Institutes And Names

"What Shall It Profit?"

"The wind whistled darkly around his cabin." (p. 78)

"...darkly..." is appropriate in the circumstances. Poul Anderson's winds always echo what is going on.

The Institute of Human Biology, conducting secret immortality experiments, is mentioned only in this single story. It had been concurrent with, and even affiliated with, the now banned Psychotechnic Institute. Biology and psychology have to be connected. It is biological systems that become conscious. Bodily states cause mental states that motivate action. Biology and psychology are not two parallel processes but one causal process. We need an Institute of Human Psychobiology.

The Biology Institute is directed by Marcus Lang. Names always carry connotations although not necessarily intended by the author. Mark is the Second Evangelist and "Lang" is one of the "L" surnames in Superman mythology along with "Lane," "Luthor," "Lemaris" and "Lerrol."

There is a clearly intended reference to a comic book character in Larry Niven's Known Space future history:

"We landed and met some of the racers. One of them, a thin guy with tangled, glossy green hair and a bony white face with a widely grinning scarlet mouth, offered me a ride. I declined with thanks, backing slowly away and wishing for a weapon. This joker was obviously dangerously insane."

-Larry Niven, "Flatlander" IN Niven, Neutron Star (New York, 1977), pp. 129-171 AT p. 143.

A certain vigilante needs to know that his main antagonist has gone multiversal.