Saturday 15 June 2024

Life In The Technic History

Imagining living in Poul Anderson's Technic History, I envisage myself neither as a League merchant nor as an Imperial Intelligence officer but as living a quieter life in one of the many exotic locations:

Earth in the Solar Commonwealth;
Starfall on Hermes;
the Kazan, the Obala or Zorkagrad on Dennitza;
anywhere on Avalon;
Olga's Landing on Imhotep;
beside the Highroad River on Daedalus.

Also visiting Ythri, Merseia etc. 

If living in the appropriate era, I might work as a researcher for van Rijn or for the Terran government. If working for van Rijn, I would seek election as a union steward and might have some interesting interactions with our employer. 

St. Thomas's Church in Lancaster always holds General Election hustings where the Parliamentary candidates answer questions. That and other important events are scheduled for this week.

Onward to the future.

8 comments:

S.M. Stirling said...

I'd be a novelist...8-)

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!

Paul: Old Nick could tolerate unions as long as they were simply "honest greedy," an attitude I agree with.

I agree either the Polesotechnic League era down thru van Rijn's lifetime or the Empire down to the end of Georgios' reign would be good periods to live in.

Mr. Stirling: Maybe you would have written OUTLAW BLASTMAN or PLANET OF SIN, pop novels mentioned in Chapter 15 of ENSIGN FLANDRY! (Laughs)

And we see mention of a science fiction convention meeting on Luna in SATAN'S WORLD.

More seriously what would fiction literature be like in a society with FTL? And what would science fiction and fantasy be like, in such a setting? The apparently fictional "Sargasso of Lost Starships," set in the Early Empire, might be an example of SF/F literature in an era where FTL was used.

Ad astra! Sean

Jim Baerg said...

"fiction literature be like in a society with FTL?"
Stirling hinted at something similar in his "Lords of Creation" series, with the mention of popular fiction about the astronauts living on Venus and Mars.
IIRC Stirling mentioned in a comment on this blog that he put that in because he knew about fiction written about actual frontiersmen while they were still active there in the mid to late 1800s.

S.M. Stirling said...

Jim: Kit Carson once failed to rescue a woman who had a novelette about Kit Carson's exploits on her body. He was asked if any of the books about him had any truth, and he said "now and then, but just by accident".

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Jim and Mr. Stirling!

Jim: A good example, one I agree with. That was a nice touch by Stirling, in THE SKY PEOPLE. i hope we live to see the beginnings of a similar literature if Elon Musk founds his colony on Mars.

Mr. Stirling: What Carson said was amusing: "...now and then, but just by accident"!

Ad astra! Sean

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I like the idea of visiting Olga's Landing on Imhotep. But would we be still tough enough to adapt to a gravity 30% heavier than that of Terra's? I have my doubts that I could!

Ad astra! Sean

Jim Baerg said...

I can walk around with a backpack holding 20+ % of my bodyweight, but it definitely slows me down. If I had been doing that continuously from a young age, it might not be a problem.
It might be best to spend a few months at 1.1 gee, then a few months at 1.2 gee, before trying to live at 1.3 gee.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Jim!

Exactly! Plus Anderson mentions how fit and young Imperial military personnel did adapt to Imhotep's heavier gravity.

I did think of that, how people going to Imhotep should gradually adapt to its higher gravity before landing there.

Ad astra! Sean