Flandry, prisoner, is allowed to watch the approach to and landing on Talwin from the bridge of a Merseian destroyer whose crew are large, green, hairless, spined, tailed, black-uniformed, wearing war knives, practised in ancient rituals and deferences, with austere, abstract personal tastes, sharp, dry body odours and dark, whiteless eyes. A less well trained and prepared human being could feel isolated and threatened. However, Flandry, who has been on Merseia, speaks fluent Eriau and knows the salute of gratitude.
This and subsequent scenes on Talwin remind us that the Technic History is a future history of Merseians as well as of human beings. This point becomes more explicit in The Game of Empire where, without any human involvement, a Merseian crew attacks Gorrazan while, back on Merseia, Tachwyr the Dark confers and deliberates. We know that human beings will have to cope with the Fall of the Terran Empire and that Merseians of the Roidhunate will have to cope with their failure to achieve:
"'...the highest end of all - absolute freedom for our race, to make of the galaxy what they will.'"
-Poul Anderson, Ensign Flandry IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, January 2010), pp. 1-192 AT CHAPTER THREE, p. 27.
Three histories, human, Ythrian and Merseian, proceed in parallel.
14 comments:
From my reading of Meresian religion, they'd probably think the God was testing them for a good long time.
They would but they would also become demoralized eventually when their power waned irretrievably.
A small sect of British Imperialists thought that the British were the 10 Lost Tribes of Israel, that Victoria was in a direct line of succession from David and that the British Empire was the fulfilment of God's promise to Abraham that his descendants would be a great people. They expected that the Empire would last forever. I don't know what they think now.
Ah, remember the Puritain magnate who holds Rupert prisoner in A MIDSUMMER TEMPEST? He was a British Israelite, IIRC.
NB; the British Israelites long predate the rise of the British Empire, so I doubt they'll vanish with it. Eg., they could just say that the 'overseas Britains' like Canada, the US and Australia have inherited the mantle.
Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!
Paul: And your quoting of Brechdan Ironrede reminded me of how Stirling's Draka also had similar ambitions!
Mr. Stirling: You beat me to citing A MIDSUMMER TEMPEST! And something as eccentric as British Israelitism bemuses me.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: the English reputation for eccentricity has a lot of backup. The phrase "Bunny-ears lawyer" comes to mind -- the old joke about a lawyer who insists on wearing bunny ears in the courtroom, but everybody ignores it because he's a very -good- lawyer.
Gladstone was an example -- he was obsessed with chopping down trees (big oaks, by preference) and 'rescuing' the 'fallen women' he came across.
I've always liked Disraeli's comment on Gladstone -- that it wasn't his having an ace up his sleeve he minded, it was his pious insistence when it was discovered that God had put it there.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Ha! Very amusing, what you said about the bunny ears lawyer and Gladstone. And I agree with Disraeli's assessment of how irritating Gladstone could be.
A passion for tree chopping was not limited to the English! During the decades of his exile in the Netherlands, Wilhelm II of Germany sought exercise by chopping down thousands of trees.
Ad astra! Sean
I've always thought that a rather odd hobby. I've cut down trees -- I once spent and entire mildly dangerous and very tedious day taking down a large dead elm -- but I did it to clear land and/or produce firewood.
Doing it for fun would be equivalent, IMHO, to digging ditches for fun. (I've dug ditches too.)
I do an hour and a half of exercise six days in seven, and -- like Dominic Flandry -- detest every minute of it. It's necessary, that's all.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree, tree chopping was a peculiar hobby for Gladstone and Wilhelm II to take up
I did wonder if tree chopping was Wilhelm's way of trying to exercise and strengthen his crippled arm.
I exercise everyday, esp. as part of my efforts to regain strength lost due to cervical myelopathy and the surgery to correct that. A necessity, not for fun. So I agree with you and Dominic Flandry!
Ad astra! Sean
Where possible I make my exercise something enjoyable like biking hiking or X-C skiing.
I listen to podcasts while doing other sorts of exercise.
Kaor, Jim!
Apologies, but the idea of exercising for fun in a frigid Canadian winter makes me go "ugh"!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: me too.
I use earbuds and listen to audiobooks and music during my 1-hour daily walk. That helps with the tedium but doesn't abolish it.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Walks, at least, I don't find tedious. Esp. since I'm very concerned to avoid falls!
Ad astra! Sean
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