Anderson And Larsson

As readers, we make our own connections between authors and can be as idiosyncratic as we like. I reread Poul Anderson and Stieg Larsson. There is a Scandinavian connection although obviously that is not why I read them both. If the Time Patrol is involved in the clandestine intelligence organizations investigated by Mikael Blomkvist, then it keeps out of sight but that is as it should be. (I do not suggest that Larsson knew of the Time Patrol. I am exercising my own imagination here.)

The penetration of sf ideas into the popular consciousness is demonstrated in the following passage:

"The key to the mystery was what it was that Harriet had seen in Hedestad. He would never find that out unless he could invent a time machine and stand behind her, looking over her shoulder."

-Stieg Larsson, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (London, 2008), p. 277.

We owe not only the idea but even the phrase, "time machine," to Wells who has many successors but principally, in my opinion, Anderson with his Time Patrol timecycles.

Blomkvist is scrutinizing a photograph of Harriet frowning at something. If he stood behind her, looking over her shoulder, then he would appear in the photograph! But he does see something else there that furthers his investigation - almost as good as a time traveler. Read Larsson.

There is more on this but I am being rushed here.

Laters.

The Captain Flandry Series

Poul Anderson's Captain Flandry series, eight instalments in three volumes, divides into four pairs; in each case, the second instalment referring back to the first. The series starts with pulp space opera short stories sharing the colourful backdrop of interstellar inter-imperial conflict and ends with a substantial novel about the process of imperial decline. Colour is provided literally by green Merseians, blue Betelgeuseans and a golden Chereionite while historical analysis is provided later by a scholarly Ramanujan (human).

Earth has a colony called Vixen which later has a colony called New Vixen. Germany has an extra-solar colony called Germania which later has a colony called Nova Germania or Germany has an extra-solar colony called Nova Germania whose name is later abbreviated to "Germania." I think that the latter is correct. Nova Germania is mentioned in one David Falkayn story where the inhabitants of the planet are called "Germanians," not "Nova Germanians." The only subsequent references are to "Germania." The planet is a scene of conflict during the Polesotechnic League civil war and is important later as the home planet of Hans Molitor who is the Imperial usurper in the culminating Captain Flandry novel. Unfortunately, we do not see anything of Gemania during Molitor's lifetime.

Human Forms

"Starfog."

"...the Kirkasanters...didn't resemble any of the human breeds that had developed locally, but they varied less from the norm than some." (p. 724)

How much can the human form vary? Many years ago, in an sf-superheroes comic book, one panel showed what looked like aliens, bipeds with oddly shaped heads and unusual skin colours. However, a caption explained that these were not products of independent evolutions but descendants of human colonists of extra-solar planets. Larry Niven's Jinxians are very short, squat and black because of the conditions on the planet colonized by their Terrestrial ancestors.

Olaf Stapledon's later human species and James Blish's pantropists go further by artificially adapting human beings to other planets although the pantropists recognize that a completely changed form would no longer be human. Cockroaches think like cockroaches.

Against all this, the Kirkasanters are recognizably human with a few unfamiliar features like broad faces and red skins but they can no longer interbreed with the mainstream of humanity which makes them a different species.

One Ship In The Ultimate Sequel

After The Earth Book Of Stormgate - or after The Technic Civilization Saga, Volume III, Rise Of The Terran Empire, depending on reading order - , Poul Anderson's Technic History consists of:

the Young Flandry Trilogy and its two sequels;

the Captain Flandry series;

two Admiral Flandry novels and their four sequels -

- all of which can be further summarized as "Flandry and sequels."

Flandry expels Aenean rebels in the Trilogy and defends the planet Vixen when a captain. A New Vixenite helps descendants of the rebels in the final sequel. Rightly is The Technic Civilization Saga, Volume VII, entitled Flandry's Legacy.

So much time has elapsed that the Kirkasanters, whom we take to be the descendants of the expelled rebels, have only legends and fragmentary records which do not name either Aeneas or the Terran Empire, let alone Dominic Flandry or Hugh McCormac, but this is as it should be after several millennia. 

From somewhere, I had got hold of the idea that maybe a fleet had fled from Aeneas and that only one of its ships had colonized Kirkasant. However, the text of "Starfog" is explicit about only a single ship:

"'Legends, found in many forms across all Kirkasant, tell of battle, and a shipful of people who fled far until at last they found haven.'"

-Poul Anderson, "Starfog" IN Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, June 2012), pp. 709-794 AT p. 727.

Hans Molitor, Boy, Youth, Man, Hero, Leader

Poul Anderson, A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows IN Anderson, Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight Of Terra (Riverdale, NY, March 2012), pp. 339-606.

Hans Molitor is:

(i) "...a boy who deserted a strait-laced colonial bourgeoise home for several years of wild adventure in space..." (III, p. 379);

(ii) "...the youth who enlisted in the Navy..." (ibid.);

(iii) "...the man who rose through the ranks without connections or flexibility to ease his way..." (ibid.);

(iv) "...the hero of Syrax, where the fleet he led flung back the Merseians and enforced a negotiated end to a short undeclared war which had bidden fair to grow..." (ibid.);

(v) "...the leader who let his personnel proclaim him Emperor - himself reluctantly, less from vainglory than a sense of workmanship, when the legitimate order of succession had dissolved in chaos and every rival claimant was a potential disaster." (pp. 380).

(We have read of Syrax before: another future historical reference.)

Thus, a potential series character. The course of Molitor's career intersects with that of Dominic Flandry. The latter worked with Hans' son, Dietrich, a few times during the fighting and, by the time of A Knight..., Flandry might be the only person left with whom Hans can talk freely. The Technic History narrative has passed over so much. We want a Hans Molitor collection and a novel about the Terran civil war. At least.

Five SF Themes

This is something alluded to recently and discussed in more detail much earlier.

HG Wells presents time travel, space travel, alien invasion and future history in four separate volumes.

Olaf Stapledon presents these four themes in a single volume which is linked to three other works including a cosmic history!

CS Lewis' Ransom Trilogy and unfinished Ransom novel systematically reply to Wells and Stapledon in terms of these four themes.

Robert Heinlein, James Blish and Poul Anderson each address these four themes.

Another theme related to time travel is alternative histories which Wells also addresses in Men Like Gods and Anderson in several works. Some sf authors specialize, e.g.:

Harry Turtledove in alternative histories;

SM Stirling in alternative histories and time travel.

From the perspective of this blog, it is important to draw attention to the significance of Poul Anderson's contributions, particularly on the themes of time travel and future history but also on the other three themes.

The Mule And Molitor

In Isaac Asimov's Second Foundation, Bail Channis has an audience with the First Citizen of the Union of Worlds, the Mule, who sends Channis on an expedition to locate the Second Foundation. The Mule has not "Converted," i.e., mentally modified, Channis who therefore will not be instantly recognized as a Mule's man by the mentally powerful Second Foundationers.

In Poul Anderson's A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, Dominic Flandry has an audience with Terran Emperor Hans Molitor who gives Flandry a roving commission to investigate possible rebellion on the Taurian Sector capital planet, Dennitza. Flandry has so far refused promotion because clandestine missions are easier for a captain than for an admiral.

Despite the superficially similar interstellar imperialist settings of these two works, Anderson's account reads more like a historical novel, albeit future, not past. The Mule is a physically unprepossessing but mentally powerful mutant, thus an sf cliche, like a Martian or a telepath, whereas Hans is a credible human character, blunt, pragmatic, uncultured, unashamed, unintelligent but shrewd, scornful of biocosmetics, with the eyes of a wild boar.

Flandry's audience is embedded in the Technic History amidst detailed descriptions of the Coral Palace. First, Flandry meets the current Duke of Mars who had inherited that title from his nephew, a peripheral character in an earlier instalment. Hans mentions Diomedes and Avalon, each the setting of an earlier novel. Flandry refers to Hans' granddaughter whom he had rescued in the previous instalment. Subsequently, Chunderban Desai, conversing with Flandry, mentions the events of two previous novels and also Flandry's recurrent adversary, Aycharaych. A solid future history series.

Future Standard Measurements

"He had set the interior weight at one standard G."

-Poul Anderson, "Starfog" IN Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, June 2012), pp. 709-794 AT p. 737.

That standard G has to be Terrestrial or very close to it. Certainly, there is no reason why there should be any large divergence from the gravitational field in which human beings evolved. Human beings moving out into space will take with them many standard measurements, e.g.:

"For reason or reasons unknown to members of the Galaxy at the time of the era under discussion, Intergalactic Standard Time defines its fundamental unit, the second, as the time in which light travels 299,776 kilometers. 84,600 seconds are arbitrarily set equal to one Intergalactic Standard Day; and 365 of these days to one Intergalactic Standard Year.

"Why 299,776? - Or 86,400? - Or 365?

"Tradition, says the historian, begging the question. Because of certain and various mysterious numerical relationships, say the mystics, cultists, numerologists, metaphysicists. Because the original home-planet of humanity had certain natural periods of rotation and revolution from which those relationships could be derived, say a very few.

"No one really knew."

-Isaac Asimov, Second Foundation (London, 2016), Part 1I, 16, p. 168.

(Civilization is not intergalactic at this time.)

Of these numbers, only 365, rounded down from approximately 365.25, is a natural frequency. When I first read Asimov, I really got with this vision of a far future inhabited Galaxy. Asimov's Galactics did not even know for sure whether they had spread from one planet or converged from many planets. (There was a theory that the Chinese were a separate human evolution.) 

Now, I believe that Poul Anderson far excels Isaac Asimov in his accounts of:

the decline and aftermath of an interstellar empire;

the subsequent recovery;

human civilizations in several spiral arms instead of a central galactic administration.

Quotations

When we quote from the Bible or from Shakespeare, everyone can access the original text but this not true of every work ever published! Not everything is on line. When I want to quote from Poul Anderson or from some other sf writer, I need a physical copy of an edition of the relevant work and ideally, although not necessarily, each of my readers also possesses a copy of the same work from which to verify the quotation.

A passage in a work by Poul Anderson reminded me of a passage in a work by Isaac Asimov so I thought that I would quote both passages. Then I remembered that I had disposed of all my Asimovs as part of a downsizing, decluttering, pre-house-move operation. This is not a tragedy. I am very unlikely to want to reread or study Foundation and, in any case, can probably buy a new copy if I ever do want one: more on this below. I thought that, if I described the passage, then someone would be able to quote it for us but then something else happened.

The Search For A Physical Copy Of A Book

Lancashire Libraries do not have all the Foundation volumes and now charge £5 for every out of county reservation. Sod that for a game of cricket as some of my compatriots would say.

In the sf section of Waterstones Bookshop, I found new copies of recently published editions of the original Foundation volumes, of I, Robot and of some Dune volumes but no Poul Anderson. So people read about Asimov's and Herbert's interstellar empires but not Anderson's...

I bought a new copy of Second Foundation so that now I am able to quote the relevant passage but that will have to wait until tomorrow.

Milestones In SF

The previous post quoted from:

the concluding instalment of Poul Anderson's multi-volume future history series, the Technic History;

Volume I of CS Lewis' Ransom Trilogy;

two instalments of Brian Aldiss' single-volume future history, Galaxies Like Grains Of Sand, which forms a trilogy with the same author's Starswarm (an inhabited galaxy) and Non-Stop (a Heinleinian generation ship) -

- major milestones of twentieth century sf. 

Anderson and Aldiss follow Wells, Stapledon and Heinlein whereas Lewis replies to Wells and Stapledon. Both Aldiss' Galaxies... and Anderson's Genesis synthesize the Wellsian-Stapledonian and Heinleinian future history models. Both Aldiss' Frankenstein Unbound and Anderson's Genesis re-address the theme of the first modern science fiction novel, Frankenstein. Genesis, appropriately published in the concluding year of the twentieth century, is a culmination of future historical and Frankensteinian themes.

SM Stirling continues the theme of time travel for which we can again refer to all the authors already mentioned with the single exception of Mary Shelley.

(If a representative sample of Western literature were to include at least two sf titles, then I think that they would have to be Frankenstein and The Time Machine. We value these works both for themselves and for what came after them.)

We and I

"Starfog."

The use in "Starfog" of the first person plural pronoun, "we," raises the possibility, however remote, that the first person singular, "I," denoting the individual narrator, will come on-stage. Meanwhile, we might wonder: who is this unseen narrator and how does he know the inner thoughts of Daven Laure? However, most likely, we completely forget about him as we continue to read.

CS Lewis' Out Of The Silent Planet is divided into twenty two chapters and a postscript. Chapters 1-21 are a third person account of Elwin Ransom's journey to Mars. Chapter 22 opens:

"At this point, if I were guided by purely literary considerations, my story would end..."

-CS Lewis, Out Of The Silent Planet IN Lewis, The Cosmic Trilogy (London, 1990), pp. 1-144 AT 22, p. 136.

The third paragraph of this chapter begins:

"This is where I come into the story. I had known Dr Ransom slightly for several years..." (ibid.)

The postscript is extracts from a letter by Ransom to Lewis. Thus, at last, the central character, Ransom, achieves first person status!

"'Are you the prison warden,' Gerund asked, stumping into the room.

"'I am,' I said."

-Brian Aldiss, "Gene-Hive" IN Aldiss, Galaxies Like Grains Of Sand (London, 1979), pp. 116-137 AT p. 132.

This is a surprise first appearance by a first person narrator at a very late stage in a short story.

Even more surprisingly, the concluding story in Galaxies... opens with second person narration:

"You never knew the beginning..."

-Brian Aldiss, "Visiting Amoeba" IN Galaxies Like Grains Of Sand, pp. 157-188 AT p. 157.

- and ends with the first person plural:

"We who have already superseded you..." (p. 188)

I tried to follow Aldiss' example here.

We

 

"Starfog."

"We know that other branches of humanity have their distinctive ways, and hear rumors of yet stranger ones." (p. 248)

This single sentence informs readers of "Starfog" that the narrative voice in this story is not that of the omniscient narrator of much third person prose fiction but instead is that of one particular inhabitant of:

"...that civilization in which the Commonalty operates." (ibid.)

This otherwise unknown narrator addresses his contemporaries and acknowledges the limits to their shared knowledge not only as above but also as follows:

"...we cannot even keep track of our own culture, let alone anyone else's." (ibid.)

This is a narrative point of view and we would like to know more about it. However, the earlier section of the Technic History is immeasurably richer in fictional narrators and historians.

What Was The Point Of The Previous Post?

I value, in this order:

series, whether of novels, short stories or both

individual novels

individual short stories

I regard a collection not as a literary unit or a volume in its own right but only as an easier way to read short stories than having to track them down in magazines or anthologies. I therefore dislike it when a story appears in more than one collection or when a series story appears in a non-series collection. However, the previous post was an attempt to consider Poul Anderson collections on their own terms. Contemplating that list, we notice that TOR becomes prominent as a publisher and that series stories cease to appear in non-series collections.

Beyond The Beyond contains only five stories of which three belong to two series. There are more such overlaps than I want to discuss here. In a Poul Anderson Complete Works, several volumes with new titles, maybe just Short Stories, Volumes I-etc, would have to collect all the independent short stories with no overlaps.

Poul Anderson Collections Revisited

Title, publisher, place and date of publication.

Titles of any Psychotechnic History, Technic History or Time Patrol instalments included.

Strangers From Earth (Ballantine, New York, 1961).

"Quixote and the Windmill," "Gypsy."

Time And Stars (MacFadden-Bartell, New York, 1965).

Beyond The Beyond (Coronet, London, 1973; copyright 1969).

"Brake," "The Sensitive Man," "Starfog."

Seven Conquests (Collier, New York, 1970).

"Cold Victory."

The Book Of Poul Anderson (Daw, New York, 1975).

"Day of Burning."

Homeward And Beyond (Berkley, New York, 1976).

"Wings of Victory," "The Pirate."

Fantasy (TOR, New York, 1981).

Explorations (TOR, New York, 1981).

"The Saturn Game," "Starfog."

The Dark Between The Stars (Berkley, New York, 1981).

"The Sharing of Flesh," "Gibraltar Falls."

Winners (TOR, New York, 1981).

"The Sharing of Flesh."

The Gods Laughed (TOR, New York, 1982).

"A Little Knowledge."

Conflict (TOR, New York, 1983).

The Unicorn Trade, with Karen Anderson (TOR, New York, 1984).

Past Times (TOR, New York, 1984).

Dialogue With Darkness (TOR, New York, 1985).

Space Folk (Baen, New York, 1989).

Kinship With The Stars (TOR, New York, 1991). 

Alight In The Void (TOR, New York, 1993).

The Armies Of Elfland (TOR, New York, 1992).

Abstractions And Constructs

Poul Anderson, "Starfog" IN Anderson, The Long Night (New York, 1983), pp. 242-310.

"'Preliminary semantic analysis suggests [the Kirkasanters'] abstractions and constructs aren't quite like ours, but do fall well within the human psych range.'" (p. 246)

How far can abstractions and constructs differ and still apply to the same universe? A bat's perceptions are auditory, not visual. When we enter a bookshop or a library, we think that there are a lot of books there whereas an intelligent paper-eating insect would think that there is a lot of food there. It seems that a single material universe can be many perceptual and conceptual universes. Sf needs to show us more aliens effectively inhabiting different universes and not communicating with each other as easily as human beings, Ythrians, Merseians etc.

Some War In SF

In HG Wells' The War Of The Worlds, the Martians brought heat rays and poison gas to Earth.

In Wells' The War In The Air, war went into the air.

In Poul Anderson's "Kings Who Die," war goes into space.

I know that there is more to war in sf than that! But that is enough for this evening and those are three high points with Anderson admirably succeeding Wells.

See also War, Wells And Anderson.

"Kings Who Die" is in Seven Conquests, Anderson's war-themed collection, which could be read after the two Wells novel.

Further Research On Poul Anderson Collections

See Alternative Collections.

Correction: "Starfog" is also the last story in the non-series collection, Beyond The Beyond (London, 1969). "Starfog" is the last story in Poul Anderson's Technic History and therefore appropriately is also the last story in three alternative Technic History collections. But it is also the last story in two non-series collections, Explorations and Beyond The Beyond. Its content makes it a fitting conclusion to any collection.

While we are looking at Anderson collections, let us check whether they have interesting introductions.

Beyond The Beyond: no introduction.

Space Folk: no introduction but, among the contents, "Commentary," a short article in which Anderson advocates for space.

Kinship With The Stars: a short Foreword in which the author celebrates good story-telling.

The Dark Between The Stars: a Foreword in which the author argues that, despite appearances to the contrary, sf is grounded in reality.

Homeward And Beyond: a Foreword in which the authors lists the categories of fiction. Also, a brief commentary on each story.

Strangers From Earth: no introduction.

Alight In The Void: an introduction about story-telling.

Seven Conquests: a Foreword about war.

Winners: no introduction.

The Unicorn Trade (with Karen Anderson): no introduction.

Fantasy: no introduction but an Afterword by Sandra Miesel.

The Gods Laughed: no introduction.

Conflict: no introduction.

Time And Stars: no introduction.

Dialogue With Darkness: no introduction.

The Book Of Poul Anderson: no introduction.

Past Times: no introduction.

The Armies Of Elfland: a Foreword on the original meaning of "romance." Also, a brief introduction to each story.

Any other Anderson collections: I don't know.

To Abolish Poverty

"...a permanent human presence in space should also yield nearly unlimited economic returns. As solar collectors achieve their full potential out yonder, we should have all the energy we could ever use, free, clean, inexhaustible. We should have abundant raw materials, no longer taken out of the hide of Mother Earth. We should have industries moving to locations where they cannot harm her, and entire new industries coming into existence. We should be able to abolish poverty, if not the other ills that our race keeps visiting upon itself, and abolish poverty not only in America but throughout the world. What this would mean to the spirit is incalculable."

-Poul Anderson, Introduction IN Anderson, Explorations (New York, 1981), pp. 7-11 AT pp. 10-11.

This is the situation on Earth at the end of Anderson's Tales Of The Flying Mountains after the asteroids have been colonized.

Think of the implications:

all the energy we could ever use

free

clean

inexhaustible

abundant raw materials

no more pollution

global abolition of poverty

meaning for the spirit

No longer any need to engage in conflict for energy sources or raw materials. I think that abolition of poverty and its meaning for the spirit would help to end other ills as well. Why resort to fundamentalism or terrorism if you are no longer starved or deprived? Why resent immigrants if they are no longer seen as a threat to your economic well-being?

I do not think that current economic or political power structures would tolerate the abolition of poverty. Surely power aims to maintain the status quo, including existing inequalities? However, the scenario that Anderson describes would be a massive boost to those of us who do want to bring about that kind of change on a world scale.

Alternative Collections

Here are some anomalies of publication.

The Poul Anderson collection, Explorations (New York, 1981), begins with "The Saturn Game" and ends with "Starfog." The seven-volume The Technic Civilization Saga (Riverdale, NY, 2009-2012) also begins with "The Saturn Game" and ends with "Starfog." Thus, there are two ways to read these two stories, either with four other unconnected stories between them or with the whole of the rest of the Technic History between them. If we do it the first way, then there is nothing to indicate that these opening and closing stories are the beginning and end of a future history series. Both are about exploration but in different periods and on different scales.

"Starfog" is the last story in:

Explorations (above);

The Night Face and other stories (Gregg Press, 1978);

The Long Night (New York, 1983);

The Technic Civilization Saga, Volume VII, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, June 2012).

At least, I deduce that "Starfog" must be the last story in The Night Face... That is the one that I do not have a copy of.

Explorations is not a Technic History collection. The other three are. The Night Face... collects the last four Technic History instalments. Flandry's Legacy collects the last six. The Long Night collects three of the last four preceded by two earlier instalments. Complicated but that is how it happened.

Travelling In Comfort

Poul Anderson, "Starfog" IN Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, June, 2012), pp. 709-794.

The ultimate technological achievement must be to travel without effort in comfort and safety through the most remote and inhospitable regions of the universe or, at least, of the galaxy.

Daven Laure's faster than light spaceship, Jaccavrie, is flown by a vocal conscious computer that responds to spoken instructions, does whatever is necessary and converses with Laure in a female voice as if it were a human being. At his command, the computer generates a simulacrum of the external universe so that, to his eyes, the ship's bridge disappears and he seems to be standing in space except for the fact that he still feels the artificial gravity under his feet.

We vicariously enjoy the contrast between Laure's comfort within the ship and the dangerous cosmic realms that he explores.

The Resolution

"Outpost of Empire."

Ridenour learns the hard way that Evagail is a Mistress of War and what that means but he recovers remarkably well from his ordeal and is able to negotiate for the Free People with the Admiral. At the very end of the story, he and she are on affectionate terms but he also wants to write home to his wife. The Imperialists are cosmopolitans.

When the Free People have used a captured Terran cruiser to destroy the remaining Cities - evacuated first - Freehold is no longer an industrial target for the Merseians so that all the problems have been solved and the Free People can remain free while nominally Imperial. Arulians and former City dwellers will be removed. Complex conflicts are not resolved that neatly in reality.

Diversity And Survival

"Outpost of Empire."

Ridenour to Admiral Fernando Cruz Manqual who is from Nuevo Mexico like another Terran Admiral that we have known and also like some of Nicholas van Rijn's employees:

"'What's the real good of the Empire? Isn't it the solidarity of many civilized planets? Isn't it, also, the stimulus of diversity between those planets?'" (pp. 126-127)

Here is Poul Anderson's constant message yet again. Ridenour even uses the word, "diversity," which I have been using because it has seemed appropriate.

Ridenour also reflects that, if the Empire falls, then the Free People will carry on something of what was the Empire's but he does not say this to the Admiral. We know from a later story that Freeholder biological techniques will still be in use when new civilizations are being built long after the Fall of the Empire. Dominic Flandry tries to strengthen some colonized planets so that they will survive the Empire. Here Ridenour does likewise. The theory of Chunderban Desai and the practice of Flandry and Ridenour are more plausible than those of Isaac Asimov's Hari Seldon.

Freedom And Ways Of Living

"Outpost of Empire."

Evagail of the Free People to Ridenour of the Terran Empire:

"'...[the Cities] threatened us. They wouldn't leave our forests alone. As for the Empire, can't it contain one more way of living? Won't mankind be the richer for that?'" (p. 123)

This is Poul Anderson's constant message throughout his works. The two human values are freedom and diversity. The Polesotechnic League upheld one kind of freedom. The Empire does not impose uniformity but can instead protect diversity - in fact, has to.

Look for the same message in many other works by Poul Anderson.

"Read Your History"

"Outpost of Empire."

Captain Chang to Lieutenant-Commander Hunyadi:

"'Read your history, Citizen Hunyadi. Read your history. No empire which tolerated rebellion ever endured long thereafter.'" (pp. 116-117)

It is good advice to read history but it is also necessary to interpret it. How many empires that suppressed rebellions deserved to endure? Chang has his answer to that. He continues:

"'and we are the wall between humanity and Merseian-'" (p. 117)

He is interrupted by the outbreak of hostilities. His point, of course, is that there are only two alternatives: us and our enemies who are worse. Let's find more alternatives.

Of course, some people who urge us to read our history or to do our research have found what no one else has ever found. A conspiracy theorist informed me that, above the White Pope in Rome, there is a Black Pope and above him a Grey Pope. When I questioned this, he was content to tell me to do my research. So I did. I googled and found names and photographs of men who were alleged to be these two extra Popes. Is that it? Have I done my research? Do I now know that there is a Black and a Grey Pope? Well, no. But how did the conspiracy theorist know? He is dead now, unfortunately.

I should not be linking this guy to Captain Chang. They are in completely different categories. But the advice to "Read your history..." can be just a lazy way of saying, "I have read something and believe it and so should you."

Destiny

See:

Reaching For The Stars? 

Reaching For The Stars? II

The issue discussed here came up again when I reread one of the quoted works. I still think that it makes no sense to claim that mankind has been reaching for the stars. However, we have certainly been cutting ourselves off from the Earth. Sometimes, living in an almost completely artificial environment, we might as well be inside a spaceship. This is expressed in sf not only by characters travelling in spaceships but also by almost completely urbanized future Earths in, e.g.:

A Torrent Of Faces by James Blish and Norman L. Knight

The Caves Of Steel by Isaac Asimov

A Stone In Heaven by Poul Anderson

Is our destiny among the stars? Do we have a destiny? We certainly have better or worse ways of living. The best way to live, I suggest, is to realize our oneness with reality, which includes with each other. This can be done anywhere, on or off Earth. Our role as reflective, intelligent beings is to know the universe and such knowledge would be facilitated by being able to move around more freely within that universe, preferably without exporting militarism or imperialism beyond the Solar System.

Night In The Freehold Forest

"Outpost of Empire."

Selene down

sunrise near

still dark

star-powdered sky

gleaming lake

wailing uhu

cold air

constellations

orbiting light cruiser

bare ridge

blaster cannon with barrel "...gaunt across the Milky Way." (p. 109)

I have listed objects seen against the Milky Way here but seem to have missed this blaster cannon barrel although I will add it to the list now.

The action approaches a climax and a confrontation but nevertheless we pause to appreciate the night scenery of Freehold.

Reserved Personalities In Future Millennia

"Outpost of Empire."

Freehold outbacker Karlsarm finds that Terran Imperialist John Ridenour shows nothing of his real self but instead conceals his feelings with unconscious ease. Karlsarm theorizes that such offplanet reserve is not just aristocratic good manners but rather a defence of individuality within a large and highly organized population. Maybe. Of course, some people just go with the social flow and do not defend their individualities.

"Starfog."

Commonalty Ranger Daven Laure finds that, among the Hoborkan clan of the Kirkasanters, a planetary population that has been isolated from the rest of mankind since before the Long Night, the unconscious assumption that the body is the citadel of an inviolable ego has generated reserved personalities, hampered medicine and prevented psychoanalysis but has also fostered dignity and self-reliance. Kirkasanters are descended from Imperialist Aeneans. The Kirkasanter captain has a symbolic silver mask on the door of his cabin.

Poul Anderson shows us remote resonances between distant generations.

The Wind And Betrayal

"Outpost of Empire."

When Ridenour tells Evagail that he and she must not make love, she asks:

"'Why?' The wind raved louder, nearly obliterating her words." (p. 103)

Why should the wind sound - not only sound but "rave" - just then? It seems to be automatic in Poul Anderson's texts that the wind not only punctuates but also comments on the dialogue at dramatic moments.

Ridenour's reason, which he does not articulate to her, is:

"You are my enemy, and I will not betray you with a kiss." (ibid.)

An explicit Biblical reference that does not need any chapter and verse reference.

On pp. 104-105, a conversation between Ridenour and Karlsarm is recounted as if observed and heard by a third party. There is no point of view narration. At the bottom of p. 105, in a new narrative passage, we are given Karlsarm's pov after the two have parted.

SF Travelogue

"Outpost of Empire."

Some sf is futuristic travelogues, e.g., this story and Poul Anderson's The Game Of Empire.

Freeholder outbackers sleep in bedrolls out of doors except when they need protection for example from heavy rain and hail. Then they hastily build log shelters or seek out one of the few houses with outbuildings that have been built in each territory. A hilltop homestead comprises:

"...low, massive, stone-and-log buildings, whose overgrown sod roofs would hardly be visible from above." (p. 100)

The buildings are even less detectable because they are often unoccupied and therefore unlit. Evagail has taken Ridenour off their route to show him one homestead and they have it to themselves when they must shelter from a sudden storm. The door is unlocked and there is food and wine in the kitchen. Lamps are microcultures in glass globes. Heating is by a hearth fire and fuel oil. Utensils are of horn and obsidian. Paintings show Arulian influence. A tape is not of music but of storm sounds. 

We are not in Kansas anymore. Or, at least, Ridenour is not on Terra anymore. There is a white tablecloth, crystal goblets and candles but everything else should look alien, including Evagail in her fibre kilt and leather bolero with dagger and tomahawk. We appreciate the wealth of detail in all of Poul Anderson's descriptive passages.

The Outbackers

"Outpost of Empire."

The outbackers have learned much about trace chemicals and glands from the Arulians who have become the local front for the Merseians and who are currently at war with the Nine Cities which are protected by the Terran Empire. Furthermore, the outbackers themselves also attack the Cities. None of this makes the outbackers allies or clients of Merseia but it does demonstrate to what extent spheres of interest can interpenetrate and overlap. 

Of the Nine Cities, at a certain point in the story, one has been destroyed by the outbackers, two have been incapacitated by war and two are occupied by the Arulians who, however, are cut off on Freehold and will not be able to sustain their war effort.

The outbackers cannot be located for bombardment in the wilderness. Destruction of the entire wilderness would change the climate, make agriculture impossible and thus ruin the Cities. Therefore, the outbackers can be eradicated only by gradual clearing of the forests which they will continue to resist. 

This scenario is vastly more complicated than a straightforward good guys-bad guys routine. The narration alternates between the viewpoints of the Imperialist, Ridenour, and the outbacker, Karlsarm, so which of these guys do we least disagree with? Or do we say, "A plague on both your houses"? Probably not the latter, though.

Forest Paths

"Outpost of Empire."

The Freehold outbackers, self-designated as "the Free People," resist the Nine Cities and the Terran Empire and have their equivalent of tunnels (Vietnam, Gaza), although not literal tunnels. Pedestrians, horses and stathas travel through the forests on roads of specially bred tough, dense moss that resists the growth of weeds and that is regularly maintained by gangs laying down the required traces of manganese salt. These routes are small, interconnected and parallel rather than broad. Thus, they preserve the ecology and scenery and are usually undetectable from above. Also, mutant plants cover human scents. Ridenour is told some of this - although Karlsarm does not mention the mutant plants - and thus begins to learn that the Empire does not yet know what it is up against. The Free People cannot win outright but they can make the cost of eradicating them unacceptably great.

The Completion Of The Transformation of Mayor Uriason

"Outpost of Empire."

Mayor Uriason makes it possible for Ridenour not only to spy on the outbackers but also to transmit intelligence to the blockading Terran fleet. The mayor retains his physical appearance but its significance changes:

"The round red face was no longer comical. It pleaded. After a while, it commanded." (p. 85)

- like a superhero emerging from behind the disguise of his secret identity.

"'I watched my chance, I made myself ridiculous, and -' Uriason threw out his chest, thereby also throwing out his belly - 'at the appropriate moment, I palmed this [communication converter] from beneath the noses of the wrecking crew.'" (p. 86)

Uriason appeals to Ridenour in the names of Freehold, His Majesty and the entire species. (People always over-dramatize their current crisis.)

"The man was short and fat. His words rose like hot-air balloons..." (p. 87)

I immediately think of comic strip speech speech balloons. Poul Anderson's text continues:

"Nevertheless, had he dared under possible observation, Ridenour would have bowed most deeply. As matters were, the Terran could just say, 'Yes, Citizen Mayor, I'll try to do my best.'" (ibid.)

This is the Ridenour who had suppressed a groan when the puffing Uriason had approached him to initiate this covert conversation.

Next, Ridenour, secretly armed with the communication device, will accompany the outbackers through their forest and, from Karlsarm's point of view, we will read an account of Karlsarm's exposition to Ridenour of outbacker life and society. This is a story of much talk.