Poul Anderson's Dominic Flandry:
"'Can I help you son?' he asked, as gently as might be."
-Poul Anderson, "The Game of Glory" IN Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 303-339 AT I, p. 305.
Ensign Flandry nearly died in combat on his first assignment in the previous volume, Young Flandry.
The young man raves, damns the Empire and asks Flandry if he understands:
"'Yes,' said Flandry. 'It's all right. Go to sleep.'" (ibid.)
SM Stirling's and David Drake's Lieutenant Foley:
"'Don't worry... Any who fall defending Holy Federation achieve unity with Paradise.'"
-The Forge, CHAPTER THIRTEEN, p. 231.
I would never tell a man that. At the soldier's request, Foley "finishes it quick." (ibid.)
Something else caught my eye while rereading the passage about Flandry:
"...civilization was spread hideously thin out here, where the stars faded toward barbarism, and the Empire of Mersia beyond, and the great unmapped Galactic night beyond that." (p. 306)
Interstellar civilization, Empire and unmapped Galactic night: we want to be out there!
At the very end of James Blish's "This Earth of Hours," also originally published in Venture Science Fiction, some Earthmen in a damaged spaceship must make a long journey to warn the Terrestrial Matriarchy of the threat from the Central Empire. One of them sees that:
"...ahead the galactic night was as black as death."
-James Blish, "This Earth of Hours" IN Robert A. W. Lowndes (Ed.), The Best Of James Blish (New York, 1979), pp. 257-280 AT p. 280.
Neat or what?
Anderson and Stirling & Drake give us battlefield death;
Anderson gives us "Galactic night";
Blish gives us galactic night as black as death.
And we want to be out there.
11 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
But Raj Whitehall BELIEVED in what he told that dying soldier. Which I think could have been stressed.
And I agree that any interstellar civilization is very likely to be "spread hideously thin," out there in the vastness of the galaxy. We see more than once in the Flandry stories similar reflections on how thinly spread civilization is and how little is known of the galaxy. And of the danger posed by barbarians who gained nuclear weapons and spaceships too soon!
And I absolutely agree with your desire to be OUT there! Which is one reason why I am reading Robert Zubrin's THE CASE FOR SPACE, to get some hard information on how that could happen!
Sean
Sean,
Even if I believed in a deity, I would regard it as presumptuous to say how he would deal with individuals in a hereafter. "Anyone (murderer, rapist etc) who dies fighting for our state goes straight to Heaven" is clearly a political, not a theological, statement. Sure, people believe all kinds of stuff but they have a responsibility to question what they believe and why they believe it. Surely any worthwhile deity would want them to do that? Am I making a deity in my own image? Those who are certain that their deity agrees with them definitely are.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Except I think you are overlooking something: both Raj and this dying soldier he comforted had neither the time or inclination just THEN for wrestling with such knotty questions. The soldier was dying and Raj and his other companions had to escape the Colonists who would soon be pursuing them.
And the point in asking question is to get ANSWERS to them. Sometimes the answers might not satisfy you but will satisfy others.
Sean
Sean,
Yes to:
they did not have time to go into it there and then;
I want answers, not endless questions;
we find different answers to some questions.
I still think that:
it is presumptuous to say what happens to anyone in a hereafter;
it is merely political to proclaim Heaven for anyone who dies for a particular state.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
At least we can agree on the first three points you listed.
I don't think it is presumptuous for, say the Catholic Church to teach, briefly, that those who died in friendship with God are saved while those who die hating and rejecting God are not.
Strictly, what Raj actually said to that dying soldier was that those who died for "Holy Federation Church" were saved. Not so much the Civil Government as such.
Sean
Sean,
I thought of "Holy Federation" as a state. The word "Church" wasn't used.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I checked that part of Chapter Thirteen of THE FORGE, and you are right. This is what Raj said: "Any who fall defending Holy Federation achieve unity with Paradise." My memory erred when I later mentally added the word "Church," drat!
Curious, how the mind can play tricks on one's memories.
And I agree now that was a POLITICAL statement Raj made.
Sean
Sean,
It was made by Foley.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I checked again, and you are right, it was Ensign Foley who said that! Drat, this is what I get for being too hasty! (Smiles)
Sean
Lieutenant Foley.
Kaor, Paul!
Dang! I knew Raj Whitehall promoted Foley, but not that it was so quick. Ensign, Lieutenant, and Captain, ALL in THE FORGE. Promotions can be quick in times of war, yes, but that certainly seems fast, even if you are an able officer.
Sean
Post a Comment