William Morris
utopian fiction
retellings of Norse myths
socialist politics
art & design
Ernst Mach
physics: a precursor of Einstein
philosophy: a Russian revolutionary wrote a refutation of Machism
Both crop up in Poul Anderson:
Morris is quoted at the beginning of "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth," that title being a line from the quoted passage;
Mach provides a rationale for FTL.
It is good when everything comes together.
7 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
About all I can think of here is how Stirling described the Earth descended hominids of the Mars of IN THE COURTS OF THE CRIMSON KINGS as being also logical positivists.
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Paul!
It was also amusing how Stirling said the logical positivist cast of mind made cussing unsatisfactory and frustrating for Earthlings speaking Martian Demotic!
Ad astra! Sean
Humans can -learn- logical positivism, but by instinctive inclination we're animists.
Note that the two pirate vessels in CRIMSON KINGS are named (by their crews) "Robbery With Armed Violence" and "Insensately Vicious Plunderer".
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
True, re logical positivism. Not sure about "animists," tho. "Intensely emotional"?
I rather like those candid names the Martian pirates chose! Earth pirates were seldom so honest about the names of their ships.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: humans are animists in the sense that they tend to project an "anima" -- spirit, intentionality -- on everything around them, whether it's true or not.
You can learn to counteract this tendency but it doesn't go away.
One of the good things about monotheism is that it "de-animated" nature by concentrating spirit in one and only one source.
This made a rational approach to nature more possible.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
That clarifies what you meant. And I agree it was good and necessary to "de-animate" nature.
Ad astra! Sean
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