Envoy, returning, detects declining star travel around Sol. Immediately, what I see as a false dichotomy is posited:
"'If humans aren't adventuring anymore, could they be at peace, as the Tahirians wanted to be?'" (p. 428)
Peace is the absence of armed conflict, not the end of adventure, initiative, exploration or discovery.
Hanny says that most people most of the time stayed put. Sure. Most people cannot go on voyages of exploration nor do they need to. If I lived in the Solar Commonwealth of Poul Anderson's Technic History, then I would not ache to become an apprentice in the Polesotechnic League. I would live and work on Earth while learning as much as possible about Ythrians, Wodenites, Cynthians, Merseians etc.
Hanny asks:
"'...would peace be so terrible?...Suppose Earth is tranquil and beautiful. Suppose we can find something for ourselves like your estancia. Then I could gladly settle down.'" (ibid.)
But of course some former explorers and adventurers should be able to settle down on a peaceful, tranquil, beautiful Earth while others continue to explore and adventure beyond Earth. I feel that the word, "peace," is being devalued here.
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I am not so sure I can agree with you. Yet again, HUMAN beings what they are, I can easily imagine the leaders of a tranquil, beautiful, peaceful Earth fearing that those who long for adventure, initiative, exploration, discovery, etc., necessarily risks upsetting or disturbing that tranquility. And I think they would have some reason for thinking like that. Adventure, discovery, new inventions of all kinds, etc., does run the strong chance of upsetting previous modes of life and existence, because that is exactly what has HAPPENED in real history.
There were times in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese history when the rulers of those countries thought they had achieved a desirable equilibrium and sought to preserve it by sealing themselves off from the outside world. As we know, it did not work!
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Paul!
And the Trillians still interests me! I regret how we see them in only one story, "A Little Knowledge."
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
We have little knowledge of the Trillians.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Too true! Not even a casual mention in any of the other stories. Presumably, they became willing and loyal subjects of the Empire after it arose. And that's about all we can say.
Ad astra! Sean
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