Cats And Monkeys

One of my questions is answered. The question, in What Happened Long Ago, was:

"Did Kzin have evolutionary equivalents of monkeys to which the feline kzinti contemptuously compare human beings?"

The answer, in "The Asteroid Queen," Chapter III, is:

"...Claude's own superior habitually referred to humans as kz'eerkt, monkey. That was a quasi-primate on the kzinti homeworld. A tree-dwelling mammal-analog, as much like a monkey as a kzin was like a tiger, which was not much." (p. 73)

So kzinti are not much like big cats and human beings are compared to animals that are not much like monkeys. The back cover blurb of Man-Kzin Wars III proclaims:

"...all that stands between freedom and a feline-filled universe is the human race. Good luck, monkey-boys." (p. 73)

Cats versus monkeys in spaceships sounds cartoony and makes good paperback blurb but is not really what the stories are about. Pierre Boulle's La Planete Des Singes has genuine intelligent monkeys in space.

Accessing a Public Library is a new experience. It is necessary to make an appointment not only to make an inquiry but even to browse. It is impossible to order books from other libraries. Morecambe Library did not have any of the Known Space novels that I wanted. Other than that, I had a pleasant afternoon in Morecambe and conversed with the half-naked, tattooed, incredibly long-haired Andrea (scroll down) by shouting up to his balcony. He confirmed that the kzinti are in the Star Trek Role Playing Game. See here.

There is no direct connection between Star Trek and Poul Anderson. Nevertheless, a Star Trek fan might:

find references to kzinti in Star Trek;

see kzinti in action in an animated episode adapted by Larry Niven from a Known Space story;

read Niven's Known Space future history;

read Man-Kzin Wars stories, including those written by Poul Anderson;

go from there to Anderson's Technic History which has not kzinti but Merseians but also much more than that;

read other works by Anderson;

think, "I should have done this in the first place!"

I am advised that searching for "Emperor Josip" on this blog discloses some interesting posts and discussions so here goes: Emperor Josip. (Scroll down.)

This is probably the last post for this month since it will make a round number of posts for the month. Late in the evening here, I relax from enjoyable posting and resume enjoyable other reading. Chase The Morning (scroll down) is indeed intriguing in its different approach to interpenetrating parallel worlds but currently is losing out to competition from the severalth rereading of the incomparable Stieg Larsson.

I will see you all back here next month which means tomorrow.

May that happen which the gods will.

Whose POV?

"The Asteroid Queen," Chapter II.

The conversation between Traat-Admiral and the Conservor is recounted from the Admiral's point of view. We are told how he feels. When the Conservor says that the Slavers perished at least 2,000,000 years ago, we think, "Longer," but the omniscient narrator then interrupts the Conservor to directly inform his audience that the Kzin year is longer than the Terrestrial. Quotation marks are closed, then reopened, in a single paragraph - an incursion into the Admiral's pov.

The following chapter begins with a description, like others that we have read, of a mixed ecology (scroll down) on a colonized terrestroid planet. Trees include:

featherleaf ("...trembling iridescent lavender shapes ten meters tall...," p. 66)
gumblossom
sheenbark
lapisvine
oaks
pines
frangipani

Air is warm and fragrant.

Body Language

(A bedraggled kzinti telepath.)

See:

Scothanian Nods And Shrugs

Credible Aliens? II

"The Asteroid Queen," Chapter II teaches us kzinti body language:

A stretching motion equals a relaxed smile;

the sage nods;

a toss of the head is agreement;

a kzin can beckon with a flick of the tail and ears;

batwing ears fold when a kzin shifts uneasily;

a twitch of the whiskers is a grin.

On our first encounter with a kzin, we would recognize some signals but not others.

Later: Wiggling ears is amusement. (Chapter V, p. 100)

Theory And Practice II

See Theory And Practice.

I remembered Epsilon Korten, man of action and scholar of profundity, when reading:

"'...Chuut-Riit was another like that first Patriarch of all Kzin. He understood how to use the Conservor's knowledge; he had the warrior's and the sage's mind...'"
-"The Asteroid Queen," Chapter II, p. 60.

"'The humans must have either great luck, or more knowledge than is good, to have struck at us through [Chuut-Riit].'" (ibid.)

Human beings are better than kzinti at processing knowledge and literally have great luck as is demonstrated later in the Known Space future history.

We need men and women of action and knowledge who do not need to be warriors. How likely is it that we will be attacked by real world equivalents of Wells' Martians, Anderson's Merseians or Niven's kzinti? I think very unlikely but I suppose possible.

Hadrian

There has just been a TV program about Roman Imperial art. Hadrian not only built his Wall but also rebuilt the Pantheon, the temple of all the gods, still in use as a church, and promoted a god who, from the build-up, I thought was going to be Mithras (scroll down) but turned out to be Antinous of whom I had never heard. The presenter interviewed a priest of the modern cult of Antinous.

The next program in the series, about the art of a new religious cult in Rome, might also cover the period of Poul and Karen Anderson's The King Of Ys. (We would like to see some art from Ys but, of course, it was all destroyed.)

Mars Probes

We have just watched a TV news report about three missions currently en route to Mars. See one here. It seems to have been established that Mars had liquid water, therefore could have had life. What would Poul Anderson have said? He thought that a space program was crucial. But sf fans might add that it all seems primitive compared with what we would have expected by now. Unmanned probes happened decades ago. Sf writers projected Lunar and Martian bases or colonies by the early twenty first century. Maybe we are going somewhere. We need both to protect this planet and to get off it.

"The Children's Hour": Some Details

"The Children's Hour."

"'Beautiful job on the false idents, by the way. If we hadn't been tipped we'd never have found them.'"
-Chapter V, p. 271.

Who tipped the Munchen Police about the two infiltrators from Sol? (If the answer is that it is clear in the text, then I will just have to reread earlier passages.)

The Police Chief has a Matisse, two Vorenagles (?) "...and a priceless Pierneef..." (Chapter III, p. 226)

When Jonah and Ingrid meet a Yakuza contact, the word, "tekkamaki," is used as a password. The Yakuza guy considers it a joke to refer to Markham as "'...our esteemed GVB...,'" which he explains as "'Gotz von Blerichgen...'" (p. 219)

It takes a while for the Man-Kzin Wars series to open out to a wider variety of authors:

The Man-Kzin Wars
Niven
Anderson
Ing

Man-Kzin Wars II
Ing
Pournelle & Stirling

Man-Kzin Wars III
Niven
Pournelle & Stirling
Anderson

I have yet to receive my copy of IV.

The Wikipedia article presents a longer list of authors for later volumes. I expect at last to read more of this series. Morecambe Library has reopened, with reduced hours, for the Lancaster District so I might be able to borrow some of those Worlds books. I continue to think that Poul Anderson's Technic History excels as a future history series. Larry Niven's Known Space History, like Jerry Pournelle's CoDominium History, differs from Anderson's in having more installments written or co-written by other authors. I have been drawn back into Known Space by Anderson's contributions and am currently appreciating its MKW period.

The Jotok

(This image is a reminder of the other future history where kzinti exist.)

"The Asteroid Queen," Chapter II.

A kzinti Conservor of the Ancestral Past says:

"'... once we thought that Homeworld was the only world of life. Then the Jotok landed, and for a time we thought they were from the God, because they had swords of fire that could tumble a Pariarch's castle-wall, while we had only swords of steel. Our musket-balls were nothing to them...'" (p. 60)

So did Jerry Pournelle and SM Stirling introduce the Jotok? The first three Man-Kzin Wars (MKW) volumes contain only:

two stories by Larry Niven;
two by Poul Anderson;
two by Dean Ing;
two by Pournelle and Stirling.

I have yet to read the two by Ing, which are focused around the fourth MKW, but scanning through them does not reveal any references to Jotok.

Kzinti Females, Romans And Corinthians

"The Asteroid Queen," Chapter II.

"Their females were nonsentient..." (p. 56)

Surely kzinti females are non-sapient, not non-sentient?

A kzinti Conservor of the Ancestral Past expounds:

"Who unsheathes claw against the officer
"Leaps at the throat of God." (p. 57)

This recalls Romans 13: 1-7.

Kzinti Patriarchs cannot forbid females to speak because their females cannot speak. However, 1 Corinthians 14: 33-35 expresses the Roidhunate Merseians' attitude to their females. So are Merseian females freer on Dennitza?

Scream And Leap - And An AI

"The kzin screamed and leaped."
-Poul Anderson, "Iron" IN Larry Niven, ed, The Man-Kzin Wars (London, 1989), pp. 27-177 AT I, p. 29.

"The kzin screamed and leapt."
-"The Asteroid Queen," Chapter II, p. 55.

We notice kzinti consistency and a slight difference in English spelling.

After a prologue set three billion years ago, "The Asteroid Queen," Chapter I opens only two months after the events of "The Children's Hour." UNSN Catskinner is still in the Alpha Centaurian System and still in the possession of Markham who is about to encounter a real master race albeit a third rate one according to the prologue, on p. 37.

The conscious AI in Catskinner:

simulates a "...monoblock..." (p. 53) exploding and matter dissipating until, eons later, monatomic atoms are evenly dispersed through a space ten light years in diameter;

through half a million subjective years and several objective nanoseconds, watches its universe grow and decay;

has already lived through subjective geological eras, mostly outside the external perceptual universe of its human creators;

has noticed an "...arbitrariness to subatomic phenomena...," (p. 53) which might be an operating code for a simulation.

Quiz question: In which novel by Poul Anderson do a man and a woman experience a virtual reality in which they are a god and a goddess creating and directing a universe?

The Slavers

I confess to some uncertainty as to the course of the machinations towards the end of "The Children's Hour" by Jerry Pournelle and SM Stirling. Why do certain events transpire as they do? While my thoughts on that matter settle, I will turn to the sequel:

Jerry Pournelle and SM Stirling, "The Asteroid Queen" IN Larry Niven, Ed., Man-Kzin Wars III (New York, 1990), pp. 35-166.

The unheaded Prologue, on pp. 37-40, is set:

"Three billion years before the birth of Buddha.." (p. 37)

- when:

"...the Thrint ruled the galaxy and ten thousand intelligent species." (ibid.)

The opportunity to write about the kzinti is also an opportunity to write about the Thrintun because stasis boxes left by the latter species survive into the Man-Kzin Wars period. In "The Children's Hour," we were told that:

in an ecological system where most animals were mildly telepathic, the ancestors of the Thrintun developed telepathic hypnosis as a hunting aid;

prey could be subtly prodded to approach a waterhole;

when their prey developed resistance, the Thrintun/Slavers "...evolved intelligence as an additional advantage..." (p. 148);

sophonts arriving from other planets were easily controlled because their nervous systems "...had not evolved in an environment saturated with the Power..." (ibid.);

extra-planetary slave-technicians developed amplifiers that enabled a single Thrint to control a planetary population;

hunters were industrialized in a single generation;

the Thrintun empire covered most of the galaxy;

the Thrintun never needed to be very intelligent but instead subordinated the extremely clever tnuctipun, devious enough to plot revolt.

Surely some non-Thrint species would have nervous systems that were simply not affected by the Power?

In Poul Anderson's Technic History, the mentally powerful Chereionites had a prehistoric interstellar civilization that may have been destroyed by the parasitism of the "slinkers" (scroll down) just as the Thrintun civilization was destroyed by the revolt of the tnuctipun.

Telepathic Interrogation

"The Children's Hour," Chapter VI.

"...the great weakness of telepathic interrogation is that it can only detect what the subject believes to be true." (p. 290)

I read past this statement, then returned to it because it seemed familiar: part of a sentence for Jerry Pournelle and SM Stirling; one short story for Poul Anderson.

The first Dominic Flandry story that I read was "The Game of Glory," which tells us that Flandry learned how to lie to a telepath. Little did I suspect that:

that had happened in "Honorable Enemies";

these were just two installments in a whole Captain Flandry series of stories;

that series was part of the longer Flandry period of a massive future history series;

in 2020 (the remote future), I would access a worldwide computer network to compare the Technic History with a multi-volume series set during a period of interstellar wars in another massive future history series.

Organized Crime On And Off Earth

(Yakuza funeral.)

See:

Organized Crime In Sicily And Russia And On Merseia, 16 February 2020

Organized Crime, 28 January 2018

Organized Crime, 18 March 2016

Respectable societies illegalize different activities at different times and places, yet prominent members of such societies continue to want such activities so organized crime flourishes.

Poul Anderson imagined the Gethfennu on Merseia;

Stieg Larsson wrote about judges and policemen using prostitutes;

in "The Children's Hour," Japanese organized crime has flourished under feudal lords and great corporations on Earth, then on the colony planet, Wonderland, both before and after kzinti occupation, but is unsure of survival in the future after the kzinti households have completely displaced human social organization - maybe it will be better to cooperate with the UN.

Lists Of Posts

The Milky Way Thread
Across The Milky Way
The Food Thread
Great Cities
Literary Comparisons
The Bible On The Blog

I think that's all for now.

"In The Belly Of The Whale"

"The Children's Hour," Chapter IV.

"'Where's the Sol-Belter?'...
"'In the belly of the whale... Still working in your office.'" (p. 256)

"In the belly of the whale..." counts as yet another Biblical reference especially since the Sol-Belter is called Jonah.

However, this is not an Andersonian Biblical reference. The Man-Kzin Wars series is more like an sf mag or a TV series - multi-authored, and the audience might remember the plots or themes of particular episodes without remembering their authors' names, although they are always credited here. See the above link.

So far, I have discussed Poul Anderson's MKW trilogy and have begun to discuss Jerry Pournelle's and SM Stirling's trilogy. If we go on to discuss other installments of the series, then it might be appropriate to move the discussion to the Science Fiction blog. However, blog readers come here, not there, so we will stay where we are.

These two MKW trilogies interconnect. Whether there are similar interconnections with other authors' contributions has yet to be ascertained, at least by me. I have got an ace second image about "Jonah" so I am spinning out the text of this post to make some room for it.

The Bible On The Blog

Genesis (+ here, here, here, here, here, here)
Exodus
Leviticus
Deuteronomy (+ here)
Joshua
Judges

1 Kings  

2 Kings  

2 Chronicles  

Ezra   

Job (+ here, here, here, here, here, here, here)

Psalms (+ here, here)

Proverbs 

Ecclesiastes (scroll) 

Isaiah

Jeremiah
Lamentations
Ezekiel (scroll) 
Daniel
Hosea
Jonah
Micah
Zephaniah 
Malachi
First and Second Maccabees
Matthew (+ here, here, here)
Mark (+ here, here)

Luke (+ here, here, here)

John (+ here, here, here, here) 

Acts 

Romans and 1 Corinthians (+ here)

2 Peter 

Revelation (+ here)

See also A Note on Anderson's Use of the Bible. 

Munchen On Wunderland

See Starfall On Hermes.

"The Children's Hour," Chapter III, pp. 226-227.

Pournelle and Stirling do with Old Munchen what Anderson did with Starfall:

tile roofs;
tree-lined streets curling through the hills;
frangipani, palms and gumblossom in parks by the broad blue River Donau;
flowers by pedestrian ways;
cafes;
honeygold University quadrangles;
houses with courtyards, green spaces and fountains;
the Gothic Ritterhuuse where the Landholders Council met;
bronze statues of the Nineteen Founders in the great square.

Elsewhere:

sprawling shanty-suburbs;
shoddy factories.

Three friends climbed to sit on the shoulders of the tallest statues in front of a crowd. I have seen this done to Queen Victoria in Dalton Square, Lancaster. (Scroll down.) The Lancaster statue is here and here.

"The Children's Hour": Miscellania

"The Children's Hour."

"'Play something appropriate, Sam.'"
-Chapter II, p. 177.

This is an obvious cinematic reference, as is confirmed in the combox to Contributions And Interactions.

Markham casually kills some human independent operators who are no longer useful to him and tries to hijack the UN military mission to Wunderland. With allies like that, who needs enemies?

The conscious computer informs Jonah that, for a distance of twenty-three point six light years ahead of the Catskinner, there is nothing but:

hard vacuum
micrometeorites
interstellar dust
possible spacecraft
bodies undetectable because either too small or non-radiating
superstrings
shadowmatter (p. 189)

He does not mention virtual, mutually annihilating, matter-antimatter particles. I do not know when they were first hypothesized and/or detected.

Kzinti Salutes

In "The Warriors" by Larry Niven, a kzinti Weapons Officer salutes his Captain but we are not told how.

In "Iron" by Poul Anderson, a kzinti guard salutes his captain by sweeping his claws before his face. See Inter-Species Respect.

In "The Children's Hour" by Jerry Pournelle and SM Stirling, household troopers salute the governor of the Alpha Centauri system by drawing claws before eyes.

This is the order in which these stories were written and published. Thus, it seems that it was Anderson who invented the kzinti salute - unless it had first appeared in some other Known Space installment by Niven?

A Marked Man

"The Children's Hour," Chapter II.

Pournelle and Stirling write:

kzinti, created by Larry Niven;
Ulf Markham, created by Poul Anderson;
new characters created by themselves -

- a three-layered narrative.

Markham:

is as arrogant as a kzin, according to a subordinate;
will not have the kzinti called "ratcats";
calls the UN "'...fat cowards...'" (p. 192)

Thus, there are multiple foreshadowings of his later conversion to the cause of the kzinti, which is already known to us if we have read the Man-Kin Wars series in order of publication.

Well over 100 pages of Pournelle's and Stirling's first Man-Kzin Wars story still lie ahead of us but they will not be read here tonight.

Hunt well.

Stasis II

"The Children's Hour."

Sometimes a text conveys the content of a dialogue but leaves it to the reader to keep track of which character says what. Occasionally, this is confusing. In the previous post, I quoted a reason for being scared:

"'...because we will start this mission...,'" etc

- and attributed it to Jonah. However, I now realize that it is spoken by Ingrid.

First, "she" (p. 168) tells him that he is bored. Then he thinks that he is not bored but scared. Then one of them speaks, ending with:

"'You were right, I'm bored.'" (ibid.)

So that is him. The next remark, "'And scared.'" (ibid.) has to be her. There is then a short paragraph without dialogue in which he turns and sees her grinning. Then comes the stated reason for being scared:

"'Okay, I'm scared, too. Among other reasons because we will start this mission...,'" etc.

This is replied to:

"'The designers were pretty sure it'd work.'" (p. 169)

And the rejoinder to that is:

"'I'm sure of only two things, Jonah.'" (ibid.)

Since that last rejoinder is addressed to Jonah, it must be spoken by Ingrid. Working backwards, it follows that the reason for being scared is spoken by her.

What the designers were pretty sure would work was the stasis field. So it will switch on and back off again at preordained times? This happens in the following chapter, on on p. 184 and off on p. 188. When they consider using the stasis field a second time, Ingrid asks the computer:

"'What's the status of our stasis-controller.'"
-Chapter II, p. 190.

(I have realized only when quoting it that this question is printed without a question mark.)

Presumably, by the "stasis-controller," she means that exterior offswitch. See the previous post. Indeed, since the switch is not protected by the stasis field, how does it survive the friction and the other forces that are mentioned? There is an answer to that question:

"'The field switch will probably continue to function, Lieutenant Raines.'
"'It should, it's covered in neutronium.'" (ibid.)

Stasis

"The Children's Hour."

I am struggling with some technicalities.

Captain Jonah Matthieson and Lieutenant Ingrid Raines will travel in Matthieson's Dart-class attack boat, the United Nations Space Navy Catskinner (large fusion-power unit; small life-support bubble; deep-space sensors and weapons) which will be carried on an experimental ramscoop ship, the Yamamoto, which in turn will accelerate from Sol to Alpha Centauri where it will pass through that kzinti-held planetary system while launching missiles at kzinti installations;

the Catskinner, leaving the Yamamoto while enclosed in a stasis field, will be slowed to an orbital speed by friction with the outer layers of Alpha Centauri;

Jonah admits to being scared:

"'...because we will start this mission utterly dependent on the intervention of outside forces; the offswitch is exterior to the surface of the effect.' It had to be; time did not pass inside a stasis field."
-Chapter I, p. 168.

Will they be dependent on someone finding the stasis field and switching it off or is the switch pre-timed to turn itself off after a specified period? If the latter, then why does Jonah say that they will be dependent on intervention by external forces?

There will be more about this but I am being interrupted here.

Addendum: This post contains an error which will be corrected in the next post.

Blood Odors

This has become a prolonged comparison of the Technic and Known Space future history series. I want to borrow Niven's and Lerner's five Worlds novels from Lancaster Public Library but it is closed indefinitely because of the coronavirus. Treatment that my granddaughter was receiving is halted by the virus and, before that, had been interrupted by flooding. We are living in Poul Anderson's Chaos.

In an Ythrian flagship:

"The air blew warm, ruffling their plumes a little, scented with perfume of cinnamon bush and amberdragon. Blood odors would not be ordered unless and until the vessel got into actual combat; the crew would soon be worn out if stimulated too intensely."
-Poul Anderson, The People Of The Wind IN Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2011), pp. 437-662 AT VII, p. 518.

In a kzinti Slasher-class armed scout:

"The cooling system was whining audibly as it pumped energy into its central tank of degenerate matter, and still the cabin was furnace dry and hot, full of the wild odors of fear and blood that the habitation-system poured out in combat conditions."
-"The Children's Hour," Chapter II, p. 185.

Berserkers And Markham

"The Children's Hour," Chapter II.

Chuut-Riit reflects that:

human beings and kzinti panic differently;
"Heroes" (kzinti) either flee or go berserk.

"Berserker, he mused thoughtfully. The concept was fascinating; reading of it had convinced him that kzin and human kind were enough alike to cooperate effectively." (pp. 181-182)

Sf readers know of the Berserker series by Fred Saberhagen to which both Poul Anderson and Larry Niven contributed. See here. (Scroll down.) Hrolf Kraki's heroes include berserkers. See here.

When Chuut-Riit's human staffer reminds him that:

"'...the feral humans will be active...'" (p. 182)

- he responds:

"'Markham and his gang? I hope they do, Henrietta, I sincerely hope they do.'" (ibid.)

This is our first indication that this story is set during the time when Markham was against the kzinti.

Contributions And Interactions

In The Man-Kzin Wars (1988), "Iron" by Poul Anderson introduces Ulf Markham who dies at the end of this story.

In Man-Kzin Wars II (1989), "The Children's Hour" by Jerry Pournelle and SM Stirling:

introduces Haold Yarthkin-Schotmann and his Terran Bar in Munchen on Wunderland in the Alpha Centaurian System;

features Ulf Markham - because this story is set earlier than "Iron."

In Man-Kzin Wars III (1990), "Inconstant Star" by Poul Anderson includes a scene set inside Harold's Terran Bar.

If, like me, you get into the Man-Kzin Wars series by first reading Poul Anderson's contributions, then you might think that Anderson created Harold's Terran Bar. Careful chronological analysis of the texts becomes necessary.

Ythrians And Kzinti

An Ythrian:

"Eyath chose her prey, aimed and launched herself...
"The reptiloid's neck snapped at the sheer violence of that meeting.
"Vodan, you'd have joyed!"
-Poul Anderson, The People Of the Wind IN Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2011), pp. 437-662 AT XV, p. 607.

A kzin:

"...he returned, meditatively picking bits of hide and bone from between his teeth with a thumb-claw. His pelt was plastered flat with mud, leaves, and blood, and a thorned branch had cut a bleeding trough across his sloping forehead...
"The human swallowed and averted her eyes from the bits of something that the kzin was flicking from his fangs and muzzle."
-"The Children's Hour," Chapter II, p. 181.

Ythrians and kzinti are intelligent carnivores who must maintain territories where they can hunt live prey.

Two Differences
(i) Kzinti are feline whereas Ythrians do not parallel any Terrestrial animal.

(ii) Ythrians are individualists with very loose social organization. They would never conquer other worlds or say, "Glory to the Race! (Scroll down.)

Non Sequitur

"'Really, because we of Lenidel observe certain customs of courtesy, use certain turns of speech - because our males in particular are encouraged to develop esthetic interests and compassion - does that mean we are cowardly or effeminate?' The Trillian clicked his tongue. 'If you supposed so, you committed an elementary logical fallacy which our philosophers name the does-not-follow.'"
-Poul Anderson, "A Little Knowledge" IN Anderson, David Falkayn: Star Trader (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 599-630 AT p. 628.

"'We assumed that possession of the gravity polarizer would lead the humans to neglect reaction drives, as we had done, hr'rrearow t'chssseee mearowet' aatrurrre, this-does-not-follow.'"
-"The Children's Hour," Chapter II, p. 180.

If it is true that proposition q does not follow (non sequitur) from proposition p, then this remains true at every place and time and in every possible universe. Who better to spell out such a logical truth for us than a Trillian in the Technic History and a kzin in the Known Space History?

Praise From The Enemy

Brechdan Ironrede, Protector of the Roidhun's Grand Council:

"'They were magnificent once. They could be again. I would love to see them our willing subjects.' His scarred features drooped a little. 'Unlikely, of course. They're not that kind of species. We may be forced to exterminate.'"
-Poul Anderson, Ensign Flandry IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 1-192 AT CHAPTER TEN, p. 92.

Maybe the last sentence is higher praise than the first?

Brechdan again:

"'Commander... your young man makes me proud to be a sentient creature. What might our united races not accomplish? Hunt well.'"
-op. cit., CHAPTER FOURTEEN, p. 145.

Merseians and kzinti "hunt" in space.

Chuut-Riit, governor of the Alpha Centauri system:

"Humans were the most valuable subject-species the Kzinti had yet acquired."
-"The Children's Hour," Chapter I, pp. 153-154.

"Humans fell into groups naturally; they thought in terms of organization. The remote ancestors of Kzin had hunted in small packs, the prehumans in much larger ones." (ibid.)

"These hairless monkeys have talents we lack." (ibid.)

"Is it beneath the Hero to admit that a sword extends his claws, or a computer his mind? With human patience and organizational talent at the service of the Heroes, there was nothing they could not accomplish. Even monkey inquisitiveness was a trait not without merit, irritating though it could be." (ibid.)

Human Superiority is sometimes a theme in sf although Anderson shows the Ishtarians as in some ways superior to humanity.

A Recurring Issue

"The Children's Hour," Chapter I.

I address this issue every time it recurs so maybe it becomes a bit samey:

"'And we're putting in a Class-VII computer system.'
"Jonah raised a brow. Class-VII systems were consciousness-level; they also went irredeemably insane sometime between six months and a year after activation, as did any artificial entity complex enough to be aware of being aware." (pp. 149-150)

A mere computer, however high its "Class," is not conscious any more than a mere automobile, however advanced its model, is not conscious. However, maybe some artificial entities can both become conscious and be combined with or incorporated into computers, automobiles etc?

Complex neural interactions, or some analog of them, are necessary for self-consciousness but sensory consciousness is generated by mobile, sensitive organisms interacting with their environments, not just by internal complexity. The quoted dialogue partly recognizes this because it states that complexity generates not mere awareness but awareness of awareness.

Belters And Lunarians

"The Children's Hour."

Larry Niven's Belters, like Poul Anderson's Lunarians, spend their entire lives permanently protected from vacuum. They wear spacesuits, travel in small spacecraft and inhabit enclosed artificial environments which, however, can be both spacious and colorful. Belters have Mohawk hairstyles to keep their hair out of the machinery. They do not straighten their backs but crouch alertly. The difference is that Lunarians have been genetically modified to be healthy in Lunar gravity.

One aspect of Known Space technology and cosmology recalls Anderson's Tau Zero and "Flight to Forever":

"...the stasis field would probably survive the re-contraction of the primal monobloc and its explosion into a new cosmic cycle..."
-Chapter I, p. 149.

So are there any survivors from previous universes?

Starting with a blank page or computer screen, every writer creates new characters ex nihilo even when contributing to an already established series. General Buford Early strikes me as a mildly comic character. When Early asks our viewpoint character, Captain Jonah Matthieson, a Belter, whether he notices anything about current war data and Matthieson replies, "'We're losing,":

"'Fucking brilliant, Captain!' The general was short, black, and balding, and carried a mass of muscle that was almost obscene to someone raised in low gravity. He looked to be in early middle age, which depending on how much he cared about appearances, might mean anything up to a century and a half these days. 'Yeah, we're losing...'" (p. 137)

So the short, balding, muscled, swearing general might be 150 but might not care about appearances! And, more importantly, he agrees that the interstellar war is being lost.

Close To Human

Did you know this?

"...Kzinti were much closer to human than were any other species; so close that they must at one time have had common microbe ancestors."
-"The Soft Weapon," p. 84.

Terrestrial and Ringworlder human beings are mutated Pak breeders and the Pak came from near the galactic center. Kzin is a planet of 61 Ursa Majoris which, according to its Wikipedia article, is just under eight parsecs from the galactic center.

Back To The Source

As Poul Anderson fans, we are interested in:

what Larry Niven wrote about the kzinti because this forms the basis of the Man-Kzin Wars series to which Anderson contributed;

Anderson's own Man-Kzin Wars trilogy;

other Man-Kzin Wars stories that might have been influenced by Anderson's;

uninfluenced installments, providing interesting contrasts.

Thus, nothing escapes our sight and we might spend quite some time within Niven's Known Space future history.

As far as I can see at present:

Pournelle's and Niven's trilogy is set during the First Man-Kzin War;

Anderson's trilogy is set shortly after that war;

Niven's Beowulf Shaeffer and his contemporaries live shortly after the Fourth Man-Kzin War.

Shaeffer describes a man who:

"...wore a hellflare tattoo on his shoulder, which meant he'd been in Kzin thirty years back, which meant he'd been trained to kill adult Kzinti with his bare hands, feet, elbows, knees, and whatnot."
-Larry Niven, "Flatlander" IN Niven, Neutron Star (New York, 1971), pp. 129-171 AT p. 129.

Another guy, Jason Papandreou had been:

"...a gunner volunteer on one of Earth's warships during the last stage of the last Kzinti war. The war had been highly unequal in Earth's favor. Kzinti fight gallantly, ferociously, and with no concept of mercy; they always take on several times as much as they can handle."
-Larry Niven, "The Soft Weapon" IN Neutron Star, pp. 73-128 AT p. 73.

In other cases, stories clearly contradict established canon. For example, various MKW stories state that Kzinti did not establish their own interstellar empire nor invent their own spacefaring technology. Instead, primitive Kzinti warriors were hired as mercenaries by the Jotoki, a species of interstellar traders, whom the Kzinti later overthrew and enslaved. Yet, Niven's "The Soft Weapon" states:

There had been a time, between the discoveries of atomic power and the gravity polarizer, when it seemed the Kzinti species would destroy itself in wars. Now the Kzinti held many worlds, and the danger was past.

However, "Jotok" suggests a possible compromise scenario. In that story, primitive Kzinti clans on the Kzin homeworld are being marginalized by advanced Kzinti who use atomic power and gravity polarizer-driven spacecraft. It is the primitives who are hired by the Jotoki, to use as mercenaries against the more advanced Kzinti.
-copied from here. 

SF War Stories

Does anyone out there know whether The Children's Hour is an expansion or just a reprint of stories by Pournelle and Stirling originally published in Man-Kzin Wars anthologies?

I am not a fan of military sf. Why go into space to wage war? Surely sf readers want to look through a telescope or a chronoscope, not along the barrel of a gun? Poul Anderson wrote military sf well because he wrote everything well, including much more than military stuff. I am far less interested in any author whose career is built on military sf.

Because the Man-Kzin Wars stories are a military sf series, their plots require the deaths of many kzinti at human hands despite the formers' greater ferocity and physical strength.  In fact, we understand that each Man-Kzin War significantly reduces the kzinti population. In Poul Anderson's trilogy, Werlith-Commandant and his crew, Weoch-Captain and his crew and Ghrul-Captain all bite the dust.

Ghrul-Captain attacks two unarmed human beings in their own ship. How do they prevail? Craig knows his martial arts while Tyra, having brought cooking utensils along on this mission, runs to the kitchen for a sharp knife...

There is always a way.

Panjandrum, Panjandarum Or Panjamandrum

We continue to find parallel details in alternative future histories. Ydwyr's uncle is Roidhun so Flandry says that Ydwyr is the grand panjandrum's nephew. (My dictionary gives "panjandarum" as an alternative.) See Inter-Species Respect.

Chuut-Riit is closely related to the Patriarch so General Early says that Chuut-Riit is:

"'...related to their panjumandrum...'"
-Jerry Pournelle and SM Stirling, "The Children's Hour" IN Larry Niven, Ed., Man-Kzin Wars II (London, 1989), Chapter I, p. 141.

There are several interesting observations in this story. The kzinti are surprisingly uniform in every way and barely gregarious enough to be civilized so maybe they got their tech from someone else? Automation can increase war capacity rapidly even with a low population. The Terrestrial billions are useless. Also:

"Interstellar warfare at sublight speeds was a game for the patient." (p. 137)

It is a game for immortal protectors as we learn elsewhere in this future history.

Sequels And Prequels

Potential Sequels To "Pele"

The Saxtorph's Rover, now avoiding any contact with kzinti, carries freight between the puppeteers' tradepoint and four human planets and has a new crew member called Buck about whom we know nothing else as yet. Thus, either a sequel would fall outside the Man-Kzin Wars franchise or kzinti would be encountered despite attempts to avoid them. We expect Tyra to be married to Craig, living on Earth, and Shayin-Mate to have become Shayin-Captain. Either unforeseen events would bring all these characters back together or, alternatively, new characters could be introduced.

More Generally

I have in my possession:

The Man-Kzin Wars (1988);
Man-Kzin Wars II (1989);
Man-Kzin Wars III (1990);
Man-Kzin Wars V (1992);
Man-Kzin Wars IX (2002).

- and have ordered a copy of Man-Kzin Wars IV (1995).

Thus, I can begin to get a sense of the chronological and other relationships between some parts of the series. In order to begin somewhere, I focus initially just on stories by Anderson, Stirling and Pournelle. Thus, it seems to me as of now and please correct me if I am wrong that:

in the unnumbered opening volume, the first instalment of Anderson's trilogy begins soon after the Liberation of Wunderland;

in II, the first instalment of Pournelle's and Stirling's trilogy begins during the occupation of Wunderland;

III contains Pournelle's and Stirling's second instalment, still set during the occupation, and Anderson's second instalment;

IV contains a solo story by Stirling which I have yet to read;

V contains Pournelle's and Stirling's third instalment, still set during the occupation;

IX contains Anderson's third instalment;

there is more information about the occupation of Wunderland elsewhere in the series.

Obviously, these works could be rearranged into chronological order of fictitious events. Since, unless I have got this wrong, Pournelle and Stirling in their prequels adapt characters and settings introduced by Anderson, I will reread their trilogy next.

Tyra On Wunderland

"Pele."

"...she used to watch the sea at her childhood home..." (11, p. 65)

This means much to regular readers because we have already read about that home by the sea. See The Old House On The Headland.

Tyra wants to show Craig:

"...the ancestral house and sea cliffs at Korness..." (17, p. 94)

- and:

"...the merry old inns of Munchen..." (ibid.);
Gelbstein Park with its geysers;
the view from the Lucknerberg peak;
dancers in Anholt;
etc.

Several Man-Kzin Wars installments focus on Wunderland. It becomes a well-realized location.

Kzinti Politics

"Pele."

Because High Admiral Ress-Chiuu issued disastrous orders, the kzinti lost a warship crew and the human enemy captured the warship. Condemned, Ress-Chiuu acquitted himself well against the beasts in the Patriarchal Arena, giving good sport. Although Grand Lord Narr-Souwa claims that honor is satisfied, Ghrul-Captain of the house Chiuu remains deprived of command of the Venomous Fang and wants to make full redemption.

Ghrul-Captain insists on piloting a small ship on a dangerous mission close to a star so that he alone will gain the glory. When he fails to return, Shayin-Mate, now in command, refuses human help in retrieving any data gathered by Ghrul-Captain and will return to Kzin to present himself as having salvaged what he could of the mission from Ghrul-Captain's foolishness.

Thus, Shayin-Captain might have been the chief antagonist in any fourth Man-Kzin Wars story by Poul Anderson.

Fictional Universes Draw Close

Larry Niven wrote his kzinti into Star Trek;

a Klingon knowledgeably quotes Shakespeare, including Hamlet;

Poul Anderson wrote a kzin unconsciously echoing Hamlet;

Hamlet is real in Anderson's Shakespearean timeline;

Merau Varagan refers to the Time Patrol's exile planet as:

"'"That undiscover'd country from whose bourn No traveler returns."'"
-Poul Anderson, The Shield Of Time (New York, 1991), PART TWO, 976 B. C., p. 43.

Not for the first time, we think that it is all one multiverse.

Klingons, Kzinti And Hamlet

See To Be Or Not To Be.

The title of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is taken from Hamlet's soliloquy.

The film features a Klingon, Chang, played by Christopher Plummer, who quotes extensively from Shakespeare, including:

"The undiscovered country, from whose bourn
"No traveler returns..."

- from this soliloquy.

In Poul Anderson's "Pele," 15, Ghrul-Captain remembers a kzinti academy teacher apparently quoting from the soliloquy. Anderson does quote from the soliloquy and imagines that the academy teacher independently speaks a corresponding phrase in the Heroes' Tongue although with a different significance:

"'What they call conscience makes cowards of them all.'" (p. 87)

Two human beings trying to rescue the injured Ghrul-Captain do not mean to cause him pain when they lift his badly burnt body. Knowing this, he feels not gratitude for their obvious compassion but contempt for their supposed cowardice. Hamlet refers to our fear of death, not to our concern for others.

To Be Or Not To Be

In this post, I will copy Hamlet's famous soliloquy. Subsequently, I will show how, in different ways, it is relevant both to the sixth Star Trek film and to Poul Anderson's third Man-Kzin Wars story, "Pele."

The phrases, "to be or not to be," "what dreams may come," and "the undiscovered country" have become film titles. Anderson's kzinti character, Ghrul-Captain, accuses human beings of "...contumely..." in "Pele," 10, p. 60.

To be, or not to be, that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles

And by opposing end them. To die—to sleep,

No more; and by a sleep to say we end

The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to: 'tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;

To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there's the rub:

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause—there's the respect

That makes calamity of so long life.

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

Th'oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,

The pangs of dispriz'd love, the law's delay,

The insolence of office, and the spurns

That patient merit of th'unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscovere'd country, from whose bourn

No traveller returns, puzzles the will,

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,

And enterprises of great pitch and moment

With this regard their currents turn awry

And lose the name of action.

-copied from here. (William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Act 3, Scene 1, lines 58-90) (To find the line numbers, I had to look in a mere book!)