient artificial entity of photonic subsystems..." (p. 14)

OK. The AI issue has (probably) been addressed sufficiently for fictional purposes. A mere computer like this laptop is not conscious whereas a sentient artificial entity is by definition conscious and might also perform computer functions. A mere computer function is programmed processing of symbols without any knowledge of their meanings whereas a sentient entity is capable of knowledge.

The General

Someone might enjoy Poul Anderson's vast canon even if they never read anything else. But no one ever does read nothing else. Readers of Anderson's works will also have read:

other fantasy and sf works from the same period;

earlier works in the several literary traditions to which Anderson contributes.

Sometimes on this blog we focus on the minutiae of a single future history series by Poul Anderson whereas, at other times, we compare up to a dozen such series by different authors as if they were parallel timelines with events like future world wars and revolutions that are almost contemporaneous although also sideways in time.

This blog has argued for:

the centrality of HG Wells in time travel, space travel, interplanetary invasion and future history;

the importance of Robert Heinlein's Future History as preceding Anderson's future histories;

the significance of SM Stirling as a colleague and successor of Anderson, specifically in alternative history fiction.

The General series by SM Stirling and David Drake is in the sub-genre of interstellar political and military sf like Anderson's Flandry series. I am about to start reading for the first time The General, Volume I, The Forge. There will be some discussion of this novel not only for any Anderson parallels but also as an example of its distinctive sub-genre.

Star Prince Charlie: Final Assessment

Poul Anderson's and Gordon R. Dickson's Hoka series is humorous sf. Its "Hoka," not meant to be taken seriously as a hypothetical extraterrestrial species, inhabit the planet, Toka.

However, the same authors' novel, Star Prince Charlie:

is set on a different planet, New Lemuria;

features only a single Hoka;

addresses serious issues of kingdoms, tyrannies and freedom.

Thus, this novel might count as a crossover between humorous and serious sf.

Everything is wound up implausibly neatly in the concluding chapter:

the deposed tyrants are not killed but sent where they might do some good;

the kingdom now has an Eternal King but, in his perennial absence, must learn to govern itself through newly installed democratic institutions.

I once argued that:

if there is only one God and He is not a human being, then, in the Kingdom of God, there is only one throne and no human being sits on it;

therefore, the Kingdom of God is complete anarchy.

("Anarchy" means not "disorder" but "no rule.")

Kingship

Star Prince Charlie, 16, The Deep Range.

Charlie risks his life but manages to survive in the flooded Grotto:

"This was what it meant to be a king, a real king - not wealth and glory, not leadership into needless wars, but serving the people, and if necessary, dying for them." (p. 178)

I like the remark about the wars but how many kings have seen it that way? Aslan sets out the requirements of kingship in The Magician's Nephew, CHAPTER XI, here.

Charlie goes further:

"The highest service a king could give was to lead them toward their own freedom." (p. 179)

Thus, he leads them away from the kingdom.

Wednesday 24 July 2019

A Ruler And A Roost

Star Prince Charlie, 15, The Prince.

Dzenko, whom Charlie has helped to power, turns out to be a worse tyrant than the deposed Olaghi. No big surprise.

The fifth Feat seems impossible: to emerge alive from a tidally inundated Grotto. The fjord is a "roost," (p. 169) in the sense of a tidal race.

Outraged by Dzenko's tyranny, Charlie ends Chapter 15 by announcing that he will fulfill the Prophecy to claim his throne. Is this foolhardiness or a moment of realization - the realization being a way to survive the flooding of the Grotto?

Needless to say, I have no intention of finding out at this time of night. This late, I should switch off the computer and turn to other reading.

How Charlie Recovers

Star Prince Charlie, 15, The Prince.

Charlie must:

recover from horror;
settle matters in the kingdom;
prevent further civil wars;
avoid giving the impression that he is an agent of human imperialism;
accomplish the remaining Feat;
withdraw.

He has undergone personal changes that will empower him to carry this off.

First, recovery and healing on the isle of Stalgesh after which the Battle is named:

sunshine;
fresh air;
plain food;
ample rest;
swimming;
boating;
fishing;
hiking;
good company.

"...he had grown more thoughtful, more aware of the troubles which haunt the universe but less ready to find simple causes or instant cures for them." (p. 160)

I asked in The Great Ghost whether the universe was haunted but there I meant it literally.

The Buddha sought and found the cause of suffering, the end of suffering and the way to the end of suffering: a simple cause but not an instant cure. See Four Noble Truths.

The New Lemurian Sea Battle

Star Prince Charlie, 14.

Arrows strike rebel ships. Troopers and sailors keep their places. Most artillery misses and Charlie reflects that war is ridiculously wasteful. Stones sink ships, burning bolts set them afire and Charlie reflects that war is gruesomely wasteful. Dzenko directs his flagship and two supporting vessels to pass between the royalist craft in order to engage and board Olaghi's propeller-driven aircraft carrier. Charlie and Hector had unwittingly served as spies when they were taken prisoner.

Mishka's squad holds shields above Charlie. Axes cut loose a grapnel. Dzenko's three craft bombard the aircraft carrier with catapults, mangonels, crossbows and longbows. The carrier is too reliant on its air cannon, firing at a much lower rate. Many crew man the treadmill that drives the propeller. Making less use of its sails, the carrier wallows. Golden sunlight shines on wreckage and blood.

Olaghi's fire-fighters douse flames with hand pumps. Cannon withdraw, spiked gangplanks extend from their suddenly widened ports and troops board Dzenko's ship, driving back the rebels. Mishka, at Charlie's insistence, lifts the latter onto his shoulders. When Charlie removes his helmet, his red hair lit by the setting sun makes him instantly recognizable as the Prince of the Prophecy. Thus, his body becomes a banner that rallies the rebels who then attack and capture the aircraft carrier. Charlie spares the captured Olaghi's life, quoting the Prophecy that the false king will flee, unfollowed.

Assessment: yet another rousing battle narrative accompanied by reflections on the reality of war.

Air Attack At Sea

Star Prince Charlie, 14, pp. 148-149.

As the fleets converge for combat, the rebel barons have negligibly few blimps whereas the despot Olaghi deploys his entire air force which begins to drop things on the rebel ships. Like Poul Anderson's The High Crusade, this novel presents a persuasive explanation as to why an overwhelmingly superior force fails:

breezes move the blimps so that few missiles hit their targets;

rebels shield their eyes and receive only minor cuts from shattered glass globes;

only one fire bomb ignites a ship but its crew escapes;

most fuses either go out or burn slowly enough to be pulled away;

when the blimps descend, they are vulnerable to large quarrels fired from catapults;

their downed crews are captured;

the attack and its defeat entertain the rebels and boost their morale.

Air Power

Star Prince Charlie, 14.

A very quick breakfast post before an excursion of a few hours. Our next project will be analysis of a sea battle. The fleets approach and Olaghi's entire air force attacks the rebels but unsuccessfully. We will discuss why.

Mishka has heard:

"...that Olaghi has a slogan: 'Victory through air power.'" (p. 149)

See:

Fighting On Foot
Alliteration And Air Power

Tuesday 23 July 2019

Fahrenheit 451

Star Prince Charlie, 13.

When one of the priests accepts Charlie's challenge of the Three Riddles, he says:

"'As you will then... Who volunteers to stoke the sacred furnace?'" (p. 135)

I thought that that question was the first Riddle! But no, Charlie has to go into the furnace if he fails to answer a Riddle. Hence, the chapter title: Fahrenheit 451. A priest awaits Charlie's "'...calefaction.'" (p. 140)

Riddles that seem commonplace to us are top secret rituals on New Lemuria. Thus, Charlie has no problem in proving himself and then getting live sacrifices banned.

The Prophecy of the Prince was inspired by the god Bullak and therefore is regarded as heretical by the priests of Klashk - until Charlie proves himself. This sounds like the Satanic verses. (Since Islam is a pure monotheism, any early Koranic verses that implied polytheism must have been Satanic in origin.)

On New Lemuria, Charlie introduces the idea of Satan as a being who incites discord between Klashk, Bullak and other gods. Meanwhile, the despot Olaghi's fleet approaches so a physical conflict is imminent.

Tomorrow morning, I must drive to Blackpool, with its hotels and conference centers, on political business. However, stay tuned to this blog for more reports of the conflict on New Lemuria.

Character Interactions

Apparently, a large cast of characters interact with each other in Balzac's works. See Literary Unity. Readers appreciate unexpected encounters with familiar characters. In Poul Anderson's works:

Valeria Matuchek from the two Operation... novels and Holger Danske from Three Hearts And Three Lions meet in the Old Phoenix in A Midsummer Tempest and both are again mentioned in the Old Phoenix story, "Losers' Night";

Nicholas van Rijn from the Technic History visits the Old Phoenix in "House Rule";

Anderson acknowledges Heinlein's Future History by mentioning in "Losers' Night" that blind Rhysling also visited the Old Phoenix - we hope that he met van Rijn;

the hero of a one-off juvenile short story meets Adzel when the latter is a student on Earth;

van Rijn cameos in the first trader team story, interacts fully with the team in three later works and is mentioned elsewhere either as a celebrity or as a historical figure.

However, I think that Dornford Yates surpasses most other authors for character interactions. See here

The Ruined Temple Of A Once Great God

Star Prince Charlie, 13.

Charlie, confident of his ability to out-riddle impoverished priests, decides to tackle the fourth Feat without any help from Dzenko. He is accompanied not by Hector but by his new New Lemurian friend, Mishka. This novel ceases to be fully a part of the Hoka series.

"That Klashk the Omniscient had been a great god early in the history of this island was evident from the site of his temple, near the top of Holy Hill." (p. 132)

This opening sentence of Chapter 12 can mean either that the cult of Klashk is no longer big or that Klashk literally exists but is no longer great. The pagan world-view not only accepts the second meaning but identifies the two meanings. That Klashk is no longer great is shown by the facts that:

his temple is ruinous;
its roof leaks;
its walls are unpainted and sag;
its wooden walls have been vandalized;
there is thick dust and choking junk.

There is still "...a superb view..." (ibid.) across the town and bay toward the sunset: a good place to meditate, ruins or no ruins.

Music, Man And Superman

Star Prince Charlie, 7, Man and Superman.

"...the Hoka skirled forth a coronach." (p. 75)

"The warriors kept bringing him rich fruit and drink and then expected him to give an a capella concert." (p. 82)

What is George Bernard Shaw's Man And Superman about? How does it connect with Nietzsche's Superman? Why is Chapter 7 of Star Prince Charlie called Man and Superman? We, or at least I, read Star Prince Charlie without reflecting on the chapter titles. Having just reread this chapter, I still do not understand the relevance of its title. I am about to reread Chapter 13, Fahrenheit 451, so this time I will pay attention and try to discern the significance of the chapter title.

In Chapter 12, The Return of the Native, a young New Lemurian returns to his home village. The content of this chapter is serious and far removed from Hoka comedy.

A New Lemurian Village Shrine

Star Prince Charlie, 12.

The village halidom sounds like a Shinto shrine:

a roofed shrine inside a wooden fence covered by colorful, flowering vines;

the altar a granite block "...chiseled with symbols of sun, moon, stars, sea, land, wind, and life." (p. 127);

raked white gravel;

shrubs;

one stone slab, with a carved sign, for each family;

a part-time priest in a sky-blue robe holding a blossom and a smoking incense stick that perfumes the salty air;

Charlie's friend's grandfather addresses the ancestors;

the incense stick lights the blossom which then burns in the altar bowl;

the family kneels in prayer.

I think that standing with raised arms is a more appropriate posture for prayer and worship than kneeling.

Like Ancient Japan

Star Prince Charlie, 12.

Charlie visits a New Lemurian village:

"This place reminded him of ancient Japanese pictures." (p. 123)

Details include:

wooden walls and high curved roofs with delicately carved beam ends;

colorful clay pots catching rain;

sparse, airy, sunny and clean interiors;

docks smelling of tar, not of fish;

wives sweeping, spinning, weaving, sewing, cooking or preserving;

babies carried on backs;

children working on terraced fields rising to green forested mountains.

What better way to suggest alienness than to compare with ancient Japan? For previous blog references to Japan, see here.

Monday 22 July 2019

Poul Anderson And Dornford Yates

What do Poul Anderson and Dornford Yates have in common? I hope to have shown some parallels. But, of course, the main connection, for the purposes of this blog, is simply that I read both authors and that passages written by one remind me of passages written by the other. All literature is one, if we can see it.

Yates' Jonathan Mansel, although not widely known, has been compared to:

John Buchan's Richard Hannay;
Sapper's Bulldog Drummond;
Ian Fleming's James Bond -

- and, of course, Bond is comparable to Anderson's Dominic Flandry.

But there is more here than just a few similar characters as I hope that several recent posts have demonstrated. We are now living in the post-aristocratic future that Yates and his characters dreaded. Poul Anderson's sf addresses a spectrum of futures, utopian, dystopian and ambiguous. Both authors address humanity and society.

Like A Dream

(i) Might there be realms so dissimilar that they scarcely impact on each other?

Yes. Mass-energy as against dark matter or dark energy.

(ii) Might we be able to pass between such realms?

Hardly. We are mass-energy and are already surrounded by the "dark" stuff but can barely detect it.

(iii) If we were able to pass between very dissimilar realms, might each seem unreal or dream-like when we were in the other?

"Nothing that happens in that nexus between the universes ever quite happens. When guests say goodbye and walk back out the door, it shall be like waking from a dream.
"Yet some dreams leave a measure of understanding."
-Poul Anderson, "Loser's Night" IN Anderson, All One Universe (New York, 1997), pp. 105-123 AT p. 107.

Thus, we think that the between-the-wars Winston Churchill leaves the Old Phoenix at the end of "Losers' Night" better equipped for what is to come.

Meanwhile, in terms of my rereading, not in terms of any other frame of reference, Dornford Yates' characters have escaped from his magical kingdom of Etchechuria:

"For a little they sat in silence. Then Pomfret started to his feet.
"'It's all been a dream,' he cried."
-Dornford Yates, The Stolen March (London, 1926), CHAPTER X, p. 293.

However, they have brought with them physical artifacts (which cannot be brought from the Old Phoenix), including a source of wealth that impacts on the mundane world:

"'Where is she now?'
"'Got out and married,' said Fluff. 'Lives in a hell of a place down Biarritz way.'"
-Dornford Yates, Adele And Co. (Stratus Books, Cornwall, 2001), 2, p. 31.

Readers of the thriller, Adele and Co., need not know how Eulalie became rich enough to buy "...a hell of a place..." Different realms...

Sensations And Ideas

Star Prince Charlie, 10-11.

During their escape, Charlie and Hector swim:

"The sea was cool. It tasted less salty than a terrestrial ocean. Sunlight skipped across waves." (10, p. 112)

Three sentences: three senses.

Next, they are back with the rebel fleet:

"Whitecaps marched before a fresh breeze which sang in tackle, filled out sails, and drove the fleet swiftly in the direction of sunrise. Everywhere Charlie looked, he saw vessels." (11, p. 113)

Two sentences: three senses but with sound replacing taste.

Dzenko thinks that three Feats have generated so much support that the remaining two are less important. Charlie opposes assassinations and argues that commoners should benefit from the revolution. He has started to have ideas about what should happen but has not yet gained a position that would enable him to implement his ideas.

Some Miscellaneous Connections

Star Prince Charlie.

What is there in common between Charles Stuart in Star Prince Charlie and Ivar Frederiksen in The Day Of Their Return?

In his Oxford tutor persona, the Hoka assumes the surname Smyth-Cholmondoley. A Dornford Yates character suggests that "colmondeley" means "beautiful" but I cannot find this word anywhere.

Poul Anderson has a Hotel Universe on the Moon.
Dornford Yates has a Hotel de l'Univers, Esteppemazan.
There is a Hotel de l'Univers, St Malo, also one in Paris.

As I say, miscellaneous points.

Interstellar Communication

The Inter-Being League uses subspace radio.

There are subtronics in "Sargasso of Lost Starships" but a transonic communicator in "The Star Plunderer" and the rest of the Technic History has modulated hyperpulses whereas there is a hyperbeam in For Love And Glory.

There is an "ansible" in Ursa Le Guin's Hainish future history.

Compare James Blish's Dirac transmitter and other interstellar communicators. Also, Communication. For more on his CirCon (circum-continuum) radio, see ASK Haertel.

The Taverners' Charter And Sagittarius

"...in The Old Phoenix, that inn outside all universes..."
-Poul Anderson, All One Universe (New York, 1997), p. 106.

"The Taverners are as merciful as their charter, or whatever it was that was once granted them by some power unknown, allows them to be."
-Poul Anderson, "Losers' Night IN All One Universe, pp. 107-123 AT p. 108.

I think that the phrase, "...some power unknown...," definitely puts the Old Phoenix into the genre of fantasy.

"Then I saw [the Old Phoenix's] fancifully carved beam ends in silhouette against Sagittarius."
-ibid., p. 108.

Objects are often silhouetted against the Milky Way; here against one constellation.

"'You will go to the Sagittarian frontier of the Stellar Union,' the machine had said."
-Poul Anderson, The Peregrine (New York, 1979), CHAPTER IV, p. 23.

"'You haven't seen starlight till you've been by Sagittarius.'"
-Poul Anderson, "The Chapter Ends" IN Anderson, The Complete Psychotechnic History, Volume 3, pp. 195-215 AT p. 201.

Sagittarius is a constellation in the direction of the galactic center. In "The Chapter Ends,":

"'Civilization - the civilization of man and his non-human allies - has moved inward, toward the great star-clusters of Galactic center. This part of space means nothing to us any more; it's almost a desert. You haven't seen starlight till you've been by Sagittarius.'"
-ibid.

See also:

Sagittarius
Curdled Silver II
Connections Between The Psychotechnic History And "The Chapter Ends"
Orichalc And The Ocean Of Stars
"Home"
Curdled Silver
Fifty Thousand Years
Making Connections 

Sunday 21 July 2019

Scottish Struggles II

Star Prince Charlie, 8-9.

Hector refers to:

Flora Macdonald
Clan Ranald
the Hebrides
Benbecula
Culloden
Betsy Burke

History is never far away in informed sf.

If Charlie is to be an Andersonian, and presumably also a Dicksonian, hero, then he must take charge of his own destiny but he has not yet done this by the end of Chapter 9 (of 17). He is captured, really rescued, by the despot, Olaghi, but then counter-rescued by Hector, without any say in the matter. But he has begun to identify with the rebels although helping them will involve breaking the League non-interference law.

Olaghi moves quicker than the rebels expect because he and his agents have radios smuggled to him from within the League.

The League has "'...subspace radio...'" (8, p. 95) I think that this connects with the kind of FTL interstellar communication used in "Sargasso of Lost Starships" but am not about to look that up at this time of night.

Onward, Earthlings! (And non-Earthlings.)