Sunday, 24 November 2024

Biographies

Poul Anderson's Technic History presents two fictional biographies:

David Falkayn from apprentice to Master Merchant, acting CEO of SSL and Founder of Avalon;

Dominic Flandry from ensign to Fleet Admiral and informal Imperial advisor.

When Flandry is a Lieutenant, he hopes that a hypothetical deity will not end his life yet:

"Not now! Later, when I'm old, when I don't really care, all right; but not now!"
-A Circus Of Hells, CHAPTER ELEVEN, p. 273.

The nature of such a series is that it can and does show us Flandry when he is older, sixty-one in A Stone In Heaven and sixty-four in The Game Of Empire - although antisenescence has increased lifespans. In A Stone In Heaven, Flandry feels the weight of age and thinks of the many that he has known who have died. But that latter thought comes to him even as a Lieutenant:

"He remembered comrades in arms who didn't make it as far through time as he'd done. That was no consolation, but it rallied him.
"They hadn't whined."
-ibid., p. 274. 

They would include Jan van Zuyl who had died on Starkad. Already, Flandry accumulates a personal history.

3 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I would argue, however, that Flandry was older than 64 in THE GAME OF EMPIRE. Because that story says he was approaching age 70, which I interpreted as meaning Flandry was at least 67 years old. I also think the events recorded in GAME occurred five years after A STONE IN HEAVEN.

Ad astra! Sean

Stephen Michael Stirling said...

Tho' 70 would be about equivalent to 50, given the anti-senescence treatment.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Mr. Stirling!

I agree, as far as how Flandry "felt" and his health was concerned. But I think Anderson was hinting to his readers they should think here in terms of calendar years.

Ad astra! Sean