A Gorilloid And An Altaian

"Hiding Place."

As a male gorilloid approaches Torrance:

"...the sphincters in his neck opened and shut like sucking mouths..." (p. 592)

Ugh! Poul Anderson is making sure that we do not forget those sphincters. They remind us of Ythrian antlibranches which pump oxygen directly into the blood but the sphincters' function is different.

The "...spacehand..." who helps Torrance is:

"...a stocky slant-eyed nomad from Altai..." (ibid.)

This is another of those Many Planets. Van Rijn's employee, Emil Dalmady, the hero of "Esau," is from Altai and Dominic Flandry will adventure there a long time later in "A Message in Secret"/Mayday Orbit. The future history gains substance with each reinforced piece of background information.

Thinking And Habit

"Hiding Place."

"'I suppose Old Nick is sitting and thinking,' said Yamamura in an edged voice." (p. 590)

Yes, like Poirot with the "little grey cells."

Captain Torrance, like Eric Wace in The Man Who Counts, does not understand van Rijn's contribution:

"'He sits in his suite with a case of brandy and a box of cigars. The cook, who could be down here helping you, is kept aboard the yacht to fix him his damned gourmet meals. You'd think he didn't care if we're blown out of the sky!'" (pp. 590-591)

Torrance also remembers his oath of fealty and his official position although he thinks that they seem nonsensical:

"...on the edge of extinction. But habit was wrong.'" (p. 591)

Habit is so strong that a James Blish character still thinks in terms of company time even after Armageddon - and even after an Armageddon with an unexpected outcome! 

A Point About POV

"Hiding Place."

"Not that adequate hands prove effective intelligence; on Earth, not only simians but a number of reptiles and amphibia boast as much, even if man has the best, and man's apish ancestors were as well-equipped in this respect as we are today." (p.584)

Hands had to evolve physically before they could start to be used in conjunction with brains to change the environment.

Who are "we"? The author cannot directly address his twentieth-century readers in the text of the story. The use of the first person pronoun informs us that this narrator is not the omniscient narrator lurking behind the texts of many works of fiction and also that s/he inhabits the same timeline as van Rijn. If not a contemporary, then s/he speaks/narrates in a later period when van Rijn is a historical figure. The story is preceded by a passage attributed to "Le Matelot" but this reads like a quotation from some other relevant work, not like a direct introduction to the current narrative. If "Hiding Place" had been included in The Earth Book Of Stormgate, then Hloch would have identified its author but this was a later layer of narrative added by Anderson enriching the future history in that particular volume. Usually, fictional authors of third person narratives remain unidentified.

More Clues

"Hiding Place."

Each gorilloid has on its neck two lumens (cavities) closed by sphincters. The next kind of, well-armored, animal is the size and shape of a military helmet with the eyes of an octopus and no mouth but tentacles that might serve as parasitical suckers. Rereading, thus with the benefit of hindsight, it seems obvious where the intelligences are hiding.

Larry Niven's Known Space future history series includes "Eye of an Octopus," about parallel evolution.

I have to go out now but I leave you with these speculations about extraterrestrial intelligences.

Brains

"Hiding Place."

Nicholas van Rijn, Captain Torrance and the crew of the Hebe G.B. search for intelligent beings hiding among the animals in the alien zoo ship. The gorilloids seem to have limited cranial capacity. When van Rijn suggests that they might have brains not in their heads but in their bellies, Torrance replies that some people do. This is equivalent to Captain Torres in "Margin of Profit" acknowledging that van Rijn has guts.

Torrance goes on to expound empirically what some now argue speculatively, that animals keep their brains near their principal sense organs which are usually at the top. Otherwise, neural paths would become too long. Larry Niven's Puppeteers have their brain in their body with one eye and one mouth with malleable lips also serving as fingers at the end of each arm-neck.

Torrance adds that a smaller brain will not mean less intelligence if the neurons are more efficient but how do neurons work? They fire electrically and interact chemically but how does this cause either consciousness or intelligence? We judge whether an organism is conscious, then whether it is intelligent, by observing not its neurons but its behavior. If behavior includes exchange of signals, then we ask whether signals have become symbols, i.e., language, i.e., intelligent communication.

The Book That Spans, Illuminates And Completes A Future History

The contents of the Polesotechnic League Tetralogy can be summarized as three stories about Nicholas van Rijn, three stories about David Falkayn and two novels about both. However, in his third story and in the two novels, Falkayn has become the leader of van Rijn's first trader team, with van Rijn cameoing in the story to initiate the team. The eight PL installments collected in The Earth Book Of Stormgate can be summarized as two stories and one novel about van Rijn, one story about the trader team, one story about both van Rijn and the trader team and three stories about neither, although one of those three stories features Falkayn's crew member, Adzel, long before he joined the team.

The Tetralogy, The People Of The Wind and the Earth Book comprise:

8 PL installments

1 Ythrian novel

8 PL installments sandwiched between 4 Ythrian stories, all with introductions written by an Ythrian

 

Thus, it is literally true that the Earth Book "Spans, illuminates and completes the magnificent future history of the Polesotechnic League."

Clues

"Hiding Place."

The pilot of the captured spaceship must be:

strong, long-armed and large-handed - like a giant;

 

able not only to read very small display panels but also to turn a key at the bottom of a small, narrow hole - like a dwarf.

 

Clues to the pilot's nature accumulate. 

 

Van Rijn practices detective skills like Poirot. Van Rijn and Poirot are Catholics, are not native English/Anglic speakers and are first seen late in their careers. However, their differences are more numerous than their similarities. Poirot is known through cinema and TV. Van Rijn should be.

 

I prefer sf to detective fiction. In particular, I dislike the crossword puzzle aspect of detective fiction, having to reread passages in earlier chapters in search of the clues that are supposed to be there.

 

Addendum: After I published this post, Poirot was on TV in the episode where he walks out of our local Midland Hotel in Morecambe.

Interstellar Communication

"Hiding Place."

Van Rijn:

"'Get them on the telecom and develop a common language. Fast! Then explain we mean no harm but want just a lift to Valhalla.'" (p. 569)

How fast? Torrance reflects that:

"If the parleying with these strangers took unduly long - more that a week, at best -" (ibid.)

- then there would be problems. A week max to develop a common language with a newly encountered spacefaring species? Yes. There are so many species with so much interaction on such urgent matters - in this case, survival - that developing a common language, with computer assistance, must by now be a routine procedure for the crews of Polesotechnic League spaceships. The immediate problem is to locate the cleverly concealed aliens. Then, communication will be established. Their planet will be named after van Rijn.

Interstellar Fugitives

"Hiding Place."

"Somewhere in the unexplored deeps beyond Valhalla, the fugitives had settled on some unknown planet. Over the generations, their numbers grew, and so did the numbers of their warships." (p. 565)

How many generations between settling a planet and producing new spacecraft, let alone warships? The same question arises in James Blish's Cities In Flight where, no sooner have the Colonials settled extra-solar planets, than, with no help from Earth, they are engaged in a war against the Vegan Tyranny.

In "Wings of Victory," the backwoods colony of Hermes is temporarily primitive because it has not yet received shippings of agricultural machinery. The fugitives in "Hiding Place" would not have received any shippings from their home planet of Freya.

Technic Civilization In Its Galactic Context

"Hiding Place."

"'Our intelligence reports, interrogation of prisoners, evaluation of explorers' observations, and so on, all indicate that three or four different species in this region possess the hyperdrive. The Adderkops themselves aren't certain about all of them. Space is so damned huge.'" (p. 567)

OK. We get it that space is big. But three or four species with hyperdrive? On "'...the very fringe of human civilization...'"? (p. 564) Then how many in the galaxy? Why do they not overlap and interact like the civilization-clusters in Poul Anderson's After Doomsday?

The Aenean rebels exiled by Dominic Flandry flee into another spiral arm. Do they enter another civilization-cluster? Why do exiles or explorers not arrive in known space from further away? Why not some very occasional intergalactic travel?

Intergalactic travel occurs:

in Anderson's Tau Zero, with relativistic acceleration;

in Anderson's World Without Stars, with instantaneous spatial jumps;

in James Blish's Cities In Flight, with spindizzies moving the mass of a planet.

 

It would be a very long journey requiring many stops for refueling and repairs with the quantum hyperdrive but it could be done.

What Is The Time In Space?

"Hiding Place."

Nicholas van Rijn appreciates his:

"'...first beer of the day...'" (p. 559)

Jeri Kofoed points out that he drank one:

"'Two hours ago -'" (ibid.)

Van Rijn replies that two hours ago was before midnight if not by Greenwich time, then on some other planet. He has a point. Time of the day is on planets and they are not on a planet. There are also factors like the relativity of simultaneity and the non-relativistic quantum hyperdrive. Interstellar travelers do not transcend time as such but they can regard themselves as always starting "'...a new day.'" (p. 560)

There is something else about drinking in space and this belongs in the Never Waste A Good Idea Department:

"Van Rijn swore as the visual showed him Dorcas, out of her harness and raving around his cabin in utter hysterics. Why, she might spill all his remaining liquor, and Antares still eleven days off!"

-Poul Anderson, "Margin of Profit," p. 163.

"'Wha-a-a-t?' Echoes flew around van Rijn's scream. 'You mean...you mean...a month in space...and nothing for drinking except - Not even any beer?'

"The next half-hour was indescribable."

-Poul Anderson, Satan's World IN Anderson, David Falkayn: Star Trader (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 329-598 AT XXV, p. 595.

"This happened shortly after the Satan episode, when the owner of Solar Spice & Liquors had found it needful once more to leave the comforts of the Commonwealth, risk his thick neck on a cheerless world, and finally make a month-long voyage in a ship which had run out of beer. Returned home, he swore by all that was holy and much that was not: Never again!"

-Poul Anderson, "Lodestar" IN David Falkayn: Star Trader, pp. 631-682 AT 639.

Many Planets

Poul Anderson, "Hiding Place" IN Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, 2009), pp. 555-609.

A future history series like Poul Anderson's Technic History features many fictional extra-solar planets. No doubt we could list the planets that are mentioned only once and those that are referenced more than once. The latter make the background of a series more substantial. 

On p. 558:

"...a green valley of Freya..."

"...a citizen of Ramanujan planet..."

"...the Huy Brasealian jewel-tapestry..."

 

Captain Bahadur Torrance, he who is from Ramanujan, looks in the direction of "Valhalla." However, the ensuing reference to Freya informs us that Valhalla is a star and that Freya is one of its planets. No doubt the other Valhallan planets include Odin, Thor, Tyr, Sif etc - although there is also a "Woden" elsewhere. I am fairly sure that this story is the only one to refer to Freya or indeed to the Valhallan system.

 

By contrast, Ramanujan shows up again as the home planet of Chunderban Desai, a major viewpoint character in The Day Of Their Return and a significant supporting character in A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, and, in The People Of The Wind, we read:

"...the engineer-computerman, CPO Abdullah Helu...a lean middle-aged careerist from Huy Braseal."

-Poul Anderson, The People Of The Wind IN Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2011), pp. 437-662 AT IV, p. 478.

There are other examples but we will take them as we find them.

Austerities

"How To Be Ethnic In One Easy Lesson."

Adzel, convert to Buddhism:

"'Austerities are valuable.'" (p. 188)

He is talking about making the best use of unavoidable discomforts. However, it should not be suggested that discomforts are to be sought after. Gautama practiced extreme austerities and found that they developed his will power but not his understanding. To restore his physical health and strength, he accepted an offering of food, to the disgust of a small group of ascetics that had admired him. ("He's gone soft.") They left but he sat in quiet meditation and realized his enlightenment, becoming "Awakened/Buddha." His Dharma is a Middle Way between asceticism and hedonism. But I am sure that Adzel understands this. 

See also Adzel's Lecture.

Van Rijn Off Earth

See Van Rijn On Earth Or In Space.

Having slept on it, there is another distinction to be made:

Van Rijn In A Spaceship

"Margin of Profit"

"Hiding Place"

"Lodestar"

 

Van Rijn On Another Planet

The Man Who Counts

"Territory"

 

Both 

Satan's World

Mirkheim

 

Another planetary surface and the interior of a spaceship are such totally dissimilar environments that reading about them is also a completely different experience. After "Margin of Profit," we might reread "Hiding Place."

Before "Hiding Place"

"Hiding Place" is neither the first story in Poul Anderson's Technic History nor even the first Nicholas van Rijn story but it was the first in the original reading order, beginning with the van Rijn collection, Trader To The Stars. This meant starting in the middle of the history when a lot had already happened. "Hiding Place" is the eleventh and last story in The Technic Civilization Saga, Volume I, The Van Rijn Method, where it is preceded by:

the previously uncollected "The Saturn Game";

seven works previously collected in The Earth Book Of Stormgate;

two works previously collected in The Trouble Twisters.

Before "Hiding Place": 

the Ythrians, van Rijn, Falkayn and Adzel have all been introduced to the readers although not yet to each other;

the planet, Cynthia, has been mentioned twice although the Cynthian, Chee Lan, has not yet arrived;

Falkayn and other traders have worked on Ivanhoe, one of the planets that will later join Falkayn's Supermetals Company.

But much else has still to happen. 

Van Rijn On Earth Or In Space

In Trader To The Stars

"Hiding Place" (van Rijn off Earth)

"Territory" (off)

"The Master Key" (on)

 

In The Trouble Twisters

"The Trouble Twisters" (on)

 

In The Earth Book

"Margin of Profit" (on, then off)

"Esau" (on)

The Man Who Counts (off)

"Lodestar" (off)

 

The Two Other Novels

Satan's World (on, then off)

Mirkheim (on, then off)

 

off = 3

on = 4

on, then off = 3

 

Pretty even.

 

"The Master Key" is a van Rijn story because van Rijn, even on Earth, solves a problem on another planet whereas "Esau" is an Emil Dalmady story because Dalmady solves the problem and recounts it to van Rijn on Earth.

Some Reminiscences

About 1970, James Blish acknowledged publicly that he had written Star Trek adaptations only for money reasons. A fellow sf fan commented to me, "I am glad that Blish has told me that I needn't bother with Star Trek." At about the same time, Blish recommended Poul Anderson to me. Thinking that the Flandry series was only space opera and echoing the comment of the other sf fan, I asked Blish something like "Maybe I needn't bother with Dominic Flandry?" and Blish agreed. Maybe the dates show that the Flandry series developed into more than space opera later? Also about that time, Blish remarked to me, "Poul likes the flamboyant character of Nicholas van Rijn but I think it is about played out." The dates show:

"Esau" (1970)

"The Master Key" (1971)

"Lodestar" (1973)

Mirkheim (1977)

"Margin of Profit," revised (1978)

 

So van Rijn had a lot more life in him yet. In fact, in fictional terms, Sandra Tamarin thinks:

"Why, he's old..."

-Poul Anderson, Mirkheim IN Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2011), pp. 1-291 AT XIX, p. 253 -

- but then:

"And then van Rijn, damn his sooty heart, refused to be pitiable but grabbed her hand, bestowed a splashing kiss upon it, and pumped it as if he expected water to gush from her mouth."

-ibid., p. 254.

 

And, at the end of his last novel, Mirkheim, van Rijn is proposing years of work to be followed by an expedition outside known space. Both the character and his series continued for longer than expected.

Dynamic Renewal

Even after multiple rereadings, Poul Anderson's  Technic History remains dynamic. The characters and their interactions are continually renewed:

David Falkayn stands in the audience chamber of Castle Afon, saves Merseia and later founds Avalon;

Tabitha Falkayn, Daniel and Christopher Holm and many others defend Avalon against the Terran Empire while the Merseian Roidhunate grows in a remote region of space;

Max Abrams stands in the audience chamber of Castle Afon and defends the Empire against the Roidhunate.

Of course, we can also mention Dominic Flandry. However, Flandry's mentor, Abrams, happens to fit more directly into this particular historical sequence.

In fact, the two (or three) main sections of the Technic History fit together much more closely than might have been expected. The series should be reread periodically.

A Historical Turning Point

The Technic Civilization Saga, Volume III, Rise Of The Terran Empire, culminates in The People Of The Wind. This novel finally explains the Earth Book introductions that have been dispersed through Volumes I-III. It even features Arinnian of Stormgate Choth, whose human name is Christopher Holm, who had been cited as author of one Earth Book installment and as coauthor with Hloch of two others. The People Of The Wind, about the colony founded by David Falkayn, features a direct descendant of Falkayn, is set during the period of the early Terran Empire and even mentions the growing menace of the Merseian Roidhunate - an indirect consequence of earlier actions by Falkayn - so this novel is a perfect preparation for Volume IV, Young Flandry, where Dominic Flandry defends the Empire against the Roidhunate.

As the Earth Book teaches:

"...past and present and future have forever been intermingled and, in living minds, ever begetting each other..."

-Hloch, THE EARTH BOOK OF STORMGATE IN Poul Anderson, The Earth Book Of Stormgate (New York, 1978), pp. 1-2 AT p. 2.

Back In The Solar System

While Nicholas van Rijn's Solar Spice & Liquors Company sells cinnamon, ginger, pepper, cloves, tea, whisky, gin and wines to extra-solar colonials, what happens in the Solar System?

A move to space has solved energy problems on Earth.

Terrestrial cities become Integrates.

An extra-solar species colonizes Mars.

Adzel from Woden learns the Terrestrial science of planetology and several human languages and converts to Buddhism.

Some chauvinists organize a Festival of Man.

Sixteen-year old Jim Ching has a car that he can fly above the ocean. He also wants to fly with Betty Riefenstahl to Baja, then to:

"...a restaurant featuring outsystem food."

-"How To Be Ethnic...," p. 187.

Sounds OK. How much chance is there that our world will develop into something like that?

Future Historiography

The Earth Book Of Stormgate collects twelve works by Poul Anderson with new introductions based on the background of his novel, The People Of The Wind. Leaving the new introductions in place, make four changes to the Earth Book:

(i) remove the last five works from this volume;

(ii) add the previously uncollected "The Saturn Game" at the very beginning;

(iii) add the first two of the three David Falkayn stories from The Trouble Twisters in the middle;

(iv) add the first of the three Nicholas van Rijn stories from Trader To The Stars at the end.

You have now transformed the Earth Book into The Technic Civilization Saga, Volume I (of VII), The Van Rijn Method. The Earth Book, which need not be republished as such, was like a first draft of the first section of the Technic History.

Of the five remaining Earth Book installments, three are among the seven works collected in Volume II, David Falkayn: Star Trader, and two are among the six collected in Volume III, Rise Of The Terran Empire.

The mid-point of Volume III is a peak of future historiography because that is the moment when Hloch, compiler of the Earth Book, hands the baton to Donvar Ayeghen, President of the Galactic Archaeological Society. Ayeghen introduces "The Star Plunderer," (1952) another of the very early stories that was not originally part of a future history series.

All of this is a far cry from Jim Ching struggling with tensor calculus in the fifth story in Volume I. A future history presents individual perspectives as well as millennial narratives.

The Brotherhood

Apart from references to the Polesotechnic League, there is another small indication that, despite their very dissimilar settings, "Margin of Profit" and "How To Be Ethnic In One Easy Lesson," are set in the same universe. In "Margin...," Rafael Torres is a Lodgemaster in the Federated Brotherthood of Spacefarers. In "How To Be Ethnic...," Jim Ching reflects that the Brotherhood cannot be blamed for the stringency of the Academy entry requirements. It is simply that the number of applicants is so high. Later, Jim sees:

"...a spacehand identified by his Brotherhood badge..." -

- as well as:

"...a journeyman merchant of the Polesotechnic League who didn't bother with any identification except the skin weathered by strange suns, the go-to-hell independence in his face, which turned me sick with envy."

-Poul Anderson, "How To Be Ethnic In One Easy Lesson" IN Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, 2009), pp. 175-197 AT p. 184.

Jim will make it but many others will not. The series also addresses the dissatisfactions generated by the Polesotechnic League.

Margin Of Profit And How To Be Ethnic In One Easy Lesson

Maybe these two stories could be printed in parallel columns to convey the idea that their events occur at about the same time. While Nicholas van Rijn and Rafael Torres are in Djakarta or, shortly afterwards, in space, James Ching and Adzel are studying in San Francisco Integrate. Would we be able to read each story a paragraph at a time to generate the impression of simultaneous events? No, that is asking too much.

The completely different settings communicate the idea of a complex society with multiple individuals pursuing parallel careers that may or may not intersect later. Van Rijn and Adzel will meet, the others not, although we do not know that yet.

Adzel, introduced in previously published stories as a member of van Rijn's first trade pioneer crew led by David Falkayn, is here seen through the eyes of fellow student, James Ching, and at an earlier date. The future history gains substance with each newly added installment.

The Date Of A History

When is a future history written? Consider the publication dates of the opening installments of Poul Anderson's Technic History:

"The Saturn Game" (1981)

"Wings of Victory" (1972)

"The Problem of Pain" (1973)

"Margin of Profit" (1956; revised 1978)

"How To Be Ethnic In One Easy Lesson" (1974)

 

This section of the series was written in the 1970s and '80s although it incorporates a revision of a much earlier text.

Similarly, Dominic Flandry stories, the first two published in 1951, and originally unconnected with van Rijn, were revised at a later date that I have not as yet identified. The Technic History as such did not exist back in the 1950s.

Forever Lost

A textual resonance.

"The Midwest of his boyhood, before he went off to war in 1942, was like a dream, a world forever lost, already one with Troy and Carthage and the innocence of the Inuit. He had learned better than to return."

-Poul Anderson, The Shield of Time (New York, 1991), PART FOUR, 1990 A. D., p. 178.

 

"Any of these shocks that rolled and yawed the ship underfoot could prove too much for the grip of his boot-soles upon her. Pitched out beyond the hyperdrive fields and reverting to normal state, he would be forever lost in a microsecond as the craft flashed by at translight hyperspeed. Infinity was a long ways to fall."

-"Margin of Profit," p. 166.

 

OK. Completely different contexts. Everard's boyhood Midwest is lost in time whereas van Rijn would have been lost in space. However, time and space are Poul Anderson's two great battlegrounds. Merseians are fought in space. Exaltationists are fought in time. And Einstein tells us that time and space are aspects of space-time.

A Unique Sequence

 

When I stated here that the sixteen Polesotechnic League installments are preceded by two Ythrian short stories and succeeded by another two Ythrian short stories, between them forming a bloc of twenty of the forty-three Technic History installments, I neglected to add that eight of the PL installments were published in four volumes - two collections followed by two novels - , which I call the Polesotechnic League Tetralogy, whereas the remaining eight PL installments were collected in The Earth Book Of Stormgate where they are indeed preceded by the first two Ythrian short stories and succeeded by the other two. Since The People Of The Wind, a novel about human-Ythrian interactions, provides the background material for the new story introductions added in the Earth Book, these six volumes form a unique future historical sequence which would have become a trilogy if the Polesotechnic League Tetralogy had been republished as a single volume. Instead, Baen Books has collected the entire Technic History in chronological order of fictional events in the seven-volume The Technic Civilization Saga and has also preserved the Earth Book introductions which means that an introduction early in Volume I assumes knowledge of the events of The People Of The Wind although that novel does not appear until the end of Volume III.

When rereading the Technic History, my attention alternates between details in a particular story, currently "Margin of Profit," and reflections on the History as a whole, especially on its two very different but equally valid reading orders.

Firm Foundations For A Future History

The Opening Six Installments of Poul Anderson's Technic History

"The Saturn Game": interplanetary exploration; first mention of the Jerusalem Catholic Church;

"Wings of Victory": interstellar exploration/the Grand Survey; first contact with Ythri; first mentions of Hermes, Woden and Cynthia;

"The Problem of Pain": exploration of Avalon; Ythrian religion; first mention of Aeneas;

"How To Be Ethnic In One Easy Lesson": Adzel (from Woden); the Polesotechnic League; mentions of Ythri, Cynthia, Gorzun and Alfzar;

"Margin of Profit": van Rijn; problems in the League; Martians; Centaurians;

"The Three-Cornered Wheel": Falkayn (from Hermes); Ivanhoe

It is all there, almost.

Drama And Spontaneity

"Margin of Profit."

"Van Rijn made himself flush turkey red." (p. 162)

He made himself... This is a dramatic performance like so many other van Rijnisms. 

"Van Rijn's face lit up." (p. 163)

This is spontaneous. He is about to offer a business deal which he will not get now but will get later when the Borthudians have been put in their place and incorporated into Technic civilization.

When dealing with van Rijn, it would be helpful to be able to recognize frequent fakery and occasional reality. For example, when:

"Van Rijn avalanched upward to his own feet."

-Poul Anderson, "Esau" IN Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, 2009), pp. 517-553 AT p. 551 -

 

- this is an entirely spontaneous response. He wants to invest in Emil Dalmady and must hasten to prevent that aggrieved employee from walking out in disgust.

 

At the end of "Lodestar," all the acting is over when van Rijn accepts Falkayn's ultimatum.

The Fifth Man

Nicholas van Rijn is not one of the four men but is important:

the leading independent in the Polesotechnic League;

 

the employer and mentor of David Falkayn;

 

struggled to delay the decline of the League after its first civil war;

 

a legendary figure, with a planet named after him, in Flandry's time.

 

There is much more to each of these men than is listed here but perhaps these are the historically most memorable points.

 

When van Rijn is captain and Torres is mate in the Mercury, van Rijn spends some time in his cabin:

 

"'...in conference with Freelady Gherardini.'"

-"Margin of Profit," p. 160.

Torres wishes that he could run his commands in the same way and van Rijn replies that he can provided that he makes money and no trouble for SSL. So why do we think that Torres does not install a mistress in his next ship? Because most of us cannot combine work and pleasure to the extent that van Rijn regularly does. He is always drinking and, in "Lodestar," has to inform Captain Hirharouk that he can handle it and will be ready for action when necessary.

Apart from the fact that, while they are at work, van Rijn is the boss, in every other respect van Rijn and Torres are social equals. Van Rijn gives Torres a hard look when the latter acknowledges that he, van Rijn, does not lack guts... A humorous exchange that would be considered inappropriate if there were any idea of social inequality between the two men.

Four Men

The history of Technic civilization and its aftermath is complete in forty installments. The concluding three installments of the series show a later cycle of civilization that is not called "Technic" although it remains technologically based.

When it is obvious that the Solar Commonwealth and the Polesotechnic League will go under, David Falkayn founds a colony outside League space under Ythrian protection. When the Commonwealth has gone under, Manuel Argos founds the Terran Empire. When it is obvious that the Empire will go under, Dominic Flandry strengthens several planets so that they will survive and remain civilized during the Long Night. During that Long Night, Roan Tom builds alliances that become the Allied Planets. After that, human civilizations spread through several spiral arms of the galaxy.  

The Return Of Simmons

 

"Margin of Profit."

"Van Rijn smiled with infinite benevolence." (p. 156)

Of course he did. His colleagues were about to agree to a scheme that, hopefully, would profit him. With their deliberations completed:

"Beaming, he clapped his hands. 'Freemen,' he said, 'we have worked hard tonight and soon comes much harder work. By damn, I think we deserve a little celebration. Simmons, prepare an orgy." (ibid.)

So Simmons' skills extend beyond fetching Brazil nuts although how he is going to prepare an orgy to include a Martian and a Centaurian eludes me. Unfortunately - correct me if I am wrong - that is the last that we see of the admirable Simmons, one of the great supporting characters of fiction, like Mrs Hudson.

Cracking A Nut

Sean Brooks has drawn our attention to a particular passage.  Here it is in both versions. 

Having called for:

"'...a bowl of Brazils!'"

-Poul Anderson, "Margin of Profit" IN Anderson, Un-Man and other novellas (New York, 1962), pp. 103-129 AT p. 112 - 

"Van Rijn cracked a nut between his teeth and reached for a glass of brandy."

-ibid., p. 113.

 

"Van Rijn simply cracked a Brazil nut between his teeth, awing everybody present except for Gornas-Kiev, and reached for a snifter of brandy."

-"Margin of Profit," p. 150.

 

Like Poul Anderson's many Pathetic Fallacies, this passage is significant. "A hard nut to crack" is a metaphor for a difficult problem. Van Rijn's performance with the Brazil nut informs us both that he is physically tough and that he will solve the problem at hand. 

 

Regarding physical toughness, van Rijn proves more than once later in the series that there is muscle beneath the fat and that he can handle himself in combat. 

The Rest Of The Series

See The Structure Of A Series.

The remaining twenty-three installments of the Technic History are:

one set before first contact with Ythri

one about Manuel Argos, Terran Empire Founder

one about the early Empire

one about the Terran-Ythrian War

twelve about Dominic Flandry of the Empire

one about Flandry's daughter, with Flandry cameos

two others set during Flandry's lifetime

one set during the Long Night after the Empire

two set in the Allied Planets period

one set in the much later Commonalty period

Ideological Contamination

 

"Margin of Profit."

The Borthudians press-gang spacemen from Technic civilization because:

"'Pride, and a not unjustified fear of ideological contamination, prevents them from sending students to Technic planets, or hiring from among us: and they have only one understaffed astronautical academy of their own.'" (p. 151)

But travel, meeting students who have also traveled from other places and exposure to new ideas are all part of higher education. Universities are "universal," even more so an interstellar scale. Adzel studies planetology on Earth where he converts to Mahayana Buddhism. Ythrians travel to the University of Nova Roma on Aeneas. I am sure that Mormon missionaries learn more than they teach simply because they travel. A part-time checkout assistant in a Lancaster shop is a Lancaster University student from Liverpool.

The Structure Of A Series

A reminder of the subtle structure of the Polesotechnic League sub-series within Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization:

six works just about Nicholas van Rijn

two just about David Falkayn

one just about Adzel

two about van Rijn's trader team of Falkayn, Adzel and Chee Lan

three about van Rijn and the trader team

two others about the League

 

Two earlier references to the planet, Cynthia, had partly prepared the way for the arrival of the Cynthian, Chee Lan.

 

The sixteen PL installments are preceded by two short stories about Ythrians and succeeded by another two about Ythrians and these twenty installments are less than half the total number (forty-three) in the History.

 

I think that the Technic History has a uniquely pleasing structure.

Introducing Simmons

Is there a character called Simmons in Poul Anderson's Technic History?

Van Rijn:

"'Simmons, a bowl of Brazils!'"

-Poul Anderson, "Margin of Profit" IN Anderson, Un-Man and other novellas (New York, 1962), pp. 103-129 AT 112.

 

A spear carrier or, more accurately, a Brazils carrier.

 

"Reminded, he told the butler, 'Simmons, you gluefoot, a bowl of mixed-up nuts, chop-chop, only you don't chop them, understand?'"

-"Margin of Profit," p. 149.

 

Well, in the revised text, Simmons does not get any more air-space although van Rijn's speech to him does. Am I the first reader to give any thought to Simmons? This passage highlights the total stratification of society. While van Rijn and his guests work hard to address the Borthudian menace, Simmons' work is simply to butle to them. He need neither understand nor even hear their discussion but must ensure that:

 

"...drinks, snacks and smokes catered for the individuals present..." (p. 148)

- are on the table.

Two parallel streams of work, life and consciousness.

Two Themes Of The Technic History

"Margin of Profit."

"This tiny, outlying corner of the galaxy which Technic civilization has slightly explored is that big and various." (p. 149)

The largest Borthudian nation:

"'...had modernized technologically with extreme rapidity, aided by certain irresponsible elements in this civilization who helped it for high pay.'" (p. 150)

These are two recurring themes of the Technic History. For the first, see here. The second theme is expressed in the stories, "A Little Knowledge" and "Lodestar." The two sentences quoted above were added when "Margin of Profit" was revised.

Also, in the original text, when Mjambo suggests blasting Borthu, van Rijn replies that it would be too expensive whereas, in the revised texts, he replies that it would be morally unacceptable. He then gives the expensiveness objection when Firmage suggests limited action.

Earlier Stories

The story that introduces Adzel as a member of Nicholas van Rijn's first trade pioneer crew includes the following dialogue:

Adzel: "'And when I got a scholarship to study planetology on Earth, I earned extra money by singing Fafnir in the San Francisco Opera.'"

Chee Lan: "'Also by parading at Chinese New Year's...'"

-Poul Anderson, "The Trouble Twisters" IN Anderson, David Falkayn: Star Trader (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 77-208 AT II, p. 93.

 

Nine years after the publication of that story, Anderson brilliantly derived "How To Be Ethnic In One Easy Lesson" from it. Young Adzel is studying at the Clement Institute of Planetology in San Francisco and needs money...

 

In "Margin of Profit," which introduces van Rijn, that Master Merchant recounts the following anecdote from the days when he himself "'...was a rough and tumbler...'" (p. 143):

 

a petty native prince had conditioned a man to keep him as a technical expert;

van Rijn and his companions caught the man and took him home for treatment;

before leaving, they blew up the palace.

 

That anecdote also could have been expanded into a prequel story but we can't have everything.

Tea To Arkan III

"Margin of Profit."

Torres tells van Rijn:

"'Met him on Arkan III - on the fringe of the Kossaluth, autonomous planet, you recall. We'd put in with a consignment of tea.'" (p. 142)

Tea? Will it ever be economically viable to haul tea across interstellar distances? I know that that is the premise of this series but it takes some believing - or rather some willing suspending of disbelief. We know that, later in this future history, Terrestrial tea will spread through the Merseian Roidhunate but the Merseians will grow their own, not import from Terra.

SSL also exports cinnamon and London dry gin to Sector Antares where Jo-Boy Technical Services sends engineers and scientists. If supply is suspended, then the Antarean colonies might lose their taste for SSL products and might even start to train their own engineers and scientists. Well, they should certainly be doing the latter, in any case. Surely Jo-Boy realize that that particular business can only be temporary?

It sounds so cozy delivering tea as if they were merely crossing the Atlantic or the Pacific.

The Art Of Leadership

"Margin of Profit."

Both Torres and van Rijn display leadership skills:

Torres speaks for all locals in the Solar Commonwealth with solidarity from extra-solar lodges;

van Rijn will relay the Brotherhood's demands to his associates, apparently with little hope that all will respond;

although the siblings at large would have voted to avoid the Kossaluth of Borthu as soon as the press-ganging began, the Lodgemasters held back, hoping that something could be done, but now they must act;

instead of hiding behind a collective decision, Torres declares to the merchant prince that he himself has taken a lead in getting the Brotherhood to act;

Torres has met an impressed man so van Rijn asks what it was like - he needs information before he can continue the discussion;

with these two men cooperating, there might be a solution.

A Sour Reflection

"Margin of Profit."

Captain Rafael Torres, Lodgemaster, Federated Brotherhood of Spacefarers, reads the Polesotechnic League motto:

"All the traffic will bear." (p. 138)

- and reflects sourly:

"That could be taken two ways..." (ibid.)

Neither Torres nor Anderson spells out what the two ways are but readers should not need much explanation. We will ship and sell as many goods as we can? We will minimize pay and maximize hours as much as we can? A conflict of interests is built into the employer-employee relationship. Although van Rijn is the hero of this story, which became a series, my sympathies are entirely with Torres in this exchange. I would want to be represented by very tough negotiators if I were employed by van Rijn although I would also prefer SSL to some of the other companies in the League.

Two Fat Men

Imagine a very fat man enriched by interstellar trade in spice. Add the questionable sf premise of an interstellar civilization with faster than light space travel. Who do I mean? Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. And Nicholas van Rijn also, of course. Despite the similar descriptions, two fictional characters could not possibly be more different. It would be a very rabid anti-capitalist who insisted that van Rijn was as bad as Harkonnen or even that van Rijn was worse because he appeared to be benign.

In Harkonnen's case, the spice is necessary for the Spacing Guild Navigators' prescience and thus for interstellar travel. This spice has the role of oil in our current economy - and comes from a desert planet that launches a jihad. Poul Anderson has a desert planet nearly launching a jihad although later in his future history. 

The Dune films are preparing the world for a Technic History film series.

Falkayn Publication Chronology

Compare Van Rijn Publication Chronology.

1963 "The Three-Cornered Wheel"

1966 "A Sun Invisible"

1967 "Supernova"/"Day of Burning"

1968 Satan's World

1971 "Trader Team"/"The Trouble Twisters"

1973 "Lodestar"

1973 The People of the Wind (Falkayn reference; a descendant)

1973 "Wingless" (Falkayn reference; his grandson)

1977 Mirkheim

 

Observations

(i) Four of the nine items are van Rijn-Falkayn overlaps.

(ii) The Trouble Twisters collected "The Three-Cornered Wheel," "A Sun Invisible" and "The Trouble Twisters."

(iii) The Earth Book Of Stormgate collected "Day of Burning," Lodestar" and "Wingless."

(iv) The Earth Book derives its background from The People Of The Wind.  

Exciting Times

"Of course, a merchant prince did have to be wary of kidnappers and assassins, though van Rijn himself was said to be murderously fast with a handgun. Nevertheless, arming your receptionist was not a polite thing to do."

-Poul Anderson, "Margin of Profit" IN Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, 2009), pp. 135-173 AT p. 128.

 

On a later occasion, van Rijn's guests include:

 

"...a stranger to me, dark and lean, with a blaster that had seen considerable service at his hip."

-Poul Anderson, "The Master Key" IN Anderson, David Falkayn: Star Trader (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 273-327 AT p. 277.

 

All that sounds very exciting to read about but what would such a period be like to live in? Of course, most of the population would not be directly involved in the activities of the merchant princes. Van Rijn glares out with scorn:

 

"...across the city, where it winked and glittered beneath the stars, around the curve of the planet."

-"The Master Key," p. 327.

 

- the city where houses, apartments and restaurants will have Solar Spice & Liquors salt cellars on their dinner tables.

Technic History Highlights

"Margin of Profit" is proving to be fruitful for blogging purposes because of its position in the Nicholas van Rijn and Polesotechnic League series. Other such Technic History stories are:

"How To Be Ethnic In One Easy Lesson" for its glimpse of domestic life in San Francisco Integrate in the Solar Commonwealth;

"Lodestar" for its revelations of wrongs within the League and the generation gap between van Rijn and his granddaughter, Coya;

"Wingless" for its glimpse of David and Coya Falkayn's grandson, Nat, on the Hesperian Islands on Avalon;

"Rescue on Avalon" for its rare view of amicable negotiations between two rational species on the Coronan continent of Avalon;

"Starfog" for its vision of mankind spreading through several spiral arms and the discovery of a new source of unprecedented wealth in the further future.

What a series!

A Revised And Quoted Text

The trouble with physical books is that we need to have a copy to hand when we want to reread it or refer to it. This morning, I referred to Poul Anderson's David Falkayn: Star Trader when composing The Basis. Later, David Falkayn... seemed to have disappeared. In fact, it was on the shelf where it should have been but the title on the spine is so faded that I did not notice it.

I have: 

"Margin of Profit," unrevised, in Anderson's Un-Man and other novellas (New York, 1962) and, revised, in his The Earth Book Of Stormgate (New York, 1978) and The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, 2009);

"Territory" in Anderson's Trader To The Stars (St. Albans, 1975) and his David Falkayn: Star Trader (Riverdale, NY, 2010).

"Territory" quotes an explanatory passage from "Margin of Profit." In the unrevised "Margin...," that passage includes the sentence:

"Automation made manufacturing cheap, and the cost of energy nose-dived when the proton converter was invented."

-"Margin of Profit" IN Un-Man and other novellas, pp. 103-129 AT p. 110.

 

In the revised text, that sentence becomes two:

 

"Automation and the mineral wealth of the Solar System made the manufacture of most goods cheap. The cost of energy nosedived when small, clean, simple fusion units became available."

-"Margin of Profit" IN The Earth Book Of Stormgate, pp. 68-100 AT pp. 77.

 

Thus, fusion units replace proton converters. 

Of necessity, "Territory" in Trader To The Stars quotes the unrevised Margin... because that text had not been revised yet. However, "Territory" in David Falkayn... also quotes the unrevised version with proton converters instead of fusion units.

 

(And, if I am not a Poul Anderson scholar yet, then I am training to be one.)

Wealth And Potential Violence

"Margin of Profit" immediately sets the scene for a society where there are accumulations of great wealth that must sometimes be defended by force:

Freeman van Rijn can afford a human receptionist among his winking, talking machines, lucent plastic walls and jade columns;

she is both attractive and armed;

lobby guards check the credentials and retinal patterns of visitors and remove their firearms;

there is probably a personal fealty clause in the receptionist's contract;

over the intercom, van Rijn is heard to threaten an embargo and maybe a blockade against an emperor on a mere single planet;

after van Rijn's interview with the union representative comes the passage outlining the technological and economic bases of the Polesotechnic League;

next we are told that one of van Rijn's mansions is on Kilimanjaro, an easy place to defend, if necessary. 

Will this be necessary? Yes, although much later in this future history, Earth will be raided and sacked.

"Margin of Profit"

Although Dune has been adapted to screen three times, Paul Atreides has not become as household a name as, e.g., Luke Skywalker. If Poul Anderson's Technic History is ever filmed, then we can expect Nicholas van Rijn, "memorable and popular" (see here) among sf readers, to become memorable and popular with the general public.

We are focusing on the seminal role of "Margin of Profit," quoted although not included in the first van Rijn collection, Trader To The Stars. The story required revision before it could be included in any Technic History volume. Thus, until its revision, "Margin of Profit" was paradoxically apocryphal but also authoritative.

"Margin of Profit" is the fourth work collected in The Earth Book Of Stormgate where it is preceded by "Wings of Victory," "The Problem of Pain" and "How To Be Ethnic In One Easy Lesson." It is also the fourth work collected in The Van Rijn Method where it is preceded by "The Saturn Game," "Wings of Victory" and "The Problem of Pain..." and succeeded by "How To Be Ethnic..."

"Margin of Profit," featuring van Rijn, and "How To Be Ethnic...," featuring van Rijn's future employee, Adzel, are set in different places at about the same time so it does not matter in which order they are read. However, I think that it is better if "How to Be Ethnic..." comes first, thus slightly delaying the first appearance of the dominating figure of van Rijn. The first four stories, beginning with "The Saturn Game," provide a firm foundation for a future history series, similarly to the opening four stories in Robert Heinlein's The Man Who Sold The Moon. (In that seminal case, the very first story is set in 1951 and the first four stories precede even spaceflight.)

At the end of "How To Be Ethnic...," Adzel recommends James Ching to an unnamed Master Merchant of the Polesotechnic League. "Margin of Profit" explains the League and displays the wealth of a particular named Master Merchant.

Three Volumes?

"In Nick Van Rijn, Poul Anderson created one of the most memorable and popular characters in science fiction, and now, for the first time, all the novels and stories of Van Rijn and the Polesotechnic League will be published in chronological order in three volumes."

-back cover blurb on Poul Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, 2009).

 

Three? The Van Rijn Method is the first of the seven volumes of The Technic Civilization Saga, compiled by Hank Davis and published by Baen Books. However, it is correct to state that Volumes I-III collect the entire Polesotechnic League series as well as the encompassing The Earth Book Of Stormgate. Volumes IV-VII cover an entire later historical cycle of the Terran Empire and its aftermath. The link is that the founding and early period of the Terran Empire, occurring long after van Rijn's death, are described in the Saga, Volume III.

"To those who read, good flight.

"It is Hloch of the Stormgate Choth who writes, on the peak of Mount Anrovil in the Weathermother."

-Poul Anderson, INTRODUCTION WINGS OF VICTORY IN The Van Rijn Method, pp. 75-77 AT p. 75.

 

And I must add my good wishes to those of Hloch while going about other business in the Terran city of Lancaster.