In political conflicts, each side blames the other. Van Rijn says that companies and governments become more brutish because youngsters become more prudish. Coya says the reverse. This is an authentic disagreement about a plausible social development. We live with present disagreements and see them reflected in Poul Anderson's fiction, in fact far more so in the Solar Commonwealth period of his Technic History than in its later Terran Empire period. Anderson focused as much as possible into the dialogue and inner reflections of van Rijn and Coya in this short story but later elaborated in greater detail and at much greater length in the full length novel, Mirkheim, where we learn who the monopolists are and why the Pax Mercatoria is breaking down. "Lodestar" would have been incomplete without Mirkheim. Both titles refer to the same fictional planet.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Stirling did suggest that the decline of the League was too rushed in MIRKHEIM. I in turn suggested that setting that story 25 years later would resolve that difficulty. True, even with antisenescence, a Nicholas van Rijn aged 105 might have been too old to be as active as we see him in MIRKHEIM. Unless a David Falkayn aged 75 had taken Old Nick's role?
Happy New Year! Sean
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