Tuesday, 19 November 2024
Microjumps
Sunrise
Flandry flies an airboat up to an orbiting spaceship. Anyone can write such a sentence. However, Poul Anderson's account includes the following paragraph:
"Korych flamed over the edge of the world. That sunrise was gold and amethyst, beneath a million stars." (CHAPTER THIRTEEN, p. 137)
Any screen adaptation should show that sunrise. Such descriptions are not a necessary feature of hard sf but are always included in Anderson's prose in any genre. Readers focusing on narrative alone and anxious only for the next stage in Flandry's escape might read past Korych-rise as if it was not there but it should certainly be noticed on rereading.
I will shortly repair to the previously mentioned Gregson Institute for conversation with some sf and comic book readers so this is probably the last post for today.
Hunt well.
Dwyr
Imagine this on screen. Dwyr the Hook is a badly damaged, mortally wounded Merseian cyborg. He suddenly arrives as Hauksberg confronts Flandry and Persis.
They see:
seared, twisted metal;
a severed bleeding arm;
tight, gray skin on the remains of a face;
light coming and going in artificial eyes;
a rolling head.
They hear:
a toneless, wavering voice;
a rattling servomotor;
Eriau duodecimals coughed forth;
his name, Dwyr of Tanis, once the Merry;
wobbling words;
his wife's name, Sivilla, as he begs to be switched off.
Flandry does not notice:
oil;
scorched insulation.
Sudden horror, maybe discordant with the rest of the story - although the effects of combat should also be shown when appropriate.
Merseia Viewed From An Airboat
"...he saw the planet's curve through a broad viewport, the ocean gleaming westward, the megalopolitan maze giving way to fields and isolated castles." (CHAPTER ELEVEN, p. 109)
The megalopolis in question is the original capital, Ardaig, which surrounds the bay where the River Oiss enters the Wilwidh Ocean. The city has more recently grown east to the Hun foothills. We read descriptions of cities on bays also on Hermes and Avalon.
Ardaig might have been a city on any inhabited planet but one detail is more specific to Merseia. The isolated buildings out among the fields are not cottages, houses or even mansions but castles. On Merseia, feudal social relationships have survived into the industrial period. The southern continent had had a Republic of Lafdigu. (Also here.) However, the dominant Wilwidh culture is based around the feudal realms called Vachs. The castles remind us of this. No textual detail is wasted.
Languages
"Like almost every intelligent species, the Merseians had in their past evolved thousands of languages and cultures..." (CHAPTER ELEVEN, p. 104)
It would be interesting to learn about some of the few exceptions.
In a Doctor Who episode, someone had transported the Doctor to a planet which they identified only by a number. When the Doctor said that he preferred names, he was told: "Skaro." The planet of Daleks and Thals! But, of course, the answer should have been something like: "Its name, in the principal language of its dominant species through most of its history, was 'Skaro.'" Someone travelling through space and time needs to give any name some kind of context.
The passage in Ensign Flandry goes on to explain that the process of domination by one culture and unification of the planet has not gone as far on Merseia as on Terra. For some, Wilwidh laws and customs remain a mere overlay and their native languages come more easily than Eriau. Olaf Magnusson, who will enter the Technic History in a later volume, will be fluent in Eriau and two other Merseian languages. I would like to speak at least one other language fluently. We were taught French atrociously.
Auxiliaries
The opening page of CHAPTER ELEVEN imparts information that will be important later and is far from obvious. The Roidhunate offers to lend Abrams an airboat for use during his stay on Merseia. (It will be bugged and they would not want him to travel around unescorted.) Abrams says that he can borrow an auxiliary from Hauksberg's interstellar vessel, the Dronning Margrete. However, these auxiliaries have hyperdrive and Merseian law forbids non-Merseians to operate any vessel with that capability in the Korychan System. But the two largest auxiliaries each have an auxiliary with only gravitic, not hyperdrive, capacity. Abrams says that he could use one of those. However, the Roidhun would be disgraced if the Merseians did not show his guests full hospitality. Abrams accepts the hospitality - for his own reasons.
Later, Flandry will escape from the Korychan System in a hyperdive auxiliary and will use its auxiliary to ram a pursuing Merseian craft. If such auxiliaries of auxiliaries seem implausible, Poul Anderson has at least taken care to introduce then well in advance of their crucial role in the plot. The same remark applies to rogue planets, even more crucial but already introduced in CHAPTER THREE.
Arrival
In CHAPTER NINE, Hauksberg, Abrams, Flandry and Persis travel to Merseia. As if on cue, CHAPTER TEN begins by describing the Merseian co-capitals, traditional Ardaig and brawling Tridaig. So far, the three men have each been a viewpoint character so we might expect one of them to experience Ardaig for us. However, the narrative point of view shifts back to the Merseian, Brechdan, who had been the viewpoint character of CHAPTER THREE. At a welcoming reception in the Terran Embassy, Brechdan does not meet Persis because the Terrans observe the Merseian custom of not having females present on such occasions. Brechdan correctly judges that he must play close attention to both Hauksberg and Abrams but dismisses Abrams' alert young aide as "...very junior." (p. 94) Later, he thinks that Abrams is such an obvious spy that maybe he is a stalking horse for someone else. Not quite. But Flandry would have warranted more attention. Brechdan also does not suspect that the agent whom he afterwards interviews is a double working for Abrams. Alert readers should realize this.
Enjoying ENSIGN FLANDRY
It is chilling to read the point of view of a being, Brechdan Ironrede, for whom the subjugation or extermination of other intelligent species is everyday business.
Perhaps I have found the real understated turning point in Flandry's career:
"'You may be out of the matter anyway, Flandry,' Ridenour said. 'Your orders came through several hours ago.'
"'Orders?'
"'You report to Commander Abrams at Highport. An amphibian will pick you up at 0730 tomorrow, Terran clock. Special duty, I don't know what.'" (CHAPTER EIGHT, p. 79)
Special duty: Abrams' aide on a mission to Merseia. After this, Flandry will stay in Intelligence. And it is our old friend, Ridenour, who gets to tell him.
En route to Merseia, Hauksberg's ship passes close to an Ymirite vessel. This reminds us that there are:
"...hydrogen breathers whose civilization was nearly irrelevant to man or Merseian." (CHAPTER NINE, p. 82.
- and is a precursor of a later episode featuring Ymirites.
The in-flight conversations between Hauksberg and Abrams and between Flandry and Persis flow naturally and the descriptions of the Merseain co-capital cities, Ardaig and Tridaig, make them sound like real places.
My advice: reread Poul Anderson.
Monday, 18 November 2024
Juvenile Adventure
Ensign Flandry reads in part like a juvenile adventure novel. Flandry is nineteen. When the Seatrolls attack:
"He was too excited to be scared." (CHAPTER FOUR, p. 35)
When he is about to go underwater as a part of a team to open negotiations with the sea-dwellers, he tells Dragoika:
"'Wonderful adventure. I can't wait.'" (CHAPTER SEVEN, p. 68)
I remember thinking that combat, like maybe flying over London in the Battle of Britain, would be exciting. Of course, Flandry soon sees the effects of combat.
OK. Maybe that second experience would be an adventure for someone who does not mind being submerged. Dragoika knows only that, where Flandry is going, there will be no sun, moon or stars but only blackness, cold, enemies and horrors. Flandry soon learns what their environment is like to the sea-dwellers. The novel is partly an example of the sf travelogue sub-genre.
Wishful Thinking
Hauksberg inwardly addresses Fodaich (Commandant) Runei:
"...I'll assume you're honest, that you'd also like to see this affair wound up before matters get out of hand. I have to assume that. Otherwise I can only go home and help Terra prepare for interstellar war." (CHAPTER SEVEN, p. 65)
How to reason with someone like Hauksberg? It is possible that the Merseians are not honest, that what Hauksberg calls "matters getting out of hand" is precisely what they are aiming at, in which case to assume the opposite is disastrous. War might be imminent but his policy is to assume that it is not? Surely he has to be prepared for at least two possibilities? And one priority is to gather as much intelligence as possible which means cooperating with Max Abrams instead of regarding that Commander of Intelligence as one of the "...iron-spined militarists..." (p. 66) I would expect to have many disagreements with Abrams if I met him but I would also pay very close attention to his every word about the Merseians. Of course, Poul Anderson has set it up that, in the Flandry series, the Merseians of the Roidhunate are the bad guys, regarding diplomacy as war by other means - but, fortunately, he describes these greenskins/gatortails plausibly and also presents other alien species that are completely unlike the Merseians. If Abrams had been present during the colonization of Avalon, then he would have known better than to assume the worst about the Ythrians.
Dragoika's Place
Despite her status as captain, shareholder and speaker, Dragoika lives not in the High Housing of the wealthy but:
"...in the ancient East Housing, on Shiv alley itself." (CHAPTER SIX, p. 52)
- which is full of memories ("ghosts") and of:
"'...too much stuff to move.'" (ibid.)
Give a lot to charity shops if they have any on Starkad!
Her stuff is:
furs
carpets
furnishings
books
weapons
bronze vases and candelabra
glass goblets
seashell souvenirs
plunder from across Starkad
The High Housing dwellings are each surrounded by hectares of trained jungle. Not gardens or lawns but jungle. Imagine this, an alien world, and how it would look on screen.
Apology To John Ridenour
Flandry
Tachwyr
Persis
Max Abrams
Dragoika
- but forgot John Ridenour - but have now added him. My experience of summarizing interconnections in Poul Anderson's Technic History is that it is necessary to write several drafts in order to include every relevant detail. Fortunately, blogging allows us to revise what has already been written. Blog readers should also draw attention to omissions or errors.
Ridenour is important because he converses with Flandry, then becomes a viewpoint character in a later narrative set on another planet which in turn is referred back to in the post-Imperial period.
The Technic History excels in interconnectedness - as I keep saying.
Future Allies
Throughout history, former enemies have become allies. It happened with the Klingons in Star Trek and it could happen with the Merseians in Technic civilization. We have seen sympathetic Merseians on Dennitza in A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows. Let us take that thought one stage further. The morale of the Roidhunate cracks before the Empire falls. Flandry and Tachwyr re-meet as former adversaries but with no remaining conflict between them.
If Aycharaych did, after all, survive the bombardment of Chereion, then he certainly has no remaining reason to serve the Roidhunate. Quite the contrary. I imagine him and Axor examining Ancient ruins together.
Moons
Egrima and Buruz are the two moons of Starkad. Abrams sees them from Highport and Flandry sees them at sea. Seen from the Starkadian surface, Buruz is Luna-sized but Egrima is twice that. I have not noticed them before. (I have just checked the blog for any references.)
How many moons of fictional planets are there in the Technic History? How many moons have Merseia, Aeneas, Avalon, Dennitza etc? I am not going to look them up now but there is information to be found by searching this blog.
In Anderson's Psychotechnic History, the colonized terrestroid Atlantis is a moon of a gas giant called -? I posted it recently. (James Blish coined the term, "gas giant.")
I have to get back to work. This has been a pleasant lunch break.
The Wisdom Of Max Abrams
Abrams to Flandry:
"'Sure, the Empire is sick. But she's ours. She's all we've got. Son, the height of irresponsibility is to spread your love and loyalty so thin that you haven't got enough left for the few beings and the few institutions which rate it from you.'" (CHAPTER FIVE, p. 49)
Sick? Sick? Then something needs to be done about that. The military can reply, "That's not my department." And, indeed, I would not advocate a military take-over which would not cure sociopolitical sickness in any case. But the purpose of this series is to show us Flandry's adventures off Earth, not social problems on Earth. But that there is something wrong with the Empire is part of the backdrop of the series. Flandry staves off the Long Night which will nevertheless fall if not during his lifetime, then afterwards. The Technic History also covers the post-Imperial period.
Chunderban Desai analyzes the problems in A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows and this should point the way towards a network of decentralized interstellar realms which do not all rise or fall together.
On Starkad
Starkadian land- and sea-dwellers are natural enemies. Merseians back sea-dwellers so Terrans back land-dwellers. In Highport on Starkad, the Terrestrial envoy, Lord Hauksberg, and his concubine, Persis d'Io, entertain Naval staff, including Ensign Flandry, the young hero who has improved relations with local allies and captured a Seatroll.
When Commander Abrams says that Tigeries (land-dwellers) barbecue any Seatrolls that they capture, Persis chides Flandry who had said that he liked the Tigeries. Abrams replies:
"'Might be hard for a civilized being to understand, Donna,' Abrams drawled. 'We prefer nuclear weapons that can barbecue entire planets.'" (CHAPTER FIVE, p. 44)
Slow down there, Abrams. There is no moral equivalence between an individual who tortures a prisoner and an individual who is a citizen of a nuclear-armed state. So far, such states have avoided using nukes since they were tested in Japan although there is still much "conventional" destruction. Long-range missiles have just been authorized in a current war. Is World War III starting as I type? I must switch on the TV for news. There is continual interaction between futuristic fiction and current affairs.
Onward, hopefully.
Sunday, 17 November 2024
A Unique Synthesis
The Polesotechnic League Tetralogy climaxes and concludes with Mirkheim.
The People Of The Wind is a one-off novel set centuries later about human beings and Ythrians on Avalon.
The Earth Book Of Stormgate is a retrospective omnibus collection that tells us everything that we did not already know about the League, Ythri and Avalon. With each story, including one novel, introduced by an Avalonian Ythrian historian, this volume is a perfect synthesis of the future history so far.
Flandry In The Technic History
When Abrams thought that Flandry was probably dead, he could well have been. How many people did die that would have made a big difference if they had lived? Does even a hypothetical omniscient being know all the alternative possibilities? Or do these possibilities exist in any case? Such questions take us out of the Technic History but into other works by Poul Anderson.
Flandry
CHAPTER ONE is set on Terra and its viewpoint character is Lord Markus Hauksberg who knows nothing of Flandry.
CHAPTER TWO is set in Highport on Mount Narpa on Kursoviki Island on the planet Starkad and its viewpoint character is Commander Max Abrams, Terran Imperial Naval Intelligence Corps, who knows that Ensign Dominic Flandry is missing, probably dead. The rest of the chapter is about other matters.
CHAPTER THREE is set on a terrace of Castle Dhanghodan on Merseia and its viewpiint character is Brechdan Ironrede, the Hand of the Vach Ynvory, who knows nothing of Flandry.
CHAPTER FOUR, set back on Starkad begins by identifying its viewpoint character:
"Ensign Flandry, Imperial Naval Flight Corps, did not know whether he was alive through luck or management."
-Poul Anderson, Ensign Flandry IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, January 2010), pp. 1-192 AT p. 29.
So he is alive. Flandry has had a massive build-up: first, Volumes I-III of The Technic Civilization Saga; then, CHAPTERs ONE-THREE of this, his first novel. From now on, we are with Flandry, mostly, until the mid-point of Saga, Volume VII.
In MIRKHEIM
Baburites (outwitted by a van Rijn employee in "Esau") seize Mirkheim (discovered by Falkayn in "Lodestar") and occupy Hermes (Falkayn's home planet);
Merseians (helped by Falkayn, Adzel and Chee Lan in "Day of Burning") have become disaffected from the Polesotechnic League;
Ivanhoans (seen in "The Three-Cornered Wheel" and "The Season of Forgiveness") and members of many other races, including Wodenites (Adzel's species), Cynthians (Chee Lan's species) and human beings have joined the Supermetals company founded by Falkayn to mine Mirkheim;
a Mirkheim miner from Vixen bears the same surname as two Vixenite women who will appear later in the Technic History;
Grand Duchess Sandra's son by van Rijn has grown to adulthood and will be the next Grand Duke of Hermes;
David and Coya Falkayn's son is born and named "Nicholas" - his son, Nat, will have been born on Avalon in "Wingless."
Thus, Mirkheim combines as many plot threads as possible. The equivalent novel in Robert Heinlein's Future History is Methuselah's Children.
Longer And Shorter Future Histories
In Anderson's Technic History, the pace is more leisurely and almost imperceptible. In the first nine instalments:
(i) the Solar System is explored;
(ii) other planetary systems are explored and Ythri is discovered;
(iii) Avalon is explored;
(iv) Adzel is a student on Earth;
(v) Nicholas van Rijn is introduced;
(vi) David Falkayn is apprenticed to Martin Schuster on Ivanhoe;
(vii) Falkayn has become a journeyman in van Rijn's Solar Spice & Liquors company;
(viii) other Polesotechnic League merchants are active on Ivanhoe;
(ix) van Rijn meets the Grand Duchess of Falkayn's home planet, Hermes.
These characters and situations will come together and will take their time about it. Considerable additional information is imparted in these instalments, especially since six of them acquire new, fact-packed introductions when they are collected in The Earth Book Of Stormgate.
The decline of the League is also gradual. It has begun in "Lodestar" and "A Little Knowledge," both also collected in the Earth Book, and has become terminal in Mirkheim which ties together every previous narrative strand. Thereafter, there is a step by step transition to a very different interstellar order, involving the Terran Empire, the Domain of Ythri (including Avalon) and the Merseian Roidhunate, all of which brings us to Dominic Flandry - and the Technic History continues long after both Flandry and Empire.
A More Complex Future History Series
Saturday, 16 November 2024
Young Flandry
Flandry himself;
his Merseian opposite number, Tachwyr;
Persis d'Io whose son by Flandry will later serve the Merseians;
Max Abrams whose daughter, Miriam, mentioned here, will later marry Flandry;
John Ridenour who will be on Freehold in "Outpost of Empire."
Dragoika of Starkad who, with some of her people, will later be evacuated to Imhotep.
Each future history instalment builds on previous ones. Actions taken by Flandry in his third novel and later in his series will have consequences in the very last Technic History instalment set several millennia later.
Superheroes
HG Wells: a supervillain, the Invisible Man.
Larry Niven: Gil "the ARM" Hamilton; the protectors.
Julian May: Jack the Bodiless; Diamond Mask.
Poul Anderson: the UN-man; the Sensitive Man.
In addition, Anderson's Galactics, mentally generating an envelope of air and heat around themselves, fly not only through planetary atmospheres but also between stars faster than light. A few, but not many, superheroes can do this.
An Adventure
"...half a dozen children watched [Jorun] with large eyes. The younger Terrans were the only ones who seemed to find this removal an adventure." (p. 204)
Just so. In my childhood, when my younger sister was told that we would be moving house, she regarded it as an adventure, not as a cause for regret.
This could be the cue for a series of juvenile narratives about extra-terrestrial colonization: a well-established literary tradition. Earlier in the Psychotechnic History, eleven year old Wilson Pete joined his uncle and aunt on Nerthus during the early colonization of that extra-solar planet. Later, we saw the planet when it had been fully settled. In Poul Anderson's Technic History, David Falkayn's twelve year old grandson is involved in the early colonization of the Hesperian Islands on Avalon. Later, we see that planet when it has been fully settled.
Imagine colonizing a planet with non-human inhabitants. On Nerthus, there were non-humans because it was not known that there were natives when the first human colonists arrived. On Avalon, there are non-humans because human beings and Ythrians jointly colonized the planet. In "The Chapter Ends," the Galactics find an uninhabited Earthlike planet for the evacuated Terrans. Slightly less adventure, maybe.
Robert Heinlein's Scribner Juveniles feature extra-terrestrial colonization, e.g.: Red Planet; Farmer In The Sky; Time For The Stars. These three novels and two others, Space Cadet and The Rolling Stones, share a background with the first interplanetary period of Heinlein's Future History. (Of course, Time For The Stars diverges by presenting an alternative account of early interstellar travel.)
Sequels
The duplicate Dunhams work together and become differentiated while matter duplication disrupts the Stellar Union.
Sequels to "The Chapter Ends"
The people from Earth settle on their new planet.
Jorun wondered irrationally whether the girl in the statue in Solis Township would be lonely in her indefinite future on a deserted Earth. She need not be. Science advances. Hulduvians and human beings find ways to control cosmic energy that do not interfere with each other's ways. Hulduvians on Jupiter and Saturn invite human beings to return to Earth. A monument is built to Kormt in the Township. Happy ending in an indefinite future.
Anything else?
Coffee break post.
Assessing The Second Part Of The Psychotechnic History
In the second half of the Psychotechnic History:
"The Pirate" and The Peregrine make a good Trevelyan Micah two-parter;
they and "Gypsy" make a good Nomads-Coordinators trilogy;
Nerthus is a good unifying factor in six instalments;
"Symmetry" maybe leads in to the Third Dark Ages;
"The Chapter Ends" is a good conclusion;
other instalments add body to the future history.
It is all more than it seems.
A lunch break post.
Friday, 15 November 2024
Leaving
The last people living on Earth queue to enter spaceships that will take them away forever not only from their home planet but even from the Solar System and from the Galactic periphery where night skies are dark although scattered with stars.
Not exactly the same experience but, before Christmas, Sheila and I will leave a house where we have lived for forty five years, over half our lives to date. But we will move only a few streets and will be nearer to our daughter who, of course, grew up with us. Nevertheless, there will be a permanent departure from rooms with which we have been familiar for all this time. We hope that the new, smaller house will suffice for another twenty or more years. And I imagine the people from Earth on their new planet closer to the Galactic center. Potential sequels time again.
The End
"He entered the ship and the door closed behind him." (p. 213)
That is our last sight of a Galactic in the Psychotechnic History. There are just over two pages of text left in this story and in this future history series.
Jorun, who has just entered the spaceship, has been our consistent viewpoint character throughout the story. However, after a double space between paragraphs, the action remains on Earth. Consequently, the narrative point of view necessarily shifts to Jormt, the one person who has remained on Earth.
Jormt has more than enough frozen food for his remaining lifespan. He wants to keep busy by maintaining three farms but to what point? I would not have opted to remain but, if I had been somehow left behind, then I would want a library, places to walk and somewhere to meditate. That last is easy: bedroom, living room, somewhere outdoors - but there is also a steepled stone chapel.
Before the departure, there was mention of a priest and his God but we are not told what kind of monotheism has survived this far into the future. The Terrans call sea waves:
"...the horses of God." (p. 201)
(My wife's aunt says that she saw horses and riders in the waves.)
"Chapel" and "steeple" imply Christianity but could be just Terran words for a small place of worship.
A murmurous wind talks in the trees and another wind mumbles in the hedges but otherwise there is total silence. Jormt screams and runs in the dark when his self-imposed isolation hits him and that is an unfortunate conclusion to an interesting future history series.
In The End
"'...on the last day my gods will speak louder.'"
-Poul Anderson, "The Green Thumb" IN Anderson, The Complete Psychotechnic League, Volume 3 (Riverdale NY, July 2018), pp. 21-41 AT p. 28.
What last day?
Old Kormt says of Earth:
"'Man came from here; and to this, in the end, he must return.'"
-"The Chapter Ends," p. 196.
What end?
There is an "...in the end..." prophecy in "Star of the Sea" but my copy of Time Patrol is inaccessible at present and that is in a different context in any case.
Poul Anderson is echoing Biblical language. Joe and Kormt each think/believe/hope/project/whatever that their perspective will somehow prove more valid/durable/etc than any other but it is hard to see how this can have any concrete meaning except inside their own heads.
Earth and the Nerthusian gods are indeed aspects of the single reality.
Hulduvians And Other Issues
Human beings must evacuate the Galactic periphery because their way of controlling cosmic energy interferes with that of the Hulduvians who will colonize Jupiter, Saturn and other gas giant planets. But the Terrestrial peasants do not control cosmic energy so why should they have to evacuate? I suppose that there has to be a clean sweep. If any human beings were to remain in the periphery, then some of those at the Galactic center might try to re-contact them. Also, the Terrestrials' descendants might eventually develop technology, venture into space and start to manipulate the cosmic energy.
In Poul Anderson's Technic History, human beings and Ythrians peacefully settle different parts of the planet Avalon. In Anderson's Psychotechnic History, human beings and Hulduvians peacefully settle different parts of the Galaxy. Science fiction can point the way forward to inter-species cooperation and harmony. I need hardly add that sf can also export militarism and imperialism from the Solar System.
James Blish's pantropy series culminates with Adapted Men colonizing a changed Earth whereas Anderson's Psychotechnic History culminates with mankind leaving Earth. In both series, human beings have adapted to other environments but, in Anderson's series, they have retained the basic human form.
Anderson's Psychotecnic History occupies a unique position intermediate between Robert Heinlein's Future History and Anderson's Technic History. To my mind, the peak of American future historical writing is reached in The Earth Book Of Stormgate which is the culmination of the first main section of the Technic History.
Posts and responses to comments will become sparse because of house move preparations and, after that, there will be a gap in Internet access.
Descriptive Passages In "The Chapter Ends" II
Jorun and Zarek fly above ocean-like plains of wind-rippled grass darkened by herds of wild cattle with thunderous hoofbeats. (I am summarizing but Poul Anderson's description is better.) There are large old forests, gleaming rivers, fish leaping in lakes, radiant sunshine and swiftly moving cloud shadows.
When Jorun lands on a beach, white dunes run from salted grass to roaring, tumbling surf. Sunset is golden, wind is wet and a conch is intricately architectured. Jorun is unsure whether the evening star is Venus or Mercury.
In a house of Solis Township, a single long room with a low door and smoke around its rafters is kitchen, dining room and parlour with doors to bedrooms. There are:
skin rugs
oak wainscoting
carved pillars
glowing hammered copper ornaments
an ancient radium clock on a stone mantel above a fire
a hanging gun
a wooden table
Evening meal, all produced locally:
meat
vegetables
bread
beer
milk
ice cream
coffee
We appreciate all these details.
Psychophysical Training
"...remembered that, in psych training, you were warned against such thoughts.."
-Poul Anderson, "The Green Thumb" IN Anderson, The Complete Psychotechnic League, Volume 3 (Riverdale, NY, July 2018), pp. 21-41 AT p. 35.
Trevelyan Micah:
"...was aware that his own body quivered and went dry in the mouth. A remote part of him decided this was an unintegrate reaction and he needed more training. Speech and reasoning mind, though, were steel cool."
-Poul Anderson, "The Pirate" IN The Complete Psychotechnic League, Volume 3, pp. 137-165 AT p. 164.
Jorun:
"...could have willed the vague regret out of his trained nervous system, but he didn't want to."
-Poul Anderson, "The Chapter Ends" IN The Complete Psychotechnic League, Volume 3, pp. 195-215 AT p. 199.
Mere warning against particular kinds of thoughts would be inadequate but there is clearly more to this training than that.
This survival of psychotechnics into further future periods links these later stories back to the outlawed Psychotechnic Institute.
Causes Of Stellar Union Failure
Because of conflicts between Coordinators and settlers as shown in "The Pirate"? (See the combox here.)
Or because of a failure to incorporate the matter duplication technology discovered in "Symmetry"? (See the combox here.)
Or because of several factors?
I doubt whether Anderson had envisaged such far-reaching consequences of the discovery made in "Symmetry." However, this combox suggestion is an example of how the series could have been developed. Even if matter duplication remains impossible, any sufficiently advanced technology will require social adjustments and failure to make such adjustments could lead to destructive misuse of the technology.
Thursday, 14 November 2024
Descriptive Passages In "The Chapter Ends"
We might remember this story primarily for its claustrophobic ending but that would be a mistake. Old Kormt wants to remain one with the Earth but realizes too late that he has cut himself off from mankind when everyone but him has migrated to the Galactic centre. That is how the story ends but, before that, there is a great deal of description and reflection that bears rereading except that I will be going out to a meeting shortly.
We have to bypass The Peregrine because my copy is packed for moving but it has been discussed a lot before. See here.
Time And Empires
"Empires rose and fell among the stars."
-Sandra Miesel IN Poul Anderson, The Complete Psychotechnic League, Volume 3 (Riverdale, NY, July 2018), p. 194.
Why does Miesel write this? There has been no mention of empires thus far. However, several other species are interstellar travelers and they include raptor cultures. In any case, "The Chapter Ends" describes Sol City, the ruined former capital of the First Empire. How many Empires have there been? It seems that the original aims of the Psychotechnic Institute have been lost and forgotten as if they had never been - except that a team of psychotechnicians from the Galactic centre supervises the evacuation of Earth in "The Chapter Ends." Eventually, this science of mankind has been rediscovered and successfully applied.
"The Chapter Ends" excels in its descriptive passages which we will consider next.
"Symmetry" II
Dunham swears by Cosmos, has a base on Nerthus and knows of the Coordination Service so he definitely belongs in this future history series.
Cordies, Nomads and Nerthus are the three unifying factors in the second half of the History.
The two Wilson Pete stories are set on Nerthus. "Virgin Planet" and The Peregrine have scenes on Nerthus. "The Pirate" and "Symmetry" refer to Nerthus. "The Pirate" even refers to the Nerthusian natives who were discovered in the second Wilson Pete story.
Dunham is a problem-solver. His duplication generates a problem. After the frustration of each duplicate getting in the other's way, there is a moment of realization followed by the solution. Then the series jumps a long way into the further future with "The Chapter Ends."
Wednesday, 13 November 2024
"Symmetry"
I had thought that this story, although it has a fully consistent Psychotechnic History background, was incompatible with the rest of the series because it ends with its protagonist, Dunham, returning to civilization with a matter duplicator which would completely revolutionize society yet is not mentioned anywhere else in the series.
However, according to the Chronology, "Symmetry," the second last title in the list, is set in the 3100s and the Third Dark Ages, when a lot of technology could well have been lost, began in 3200. The only remaining instalment, "The Chapter Ends," is set tens of thousands of years later and there is an argument to the effect that it does not belong in the series in any case.
Thus, maybe Dunham died in an accident before returning to civilization or maybe his discovery did revolutionize part of the Galaxy for a while before the current civilization came to an end in any case.
I think that "Symmetry" can stay where it is in the Chronology.
The Young Generations
The final confrontation is spiritual rather than physical. Murdoch's companion, Faustina, rams a gun into Trevelyan's stomach and says that she will kill him but this is not a cue for an Andersonian action scene. Trevelyan would have had to disarm Faustina, then dodge several other weapons aimed at him, but this is unnecessary. Murdoch pulls the gun from Faustina and knocks her down. He realizes that he must concede to Trevelyan. Faustina, still on the ground, bruised and tearful, asks why the Coordination Service as represented by Trevelyan, must upset their plans. Trevelyan says that Good Luck must be not colonized but preserved for study because the dead race has a right to be known. She does not understand.
That leads back to the unseen narrator repeating, as he had said in the beginning, that the Service guards the Pact. Living, dead and unborn must be kept one in time. This is necessary for meaning and even for survival:
"...but the young generations so often do not understand." (p. 165)
This was said before but now we have seen Faustina.
The narrator states his point, the story makes the point and the narrator restates the point. End of. But the Psychotechnic History deserved more instalments like "The Pirate."
Three Whispering Breezes
Confrontation And Conclusion In "The Pirate"
- in the legendary city of Ys:
Pathetic Fallacy And Pagan Experience
- on the future Earth:
Ghosts, Gods, Time And The Milky Way
- and in many other times and places but these are the only three that I found when I searched the blog just now.
On Good Luck, Trevelyan asks a question and a breeze whispers while he awaits an answer. It emphasizes the fact that he does not receive an answer so that then he proceeds to the next stage of the confrontation:
"'Very well,' he said..." (p. 163)
The wind, or in this case the breeze, serves the roles of punctuation and of background accompaniment. Poul Anderson's prose would be almost silent without it.
Coordinators And Nomads
Possible Features Of Such A Potential Series
First, the sub-series need not have referred to any events prior to the Second Dark Ages. In fact, I now envisage two collections, the first to be entitled Psychotechnicians And Planetary Engineers, the second to be entitled Galactic Coordinators or maybe Coordinators And Nomads, with little connection between the two volumes except that psychodynamics do continue into the second volume and that psychotechnicians reappear at the very end in "The Chapter Ends."
Secondly, the sub-series would show Trevelyan's career before "The Pirate," including his two previous encounters with Murdoch Juan. Murdoch was making a fortune from fur and lumber on Vanaheim but disrupting an ecology and Trevelyan had to get local laws changed to stop him. Next, Murdoch as a mercenary used modern weapons against primitives who threatened no one: universally illegal.
Thirdly, the sub-series could show the careers of other Coordinators such as those in the Service base at Lir who were involved in the Storm Queen affair. (Two evocative names.)
Fourthly, the sub-series could show Trevelyan's career between "The Pirate" and The Peregrine and also his life after he had joined the Nomads.
In fact, there could also be a Nomads sub-series filling the considerable gap between "Gypsy" and The Peregrine.
This future history has unlimited potential.
Melancholy II
Of course, the most melancholy part of this story is the empty buildings of an intelligent species killed by supernova radiation and the use to which Murdoch proposes to put the planet: to sell it with its ready-made dwellings to human colonists. Respect for the past, for an extinct race and for human knowledge requires that the planet be quarantined for years while it is extensively studied. The Coordination Service stands in the path of crass commercialism.
Supernovae are big in Poul Anderson's future histories:
this race is killed;
the Merseians are saved by Polesotechnic League force fields;
another supernova covers Mirkheim with valuable supermetals.
Anderson tackled an idea from every angle.
Can time travelers "change the past"? Yes, no.
Is faster than light space travel possible? Yes, no.
Are there many other intelligent species in the galaxy? Yes, no.
Can artifacts become conscious? Yes, no.
Tuesday, 12 November 2024
Melancholy
The tone of this story is consistently reflective, contemplative and melancholy. The unnamed narrator regrets that:
"...the young generations, the folk of the star frontier, so often do not understand..." (p. 137)
- that:
"We guard the great pact..." (ibid.)
These young generations and frontier folk accept help from the Coordination Service but then regard it as the enemy when it gets in their way. The narrator will tell us a story that has been suppressed for a generation so that we can judge for ourselves. (Why suppressed?)
Coordinator Trevelyan Micah spends his furloughs on Earth because its quiet and intellectuality are refreshing. This fits with what I said about reflectiveness. He has been staying in a part of Europe where the medieval and ancient pasts are still evident and they seem, in the description, more dominant than the technological present.
His girl friend does not want him to leave immediately because:
"...our trumpeter blows too many Farewells each year." (p. 138)
He says that he would love to see her on his next leave but does not promise.
Trevelyan's prospective antagonist is Captain Murdoch Juan. An extraterrestrial headwaiter is reluctant to interrupt the Captain's privacy but, when Trevelyan shows his ID, the headwaiter remembers that the Coordination Service had forestalled a war on his home planet... A sad reminder but it gets Trevelyan past the waiter.
Murdoch greets Trevelyan with resigned recognition. Murdoch's woman companion, Faustina, is from the marginally habitable New Mars where she would have grown up in poverty. Murdoch would have rescued her from that but Trevelyan's interference will sabotage Murdoch's latest scheme.
Melancholy.
Consciousness
Is consciousness an energy field that interacts with a brain and that might continue to exist after body and brain have ceased to function? (Here, I am thinking more specifically of Midsummer Century by James Blish, of Immortality, Inc. by Robert Sheckley and of Riverworld by Philip Jose Farmer although the question is obviously more generally relevant. The Time Machine refers to immaterial mental existences.)
I do not think that such a field exists but, if it does, then it is not consciousness. Some objective processes somehow cause subjective processes. When an organism not only is (objectively) dangerously hot but also (subjectively) feels uncomfortably hot, then that organism has become conscious. Thus, consciousness is a property of an organism caused by processes within that organism which in turn are caused by that organism's interactions with its environment.
Empirically, the organic processes causing consciousness occur within a central nervous system and involve neurological interactions. Whether those neurological interactions in turn interact with an energy field is an empirical question but, if so, then this energy field is part of the causation of the property of consciousness. It is not simply identical with consciousness. Empirically, neurons are necessary for memory so would the hypothetical field retain memories after separation from a brain?
Tachyons
"...the tachyon mode..."
-Poul Anderson, "The Pirate" IN Anderson, The Complete Psychotechnic League, Volume 3 (Riverdale, NY, July 2018), pp. 137-165.
In that mode, a spaceship can be tracked only by:
"...a weak emission of superlight particles..." (ibid.)
Thus, retroactively, all previously published references to the hyperdrive in Anderson's Psychotechnic History were to this "tachyon mode."
How does it work? Transforming all the particles in a spaceship into tachyons would make the whole ship move faster than light, if not also backwards in time, but would also make it undetectable.
"The Pirate" is in one way the summit of the Psychotechnic History since it was the last instalment to be published and spells out the ethos of the Coordination Service.
Now I am bound for the two-storey apartment above the Old Pier Bookshop, the view of Morecambe Bay, pizza, superhero videos and an analysis of world affairs. I will think about sf as well.
Monday, 11 November 2024
Not Successive Periods But Coexistent Planets
proto-Nomads on Harbor;
a few human beings among the natives on Khazak;
Wilson Pete and his relatives on Nerthus;
a Coordinator on Nerthus and the women on Atlantis;
Weber among the natives somewhere else.
"The Pirate," written over a decade later and much more sophisticated, starts on Earth of that period and then shows us a Coordinator on a mission to a depopulated planet. We will reread "The Pirate" but not immediately.
The characters show us that they are in the same history mainly when they swear by Cosmos and place their surnames before their personal names! There are a few other connectors like Nerthus, the Coordination Service and references to the Galaxy as a whole. The series could have been continued indefinitely merely by adding more planets.
Symbolism
Weber approaches, but does not quite reach, an understanding of what is about to happen:
"Hadn't that xenologist once said something about the death and resurrection of the fertility god in may primitive cultures throughout the Galaxy? Symbol of the grain, buried and rising anew, of old generations dying and new generations springing from their loins, of summer which dies and is buried under winter and rises again in spring....So I am to be resurrected today, eh? Cosmos, I need it - ouch, my head -" (p. 133)
Poul Anderson spells it out as far as he can without giving away the ending. Weber must be physically killed before he can be symbolically resurrected. (In another culture, it is necessary to die before being canonized.)
Let us keep mythologies about dying and rising gods without either human sacrifice or the celebration of an historical impalement.
Primitives
Approaching the new planet in his impeller-propelled spacesuit, Weber heads north because:
"...the subarctic regions would be most comfortable for a human." (p. 116)
Again scientific observation.
He reflects that differences of climate, ecology, physiology and bodily appearance and also cultural divergences even within a single species make primitives unpredictable. That reference to divergent cultures generalizes from the single instance of humanity. There is some sf in which other species find human diversity perplexing.
Despite all this, Weber reflects that:
"...one very general rule about primitives is that they don't worry about consistency and a god who doesn't know the language is not a contradiction." (p. 119)
I think that primitives who have that much in common will have a lot more in common as well.
In this particular species:
males swagger and fight;
villagers browbeat peasants;
children abuse animals;
there is general cheerfulness.
Maybe they are a bit like ERB's green Martians who laugh at blood-shedding.
Weber:
"...had had mind training..." (p. 120)
Another remote hint at the application of psychodynamic science.
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