Ahriman, Loki and Lucifer have each had a planet named after them. We see the planet Lucifer in "The Problem of Pain." As a rogue planet falls around Beta Crucis, its environment becomes turbulent and lethal, full of fire and ice. David Falkayn names it "Satan." Chee Lan comments that mythological antigods can bestow wealth but that it is unwise to bargain with them. The Satanic environment will indeed become a source of vast industrial wealth but will it also wreak disproportionate harm? Falkayn responds:
"'We'll see.'" (p. 458)
Both Chee Lan and Falkayn seem to accept that mythological discourse can apply to a newly discovered material environment. The insights expressed in the myth might still be valid.
16 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Lucifer and Satan, I recall those planets. But I don't recall any Technic stories mentioning planets named Ahriman and Loki.
What puzzles me is why even some who say they believe in God find it so hard to accept the existence of lesser, created supernatural beings like the angels, fallen or unfallen.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Christianity succeeded and survived because it was adaptable. Starting from a pure monotheism, it incorporated an Adversary of God, a Mother of God, a Son of God and multiple supernatural beings. Various aspects could be jettisoned at later historical stages.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
No, it was the other way about. All the things you listed are matters of divine revelation. Not mere discardable accretions.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
We must believe in God before we can believe that any experience is a divine revelation. You try to state as a premise a proposition that must first be proved.
Paul.
I think it might be best to agree to disagree on this. Politics and religion are rarely productive topics, and they're not all that relevant to Poul's work.
I do think that they are relevant. PA probed both political and religious issues which, of course, his characters and readers continue to disagree about.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I fear I have to disagree with you. PA examined several religions and many religious ideas in his works. Esp. Judaism, Christianity, and Buddhism. Many of his stories have religion as major topics, such as "The House of Sorrows," "A Chapter of Revelation," THE DAY OF THEIR RETURN, "The Season of Forgiveness," THREE HEARTS AND THREE LIONS, OPERATION CHAOS, etc. Really, too many to list!
For a man who called himself an agnostic Anderson was very interested in religion. He also believed, in IS THERE LIFE ON OTHER WORLDS? that Catholicism was a major factor in the rise of a true science on Earth.
So I believe Anderson's treatment of religion are germane here.
Ad astra! Sean
I agree. PA's fiction seriously addresses theology, mysticism, myth, politics, economics, history, cosmology, cosmogony, galactography, exobiology, Shakespeare, the Bible, personal relationships - everything important IMO! The combox can cover everything although there are times when I don't say something because it has been said before. Sometimes repetition is helpful. Other times, it becomes tedious.
Getting back to Anderson's work under discussion, it's interesting to compare his sketch of human civilization in Satan's World with that in The Pirate, which both revolve around potential economic impacts in the aftermath of a major stellar event (Supernova is a third); the "all the market will bear" capitalist protagonists of the two Falkayn/Van Rijn-centered stories are the mirrored by the grave-robbing antagonist in the third, whose "guardian" protagonist is hardly represented among the human characters in the first two.
Wonder if Anderson was getting tired of Campbellian libertarian protagonists, or just wanted to see if he could still write a protagonist who (tried) to live by a code beyond (for the most part) simply profiteering.
Three supernovas and how they affect living beings!
Kaor, Anonymous!
Actually no, it was the other way about. Anderson began his writing career as a "flaming liberal," and that shows in his early Psychotechnic stories. But by the late 1950's he had become disillusioned with leftism and increasingly dissatisfied with the Psychotechnic series. He was becoming more libertarian, moderated by conservative skepticism of all one size fits all theories.
Ad astra! Sean
The Pirate was published in 1968, postdating most of the Falkayn/Van Rijn-centered stories, and the foundation to the story is that unbridled capitalism will destroy the irreplaceable.
Of course, it was also published the same year Anderson signed the pro-war ad in Galaxy, so perhaps it was all simply marketing.
Anderson was not Haldeman, obviously.
Kaor, Anonymous!
Again, I disagree. First, Anderson explicitly wrote in an Afterword to THE PSCHOTECHNIC LEAGUE (Pyramid/Tor, June 1981) of why he abandoned that series. Second, "The Pirate" was the very last Psychotechnic story to be written, composed merely to fill out a few last notions he had.
Anderson was right to support the war against the Communist N Vietnamese aggressors. The killing fields, boat people, and "reeducation camps" tells us what happens when Marxists grab power!
Ad astra! Sean
Unlike Haldeman, Anderson, of course, wasn't at much risk in 1968. "Fortunate Son," and all that ...
Kaor, Dave!
Read Solzhenitsyn's THE GULAG ARCHIPELAGO to see what you get from Marxism.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
That is not the only kind of "Marxism" but we have been through this before.
Paul.
Post a Comment