Operation Luna And Perelandra II

A Second Similarity
Perelandra is a sequel to Out of The Silent Planet and Volume II of the Ransom Trilogy.

Operation Lona is a a sequel to Operation Chaos and Volume II of the Operation Otherworld diptych.

Each can also be linked to other works. See:

CS Lewis: Cosmic Journeys
Interconnections 

Operation Luna And Perelandra

A Similarity
"'For one thing, the two sides, as you call them, have begun to appear much more clearly, much less mixed, here on Earth, in our own human affairs - to show in something a little more like their true colours.'
"'I see that all right.'"
CS Lewis, Perelandra IN Lewis, The Cosmic Trilogy (London, 1990), pp. 145-348 AT 2, p. 162.

"'If these days his agents, demons and such, can operate more openly than they were able to for a long time, why, then, we're better able to spot them at it and outwit them.'"
-Operation Luna, 5, pp. 40-41.

A Difference
"'The other thing is this. The black archon - our own bent Oyarsa - is meditating some sort of attack on Perelandra.'"
-Lewis, op. cit., ibid.

"'Look,' I said, 'we know the Adversary's active in every universe, or at least in every one where fallen human beings live.'"
-Operation Luna, p. 41.

Literary and Explanatory Notes On The Above Quotations
(i) In Perelandra, Elwin Ransom converses with CS Lewis whereas, in Operation Luna, Steven Matuchek converses with his brother-in-law.

(ii) The second passage quoted from Perelandra immediately follows the first such passage whereas the second passage quoted from Operation Luna immediately precedes the first such passage.

(iii) An "Oyarsa" is a planetary angel. "Perelandra" is Venus. The Oyarsas of certain Solar planets were previously regarded as gods, and one goddess: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.

(iv) The word, "bent," is used to express the view that evil is a distortion of goodness, not an equal and opposite power.

(v) The Adversary mentioned by Matuchek is "active in every universe" whereas the bent Oyarsa of Thulcandra (Earth), confined to his planet, is able to attack Perelandra only through a human agent.

Operation Luna And American Gods

I think that Neil Gaiman's masterpiece is The Sandman, not American Gods. However, for the latter as discussed:

on this blog, see here;
on Comics Appreciation, see here;
on Personal and Literary Reflections, see here.

A particular theme is common to Poul Anderson's Operation Luna and to Gaiman's American Gods. In both works, Europeans bring the Little People/Good Folk/brownies/pixies/leprechauns etc to America. In the Matuchek's first house, a resident brownie played with the children and Steve left out a bowl of milk for it at night.

This idea is addressed beautifully both in the novel and in the TV adaptation of American Gods. The aged Widow Richardson shucks peas in her garden. A grinning, green-garbed, red-haired stranger addresses her by name:

"'Essie Tregowan?'"
-Neil Gaiman, American Gods (London, 2001), COMING TO AMERICA 1721, pp. 80-88 AT p. 87.

She recognizes him as a Cornishman although he tells her that he is now:

"'...here in this new world, where nobody puts out ale or milk for an honest fellow, or a loaf of bread come harvest time.'"
-op. cit., pp. 87-88.

Realizing who he is, she says that she has no quarrel with him. He has none with her although she brought him here:

"'...into this land with no time for magic and no place for piskies and such folk.'"
-ibid., p. 88.

She thinks that he has done her many a good turn although he replies:

"'Good and ill... We're like the wind. We blows both ways.'"
-ibid.

She accepts his hand, seeing with her failing eyesight that the hairs on the back of it glow "...golden in the afternoon sunlight." (ibid.)

Then:

"She was still warm when they found her, although the life had fled her body and only half the peas were shelled."
-ibid.

The best scene in the novel and perhaps the best passage that Neil Gaiman has ever written?

Endymion

Operation Luna, 5.

"'I'll have done best, unlike Keats, if I've 'stayed upon the green shore, and piped a silly pipe, and took tea and comfortable advice.'
"I had no idea where he found that quote, and didn't inquire." (p. 38)

But I googled it. See here.

It continues to be a blast.

And see Keats, "Endymion," here.

A Tragic Princess

Operation Luna, 4.

"'...I'd been brooding somewhat over Princess Tamako of Japan. Who didn't, back at that time?'
"Me, for one. I'd thought those several days of global grief and display were mainly hysteria. True, so violent an end to so stormy and embittered a life was tragic; but tragedy happens somewhere along the line to all of us." (p. 35)

Here is another parallel between Earth Goetic and Earth Real and I am all the way with Steve Matuchek on this one. When Aileen told me, "Princess ----- is dead," I did not suspect what we were about to be subjected to although I should have known. There was definitely an alternative view in Britain which was entirely suppressed by the media. One tabloid newspaper had published an edition as usual that morning, then, in the evening, rushed out a revised edition with the outer pages expressing shock and grief about the death even though the unrevised inner pages still carried a column slagging off the deceased in extremely unpleasant personal terms.

I began to notice this much earlier in life because of the contradictions between what is said about public figures before and after their deaths. One national newspaper tried to have it both ways: a certain politician represented everything that they were against but they could not forbear to say something good about him, nevertheless. They patted themselves on the back for simultaneously being anti-racist while magnanimously finding something good to say about an avowed racist. Some of the minority alternative press is at least consistent.

I watched the Funeral because I am interested in how society ritualizes the deaths of people that it regards as important. One entrepreneur seemed to be treating the occasion as a photo opportunity.

Not A Word Wasted: Shantung

Operation Luna, 4.

Steve Matuchek describes Virginia's brother:

"Above the Southwest's ubiquitous jeans, his shirt of yellow silk shantung and Longevity pendant bespoke a sort of defiance. China and its culture were among his many interests. He knew the history and the Mandarin language, had visited the country several times both as guest astronomer and tourist in spite of its current turmoil, and maintained connections with friends and colleagues over there." (p. 32)

Although we unreflectingly accept these apparently inconsequential data about Steve's newly introduced brother-in-law, Poul Anderson would not have composed this detailed paragraph about Chinese connections if China were not about to figure prominently later in the novel. When we know how a novelist works, we can probably anticipate some of his moves although we can never predict the course of the novel.

The Matucheks have fought the Adversary and now face Coyote but someone else is helping that merely mischevous Being:

"'How? Who? Why?'" (p. 31)

The Cosmos And A Cat

In Poul Anderson's "The Horn of Time the Hunter," a relativistic spaceship explores the fringes of the galactic nucleus and returns over ten thousand years later.

"'It is even recorded, many thousands of years ago, that our fleet went off to explore the far side of the galaxy.'
"'But that's an enormous journey. How long did it take?'
"'At the speeds we can achieve today, it would take twenty thousand years,' answered Rigel.
"'Incredible. It still amazes me that this ship can achieve a velocity close on a fifth the speed of light. No Earth person would have conceived ten years ago that this would be possible. It's a completely new dimension of space technology.'"
-Into Deepest Space, 5, p. 59.

Fred Hoyle never has FTL. Anderson's and the Hoyles' figures seem to agree:

galactic nucleus round trip, ten thousand years;
far side of the galaxy round trip, twenty thousand years.

In Anderson's Tau Zero, a relativistic spaceship traverses vast volumes of dark space between scattered groups of groups of galaxies until the universe contracts and re-expands. In Into Deepest Space, the concluding chapters, which I have yet to reread, are entitled:

12 Out of the Galaxy into Deepest Space
13 The Quasar
14 Transfiguration

Thus, it seems that the Hoyles' spaceship embarks on a similar journey but reaches its transcosmic apotheosis more quickly. However, my immediate agendum is to return to Anderson's Operation Luna, where we left the cat, Svartalf, absorbing sunlight like a rug. See here.

Into Deepest Space

Fred Hoyle & Geoffrey Hoyle, Into Deepest Space (Harmondsworth, Middlesex, 1977).

Rereading this book after many decades, we recognize some themes common to Poul Anderson's works.

When it is feared that the Terrestrial atmosphere will be burned off:

"Would anyone in the years to come ever visit this planet and wonder at the charred black earth? With the atmosphere gone no winds would blow. A deathly silence would replace the voices of the millions who had once inhabited this still golden world." (2, pp. 22-23)

(Wells' Time Traveler also describes the silence after all familiar sounds have ended.)

"Wandering around the galaxy might provide ample time for the development of new ideas, but I knew I would dislike the claustrophobic atmosphere of a spaceship. If it meant my survival I would surely go, but if there were a chance of remaining on Earth I would stay." (pp. 25-26)

"'In our experience multiple star systems don't have planetary systems.'" (3, p. 37)

"4 The Voyage Begins"

- but this voyage will have to continue tomorrow.

Explanation Of "Cul an Ti"

In Tir-nan-Og, I linked to an Irish poem, "Cul an Ti" by Sean O'Riordain, and drew attention to a line:

"is cat ag cru na greine"

- which I thought meant:

"And the cat milking the sun"

- although it is rendered as:

"A cat sun-baking"

- in the translation that I copied from here (scroll down) in the previous post.

In any case, I was reminded of the poem by:

"Svartalf sprawled on a broad windowsill. Sunlight flooded his blackness. He absorbed it like a rug."
-Operation Luna, 4, p. 29.

Svartalf is a cat.

See Sean O'Riodain.

Cul an Ti

Cúl an Tí

Tá Tír na nÓg ar chúl an tí,
Tír álainn trína chéile,
Lucht cheithre chos ag súil na slí,
Gan bróga orthu ná léine,
Gan Béarla acu ná Gaeilge.

Ach fásann clóca ar gach droím
Sa tír seo trína chéile,
Is labhartar teanga ar chúl a’ tí
Nár thuig aon fhear ach Aesop,
Is tá sé siúd sa chré anois.

Tá cearca ann is ál sicín,
Is lacha righin mhothaolach,
Is gadhar mór dubh mar namhaid sa tír
Ag drannadh le gach éinne,
Is cat ag crú na gréine.

Sa chúinne thiar tá banc dramhaíl,
Is iontaisi an tsaoil ann,
Coinnleoir, búclaí, seanhata tuí,
Is trúmpa balbh néata,
Is citeal bán mar ghé ann.

Is ann a thagann tincéirí
Go naofa, trína chéile,
Tá gaol acu le cúl a’ tí,
Is bíd ag iarraidh déirce
Ar chúl gach tí in Éirinn.

Ba mhaith liom bheith ar chúl a’ tí
Sa doircheacht go déanach
Go bhfeicinn ann ar cuairt gealaí
An t-ollaimhín sin Aesop
Is é in phúca léannta.

The Back of the House

At the back of the house is a land of youth,
A jumbled beautiful space among
The farmyard beasts unclothed, unshod,
Nor knowing the Irish or English tongue,
Walking the way.

Yet each one grows an ample cloak,
Where chaos is the heart of rule,
And in that land the language spoke
Was taught of old in Aesop’s school,
Long passed away.

Some hens are here, a chicken clutch,
A simple duck, though fixed of mind,
A big black dog with wicked looks
Barking loud like a good watch-hound,
A cat sun-baking;

There, a heap of bric-a-brac,
The cast-off treasure stuff of life,
A candlestick, buckles, an old straw hat,
A bugle quiet, and a kettle white
Like a goose waking.

 Here the tinkers come uncouth,
Blessing generously all they see,
Feeling at home in the land of youth,
Seeking cast-off things for free,
All over Ireland.

I would go back in the dead of night,
The treasure gilded in the moonbeams’ reach,
Perhaps to see in the eerie light
The child-wise Aesop’s phantom teach
His ghostly learning.

I will explain this post.

Origins Of Myths

"As best we can tell, the gods of Asgard came from Germany, spread into Scandinavia, and then out into the parts of the world dominated by the Vikings..."
-Neil Gaiman, Norse Mythology (London, 2018), AN INTRODUCTION, pp. ix-xvii AT pp. xii-xiii.

Yes, in Poul Anderson's "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth."

"It's very likely, or at least a workable hypothesis, that there were tribes of people who worshipped the Vanir and other tribes that worshipped the Aesir, and that the Aesir-worshippers invaded the lands of the Vanir-worshippers, and that they made compromises and accommodations."
-op. cit., p. xiii.

Yes, the tribal invasion in Anderson's The Corridors Of Time and the divine war in his War Of The Gods:

"The gods themselves fought the first war that ever was."
-Poul Anderson, War Of The Gods (New York, 1999), I, p. 9.

The human originals of Odin and Thor are in Anderson's The Golden Slave.

Thor rides to the rescue at the climax of Operation Chaos.

The inability of Thor's servant, Thialfi, to outrun personified thought is relevant to meditation - although this is a private observation not really relevant to anything else here.

Decades Ago

Sf readers remember books that they read decades ago. In the mid-60s, I read a yellow-covered Gollancz novel that addressed time travel consistently but can remember neither title nor author's name. The hero, having tangled with some opponents in the future, killed them in the present after all of them had returned to the present. Then he reflected that these guys who were now dead would reappear briefly in the future. I think that he compared it to a piece of music being played once again.

Decades after originally reading them, I have acquired copies of:

World In Eclipse by William Dexter
Children Of The Void by William Dexter
Seed Of Light by Edmund Cooper

- and discussed them on this blog, comparing them with works by Poul Anderson.

A slightly different, although substantially the same, experience is to reread books that we have had on our shelves but have not reread for decades. I have done this with:

The Black Cloud by Fred Hoyle
October The First Is Too Late by Fred Hoyle

For both these Hoyle novels, see Between Galaxies. Into Deepest Space, also mentioned in that post, should arrive here today:

in Poul Anderson's Tau Zero, a relativistic spaceship flies between galaxies and enters the next universe;

in Into Deepest Space, a relativistic spaceship flies between galaxies and passes through a quasar into a parallel universe.

Looking Back At Looking Forward

I remember my father saying, "D-Day was twenty years ago," as if that was a long time. Now it is sixty five years ago. That is a long time. Back then, I was entirely focused on the future through reading science fiction. I would have read a novel set in 2020 rather than a history of 1945.

In 1999, Poul Anderson imagined his character, Steven Matuchek, in about 1945. See the previous post. Thus, sf writers look not only forward but also backward and sideways. But now let us look forward again. What shape would the Earth of the goetic universe be in by 2020? We imagined back then that space travel would have become common by now. If goetics has enabled Valeria and her generation to avoid some of our problems, then what other problems would they have had instead? Notionally, that Earth still exists in its fictional or parallel realm. It did not cease to exist at the end of Operation Luna. Valeria is now sixty-nine and her parents are long dead. The generation that was alive during World War II is passing away. World War I veterans are gone by now. We can imagine similar changes in the goetic universe although usually we stop thinking about it as soon as we reach the end of the novel.

Valeria

(The image shows Operation Luna, here entitled "Operation Chaos II.")

"We, though, had been famous ourselves for a while, headline material. That was eleven years ago." (2, p. 9)

So Operation Luna is definitely set eleven years after Operation Chaos and Valeria is now fourteen.

"...the war ended twenty years ago." (p. 11)

So is Operation Luna set in 1965? Not necessarily. We do not know when the war ended or even when it started - although our theory of parallel worlds might incorporate the hypothesis that, other things being equal, a second world-wide conflict in the twentieth century will have approximately the same dates on two Earths.

"If Val was to fully master the female side of the Art like her mother, as her genes and her dreams alike called for, she must stay virgin till she had her magistra's degree. "Not easy," Ginny ended. "I know." (3, pp. 27-28)

That would put a different perspective on things: a practical, indeed a professional, reason to remain celibate.

Matuchek At NASA

(I cannot find many cover images for Poul Anderson's Operation Luna so maybe we can advertise another work with the same title. See Journey Into Space.)

Nornwell Scryotronics, located in the Midwest, had been Steve Matuchek's employers in the concluding part of Operation Chaos and have now seconded him, as an engineer, to Cardinal Point where:

there is a large domed VAB;

instead of a rocket with a launch pad, there is a flying horse with a "...launch paddock..." (p. 6);

Many human beings and also paranatural "Beings" (p. 4) have come to watch a launch.

Broomsticks

Operation Luna, 1.

Many people, including Steve and Virginia Matuchek, fly to watch a space launch at Cardinal Point near Mount Taylor. (See image.)

These flying broomsticks really strain my willing suspension of disbelief:

the Matucheks have taken Virginia's "...Jaguar instead of the family Ford..." (p. 2);

they have "...left the windfield off except in front..." (ibid.);

they park it in a rack "...between a chrome-plated Cadillac and an old Honda with a sweep of withered but real straw..." (p. 5);

the Jaguar waggles its shaft because its sprite dislikes close quarters but calms down when Virginia soothes it while stroking its "...spotty-furry rear end..." (ibid.)

? In fact, !

The broomsticks are the magical counterpart of the ubiquitous aircars that we encounter in much of Poul Anderson's futuristic sf. The salient points are that:

like us, the characters have individual door-to-door transportation;
unlike us, they fly.

Direct And Indirect Reflections

An author can reflect life directly in a contemporary novel or indirectly in an alternative history novel.

Our History
Third Reich
von Braun
Berlin Crisis
President Kennedy
"Ich bin ein Berliner""
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Apollo program
Cape Canaveral in Florida

Poul Anderson's Goetic History
Saracen Caliphate
al-Bunni
Brazilian Crisis
President Lambert
"Yo soy un carioco!"
National Astral Spellcraft Administration
Project Selene
Cardinal Point in New Mexico

Also:

"'President Agnew told the UN, 'I am a Formosan.'"
-James Blish, The Day After Judgment IN Blish, After Such Knowledge (London, 1991), pp. 425-522 AT p. 439

See also:

Operation Luna: First Thoughts
Coyote And The Blue Flint Family

Steve Matuchek And The Milky Way

Beginning to reread Poul Anderson's Operation Luna (New York, 2000), I will at this time of night remark only that an old friend greets us in the third sentence of the text:

Witchlights glowed blue along the fence, outlining Cardinal Point against night. Earth lay darker than heaven. There stars gleamed and the Milky Way glimmered." (1, p. 1)

The ACKNOWLEDGMENTS include:

"We thank Steve and Jan Stirling for kindness and hospitality..."

Operation Chaos lasts from p. 1 to p. 282 whereas its sequel, Operation Luna, lasts from p. 1 to p. 438 so it should hold our attention for considerably longer.

However, for now, good night.

Progress In The Goetic Universe

At the beginning of Operation Chaos, it is known on the goetic Earth that there is a Heaven and a hell universe.

During the novel, it is learned how to travel to and from the hell universe and also how to remain sane while there.

By the end and beginning of the novel:

parallel Earths are suspected;

inter-universal telepathy is attempted;

although the goetic Earth is now safe from hellish incursions, a warning is broadcast because the war between Law and Chaos is common to all universes and because they share the same Adversary.

Matuchek says:

"We have learned certain things."
-Operation Chaos, p. 2 -

- but does not say what. However, his warning serves its purpose as a dramatic introduction to the novel.

The Mana In The Emblems

Although I reached the conclusion of Poul Anderson's Operation Chaos here, careful readers will notice that I have missed a point which I will now retrieve.

In Mana, we noticed that mana remained in the emblems of gods no longer worshiped. In Matuchek's Moment Of Realization, we described three deities invoked by the mana of the signs on the emblems borne by the Matucheks.

It remains to describe those emblems:

an owl pin;
a carved feathered serpent;
a silver hammer pendant.
-Operation Chaos, XXXI, pp. 248-249.

Thus, the three powerful figures, when they appeared in Chapter XXXIII, were not dei ex machina but had been carefully prepared for.

Operation Chaos, Chapter XXXV, pp. 281-282

By this stage, Valeria is old enough to have boy friends and the Matucheks have other children. Remember that Steve and Virginia met in the opening story. We have come a long way with them.

Steve lists the consequences of fame:

reporters
interviews
tons of mail
Worthy Causes
autographer hunters
drunks
cranks
uninvited visitors
sycophants

We can learn not to be like that when we are in the presence of celebrities:

"Walkers cast glances at the three on the stairs, spoke to whatever companions they had, but didn't stop; they taught good manners on Dennitza."
-Poul Anderson, A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows IN Anderson, Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight Of Terra (Riverdale, NY, 2012), pp. 339-606 AT XVIII, p. 577.

The three are Bodin Miyatovich, his wife and Dominic Flandry.

The demon prisoner confesses. Demonic control of the Johannines is exposed and ended. The Adversary was right to intuit that the Matucheks would sabotage his scheme. He must fall back on merely tempting human beings but no longer has a bridgehead on Earth.

Matuchek's Moment Of Realization

Operation Chaos, XXXIII.

Virginia will not have time to complete her spell of return because the demon lord has raised a dead giant buried beside his castle. The giant stands higher than the highest tower. Dirt, mud and gravel rain from his skin, covered with phosphorescent fungi, while worms drip from his eye sockets. He steps into the courtyard, crushing demons, pulls the steeple from the small, stone building and reaches in for the Matucheks.

Meanwhile, Matuchek has had a realization:

"Let's go out fighting. Maybe our souls can escape.
"Souls!
"I grabbed Ginny by the shoulder and pushed her back to look at. 'We can send for help,' burst from me." (p. 275)

Although, in the present phase of the war between Heaven and Hell, neither side directly attacks the other's territory, there is nothing to prevent Virginia from seeking help elsewhere. By the mana of the signs that they bear, she calls on those beings who have known mankind and have been enemies of Chaos. She has opened a way from Earth even though it is as yet too frail for mortal bodies. The demons are routed and pursued by:

a helmeted, spear-wielding woman with an owl on her shoulder and a shield displaying a snake-haired face;

a large, feathered snake;

a cloaked, helmeted, red-bearded man in a goat-drawn chariot, his thrown hammer striking fire and returning to his hand.

The deanimated, falling giant demolishes a large part of the castle. The Matucheks not only rescue their daughter but capture her kidnapper.

A Demon Lord And Horst's Orderly

Operation Chaos, XXXIII.

While the Matucheks are besieged in the small, stone building, which is a House of Sendings, they are addressed by the demon lord of the castle who:

has adopted a human form;

has adopted a (to us) recognizable human form;

speaks, indeed shouts, declaims and chants, in German.

Matuchek wonders:

"(Why did the devil prince insist on German? There's a mystery here that I've never solved.)" (p. 271)

It is a mystery to Matuchek because his World War II was fought against the Saracen Caliphate, not against the Third Reich. For the fate of a would-be dictator in another timeline, see Obscure But Accurate Historical References and its combox. And there is yet another alternative timeline in which that historical figure became a science fiction writer.

List Descriptions

Operation Chaos, XXXIII.

Let me quote Poul Anderson's text but rearrange it as a list:

"Outside, noise swelled -
"stamp,
"hop,
"clang,
"howl,
"whistle,
"grunt,
"gibber,
"bubble,
"hiss,
"yelp,
"whine,
"squawk,
"moan,
"bellow.
"The door reverberated under
"fist,
"feet,
"hoofs." (p. 267)

Despite the literally Hellish conditions, the Matucheks are doing OK, partly because of the demons' general disorganization. See Evil Never Intelligent? Does Anderson make this raid on Hell seem a bit too easy? 

Rescue From Hell

Operation Chaos, XXXIII.

In the hell universe:

a monstrous towered castle, several square miles in area;

within the castle, a courtyard;

at the center of the courtyard, a small, stone, steepled, windowless house like a perverted chapel;

within the house, a single room with a lighted altar, a pattern of objects to be used for a magical transit, the changeling not yet transmitted to the goetic universe and refuse from the Matuchek's house displaced by the demon who has gone to kidnap Valeria.

Matuchek knows that Virginia's familiar, the cat Svartalf, fought the demon who then departed with Virginia but has not yet arrived back in the hell universe:

"At this moment, if simultaneity had meaning between universes, the fight ramped and Svartalf's blood was riven from him." (p. 267)

Simultaneity cannot have any meaning between two different space-time continua (see Time And Times). However, for practical purposes, Matuchek can think in terms of simultaneity because he has arrived at the demon's departure point before the demon's return to it. He then makes a perfectly straightforward point which I previously misunderstood because I misinterpreted it as a time travel paradox (see Two Air Fights With Demons). When Virginia draws a diagram for defense against the demons trying to follow the Matucheks into the small stone house, she must not disturb the pattern of objects that has been laid out for the demon's transit between worlds:

"They were the demon's return ticket. Given them, he need simply cast the appropriate spell in our cosmos... If the kidnaper found himself unable to make it back with his victim, God alone knew what would happen. They'd certainly both leave our home and a changeling replace them. But we'd have no inkling of how this came about or where they'd gone. It might provide the exact chance the enemy needed to get his project back on the rails." (p. 267)

I thought that the situation was as follows:

Matuchek knows that the demon had arrived back in the hell universe with Valeria;

therefore, to prevent that arrival would be to "change the past" with all the complications or contradictions that that always entails.

However, the situation is much simpler:

Matuchek knows that the demon had departed from the Matuchek household with Valeria;

however, he does not yet know for sure that the demon had arrived back in the hell universe with Valeria,

therefore, to prevent that arrival will not be to "change the past" but would be to generate a new problem - where did they go instead?

A House Divided

(Abraham Lincoln quoted this, apparently.)

Operation Chaos.

Marmiadon cursed Matuchek's group on impulse. His superiors placed him under penance. The Adversary advices Matuchek merely to accept the loss of Valeria. If the demon who abducted her had first consulted his superiors, then they would have told him to back off because:

"His action would give a clue to the link between hell and the Johannine Church, and thus imperil the whole scheme for the sabotage of religion and society that the Adversary had been working on since he deluded the first of the neo-Gnostics." (XXXIII, p. 266)

Thus, the abduction of Valeria is not part of a plot against the Matucheks. On the contrary, it results from impulsive actions first by one Johannine priest, then by a single unintelligent demon. And these actions do in fact sabotage the real plot which was for the perversion of human religion, like Aycharaych's attempt to divert Aeneam piety and millennarianism into an Empire-destroying jihad. 

Evil Never Intelligent?

Operation Chaos, XXXIII.

"'And the diabolic forces are stupid,' Ginny said. 'Evil is never intelligent or creative.'" (p. 263)

Maybe we can take her word for it that these particular diabolic forces are stupid, although despising our opponents is one way of reassuring ourselves, but it is certainly not the case that evil is never intelligent. Fiction, reflecting life, is full of criminal masterminds like Moriarty and Blofeld. Hannibal Lecter is intelligent, perceptive and resourceful, qualities that would be good in anyone else. Dornford Yates has it both ways. His formidable major villains have inept minions. In Poul Anderson's works, we must never forget Aycharaych.

A Time Travel Hypothesis

Operation Chaos, XXXIII.

It seems that a demon abducted Valeria because of an impulsive curse by a single Johannine, not because of any Johannine plot, but I will confirm or disconfirm this before finishing the current rereading of the novel, probably tomorrow.

Let us finish today with a hypothetical time travel paradox. If the Matucheks arrive in the hell universe early enough to prevent Valeria's kidnapper from departing on his kidnapping mission, then what happens?

I suggest that the Matucheks return to a goetic universe in which:

Valeria was not kidnapped;
the Matucheks did not set off to rescue her;
thus, they have duplicated themselves.

However, they have left behind them a goetic universe in which:

Valeria was kidnapped;
her parents set off to rescue her and did not return;
Valeria was taken to the hell universe and was not rescued, at least not by her parents.

That is the best that I can come up with tonight.

Goetic Hyperspace

Operation Chaos, XXXII.

Paranatural forces act in hyperspace. (p. 254) This makes sense of the claim that these forces are not limited by light speed. See Paranature.

We deduce that faster than light interstellar travel will be easy in the goetic timeline and that explorers will find different kinds of paranatural beings and magical practices in other planetary systems.

However, it is late; I am running out of steam and might not complete what has become the usual ten posts per day. Soon, I will finish rereading Operation Chaos and begin to reread Operation Luna. Much more seems to have come out of ...Chaos this time and there is bound to be much more that I have not noticed yet.

Horizonless Plain

Operation Chaos, XXXII.

In "Darkness Invisible," we established that, in the hell universe, no light comes from the sky which is entirely black with heavenly bodies discernible as even deeper darknesses. But is that enough to see by? No:

"The illumination came from the ground, wan, shadowless, colorless. Vision faded at last into utter distance. For that plain had no horizon, no interruptions; it went on. The sole direction, sound, movement, came from the drearily whistling wind." (pp. 252-253)

Yet again, the wind seems to comment. Matuchek calls this landscape an abomination. Are they on a planetary surface or on an endless plain in a different kind of universe? Is a physical universe like this possible or have they entered a virtual reality?

Virginia questions whether "'..."planet" means a lot here...'" (p. 253) and adds they they "'...slanted across time...'" to come here. (ibid.)

Did they? I know that they left their universe after Valeria's abduction from it and entered the hell universe before her arrival in it but I thought that that was possible because the two universes had different timelines. See Time And Times. To say that it required them to "slant across time" implies that the two universes are part of a single temporal domain.

Previous Posts

Operation Chaos, XXXII.

I am rereading Poul Anderson's Operation Chaos and will now link to some earlier posts on this novel:

From "Hell"
"Darkness Visible"
Souls
Precosmic Chaos
Water As Chaos
Visions Of Hell
The Goetic And Other Timelines
Two Air Fights With Demons

I can now refer blog readers to those earlier posts and also avoid repeating their contents in upcoming posts. (There has been some repetition already.)

Decatur And Grotte

Operation Chaos, XXXI.

I had to google two words:

"Decatur," p. 249;
"Grotte," p. 251.

As you will see, Google gives us Poul Anderson's description of the Grotte quern in After Doomsday:

two giantesses turn it beneath the sea;

it grinds out wealth, war and the Fimbul Winter.

At last, the Matucheks are bound for the hell universe. We must turn the page to Chapter XXXII...

All We Need Of Hell II

See All We Need Of Hell.

Mike Carey's Lucifer, No. 75, (see image) is entitled "All We Need Of Hell," a quotation from Emily Dickinson.

In Poul Anderson's Operation Chaos, XXX:

God reigns in Heaven;

His Adversary's "home territory" (p. 242) is hell;

"hell" is also described as a low entropy universe whose denizens were mistakenly regarded as supernatural in the past. (See Alternative Demonologies.)

So are we talking about two different meanings of "hell" here?

The Practical Synthesis

Operation Chaos, XXIX.

"The Highest expects us to solve our own problems." (p. 225)

Or there is no "Highest" period?

Either way, we have to address our problems and this is the practical basis of cooperation between theists and secularists. A political party might contest an election on a program of merely praying for divine intervention on every issue but not many voters will support them.

When your roof leaks, you ask:

What caused it?
Am I insured?
Who can I sue?

- but not:

Did this happen because my fathers or I have sinned?
Is this because of what I did in a previous life?

Well, some people nowadays do ask that second question but then they address the practical problem of fixing the roof. Does this make us "practical atheists," i.e., people who explain and address practical issues non-theistically?

Poimanderes

Operation Chaos, XXIX.

For their ritual, the Valeria rescue squad have the Bible and the "Poimanderes," (p. 226) open at appropriate passages.

I can't always find posts that I know are somewhere on the blog. In one post, which I might still find but not right now, I summarized three traditions in European civilization:

philosophy and science from Thales;
prophetic monotheism from Abraham;
occultism from Hermes.

(Later: Found it. See here.)

I know a guy who has a Bachelor's degree in physics and a Master's in Hermeticism. His Doctorate might be a synthesis.

Since Hermeticism involves alchemy and astrology, maybe science has superseded it? - although not in the goetic timeline. But I think that it is good that there is a third strand, a tradition recognizing spiritual practice, other than imported Abrahamism.

Anderson, Blish And Al-Khalili

For British TV presenters that have been relevant to this blog, see:

Jim Al-Khalili (scroll down)
Tony Robinson (scroll down)
Alice Roberts
Michael Portillo
Simon Schama (scroll down)

Last night, Al-Khalili presented a program showing how Robert Boyle transformed alchemy into chemistry. Similarly, astrology became astronomy and, more generally, science replaced magic.

I have just been through quite a performance, looking for a book that does not exist. I misremembered Poul Anderson as having written a book on the origin of science whereas what I was really remembering was his Is There Life On Other Worlds?, Chapter 8, "On the Nature and Origin of Science." Nevertheless, he did write about that. James Blish wrote Doctor Mirabilis, a historical novel about Roger Bacon, a forerunner of modern science.

Operation Chaos by Poul Anderson and Black Easter by James Blish are fantasy novels by sf writers based on the premise that magic really did work. These authors' works of hard sf show mankind venturing into the universe by applying scientific knowledge in future periods. Blish's After Such Knowledge packs these three themes into a single trilogy with Doctor Mirabilis as Volume I, Black Easter and its sequel as Volume II and a futuristic sf novel as Volume III.

My rereading of Operation Chaos approaches the climactic invasion of the hell universe.

Souls

Operation Chaos, XXIX.

Souls are supernatural according to Dr. Nobu whereas, according to Virgina, they are:

energy structures within parafields;
formed within, but outliving, bodies;
ghosts when they linger disembodied;
reincarnated when they enter fertilized ova;
saved when approaching the Highest;
damned when attracted to the Lowest.

In James Blish's Midsummer Century:

In time-projection, the “…semistable electromagnetic field…” of a personality leaves one physical substrate and energy source and enters another.
-copied from here. 

Otherwise, the field fades.

I think that consciousness continues only if its conditions, a brain and an energy source, persist. 

Paranature

Operation Chaos, XXIX.

Physical forces, like gravity and electromagnetism, are limited by the speed of light, whereas paraphysical forces, like similarity and ergody, are not. (I cannot find ergody unless it is ergodicity.)

Therefore:

paraphysical forces can move energy between any parts of the universe;

a small paraphysical input can have a large output;

quality becomes more important than quantity;

a mere three days after learning about the time variability of the hell universe, the researchers are confident that their new spells will work.

I thought not that time was variable in the hell universe but that the goetic universe and the hell universe had different temporal dimensions. See Time And Times.

What is paranature and is God paraphysical?

Myths That Live

Neil Gaiman says in the Introduction to his retelling of Norse myths that myths live when we retell them. So don't just read them; tell them to others. See Retellings; also here.

In Poul Anderson's works:

Anderson retells several Norse myths in War Of The Gods;

Operation Luna includes a scene from Norse mythology (see Mimir);

Carl Farness researches and becomes stories about Odin in "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth";

stories about Odin's son, Thor, are retold in the remote future of World Without Stars.

When meditating this afternoon, I remembered the story of Thor's servant, Thialfi, losing three races to Hugi, only to be told afterwards that "Hugi" is thought, which is faster than anything else.

Inter-Universal Travel

Operation Chaos, XXVIII.

"Operation Changeling," the fourth and last part of Operation Chaos, is long enough to count as a novel.

The operation to rescue Valeria from the hell universe is the beginning of controlled inter-universal travel:

Matuchek has learned that travelers from the goetic universe can arrive in the hell universe at any point along its temporal axis;

this relationship between the two universes can be described mathematically;

Dr. Falkenberg formulates equations and solves them for different conditions;

Dr. Griswold suggests ways that the results might affect physics;

Hardy does the same for chemistry and atomistics;

Barney Sturlason, an engineer, and Dr. Nobu, a metaphysicist, design spells to project, guard and retrieve an expedition;

however, because the metric in the hell universe varies, protection that works in one place will not work in another;

so the spells must be readjusted as the travelers continually describe their space-time configuration mathematically;

since no mortal man can do this, great dead geometers must be contacted.

Alternative Demonologies

"'All magic - I repeat, all magic, with no exceptions whatsoever - depends upon the control of demons. By demons I mean specifically fallen angels. No lesser class can do a thing for you.'"
-James Blish, Black Easter IN Blish, After Such Knowledge (London, 1991), pp. 319-425 AT p. 332.

"'Our universe has a straightforward space-time geometry, except in odd places like the cores of white dwarf stars. Demons can move about in it without trouble - in fact, they can play tricks with distance and chronology that gave them the reputation of being supernatural in olden days - because their home universe is wildly complicated and variable.'"
-Operation Chaos, XXVIII, p. 221.

Thus, in the goetic universe of Operation Chaos, demons are not fallen angels but embodied beings from another universe, formerly believed to be fallen angels. Such beings are "paranatural," (XXIX, p. 224) not "supernatural." Earlier, the afreet, described by Virginia as a Low Worlder, talked about being hatched and referred to his mother. (VI, pp 37, 39) These are kinds of aliens, not extraterrestrial but extracosmic.

A Scriptural Tradition

Operation Chaos, XXVII.

This blog follows Poul Anderson's texts wherever they go and they go everywhere. Anderson imagines a fictional continuation of the Semitic scriptural tradition.

A scripture, I think, is a writing regarded as authoritatively true on religious matters by members of a particular religion.

The Semitic tradition:

Samaritans accept only the Law;

the New Testament refers to the Law and the Prophets;

Luke 24:24 refers to the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms;

Marcion opposed "Gospel and Apostle" to Law and Prophets ("Gospel" = Luke's Gospel minus OT quotations; "Apostle" = Paul's Epitles);

the Christian Bible incorporated the Hebrew scriptures rearranged and a longer New Testament;

a Council of Rabbis in 100 AD closed their canon as the Law, the Prophets and the Writings;

Muhammad replaced the Bible with the Koran which incorporates some Biblical stories;

Luther excluded the Apocrypha;

Sikhs adopted the Granth which is hymns, some written by Muslims;

Mormons add the Book of Mormon;

Bahais have some additional texts;

Anderson's Johannites replace the OT with texts that others regard as blasphemous and adds to the NT a lot of the Apocrypha plus other texts from unidentifiable sources.

(Two meanings of "Apocrypha": excluded from the OT or not included in the NT.)

Time And Times

Operation Chaos, XXVII.

Marmiadon tells Matuchek:

"'If [Valeria] were in the Low Continuum, retrieval operations would involve temporal phasing. Do you know what I mean? I'm not learned in such matters myself, but our adepts are, and a portion of their findings is taught to initiates, beginning at the fourth degree. The mathematics is beyond me. But as I recall, the hell universe has a peculiar, complex space-time geometry. It would be as easy to recover your daughter from the exact instant when she arrived there as from any other moment.'" (p. 202)

I do not think that either the peculiarity or the complexity of the space-time geometry of the hell universe is necessary to reach Marmiadon's conclusion that Valeria can be rescued from the moment of her arrival in the hell universe.

The (a) goetic universe and (b) hell universe are two spatiotemporal universes, each with at least three spatial dimensions and at least one temporal dimension. If there were a one-to-one relationship between any given moment in (a) and a corresponding moment in (b), then (a) and (b) would be not different universes but different spatial regions within a single temporal universe - and, even then, the relativity of simultaneity would prevent an exact one-to-one correspondence.

(a) and (b) can be compared to two entirely different books. I am currently rereading Operation Chaos by Poul Anderson and Blood Royal by Dornford Yates. Neither book is a chapter, part or sub-section of the other. They are not two volumes of a single series. Each has its own fictional timeline. No moment in Chandos' experience is simultaneous with any moment in Matuchek's experience. If I cease to reread Operation Chaos at the bottom of p. 202, then I am not obliged to begin rereading Blood Royal from the top of p. 203. I can begin at the beginning or at any other point in the text. It would be a mere coincidence if my rereading of p. 202 in one book were to be immediately followed by my rereading of p. 203 in the other book.

Leaving (a) the goetic universe, the expedition to rescue Valeria will enter (b) the hell universe entirely from outside that entire spatiotemporal universe, like opening a book, not necessarily at p. 1. We can open a book either at random or at the page where we have placed a bookmark. Scanning (b) from entirely outside that universe, the expedition can identify not only a place, a set of spatial coordinates, but also a time, the moment of Valeria's arrival, and can then enter (b) at that place and time - or, better still, slightly earlier to rescue her at the instant when she arrives.

If, further, the expedition can return to (a) at any moment of its existence, then they have found a means of time travel within (a). However, I imagine that there are some physical limitations, e.g., that the spell that enables them to leave their universe returns them to the set of spatiotemporal coordinates from which they had departed. (A span of time in (b) would correspond to zero time in (a).)

In The Johannine Cathedral

Operation Chaos, XXVI.

The Johannine Cathedral library includes:

The Handbook of Alchemy and Metaphysics
The Encyclopedia Arcanorum
bound copies of Mind 

Secrecy works against itself. Challenged by an adept while trespassing in the Cathedral, Matuchek passes himself off as a Johannine operative on a secret mission, thus gaining further information from the adept.

Marmiadon tries to summon an angel and thinks that he sees one whereas Matuchek has his fourth encounter with the Adversary and thinks:

"...this doubtless isn't the first time the Adversary's made an instrument of people who honestly believe they're serving God. What about Jonathan Edwards, back in old New England?" (p. 205)

Honesty, necessary but insufficient, must be accompanied by humility and self-criticism.

Helfioth Etc

Operation Chaos, XXV.

More Johannine incantations:

"Helfioth Alaritha arbar Neniotho Melitho Tarasunt
"Chanados Umia Theirura Marada Seliso..." (p. 182)

- to be found, again, in the Apochrypha, see here. From now on, I will assume that this is the source and will not google each new set of esoteric words.

What are the purposes of spiritual practices, prayers, mantras and incantations?

(i) To deepen the awareness and understanding of the practitioner.

(ii) To communicate with supposed supernatural beings.

(iii) To gain control of natural or supernatural forces.

Comments:

(i) This is why we meditate. It is sufficient whether or not (ii) and (iii) are valid.

(ii) Some people claim contact with God, gods etc. In the goetic timeline, such contact has been established scientifically.

(iii) Same remarks as for (ii).

Merlin And Miyatovich

We have had four recent references to Merlin:

The Eternal Gospel
The Great Art
MGM
Incubus

For these and earlier blog references, see here. (Scroll down.)

Merlin is not an Andersonian character but shows up anyway. It is that time of night when I want to publish one more post before turning in.

I particularly like the rapport between Dominic Flandry and Gospodar Bodin Miyatovich of Dennitza and might reread the appropriate passages shortly.

Good night, good morning or good day, depending on where you are on Earth.

TO the Ocean now I fly,
And those happy climes that ly
Where day never shuts his eye,
Up in the broad fields of the sky:		-copied from Comus.