The Triumph Of Time

Let's stay with the line of thought of the previous post for a while longer. We were discussing longevity and immortality in works by Heinlein, Blish and Anderson. Blish's Cities In Flight, Volume I, They Shall Have Stars, incorporates a story originally entitled "At Death's End." Ironically, in this story, Believers (Jehovah's Witnesses) proclaim that millions now living will never die, their religious slogan, just as the antiagathic drugs, necessary for interstellar travel even at super-light speeds, are developed. Let's hold that thought while returning to Heinlein and Anderson.

Heinlein wants us to accept that Lazarus Long will continue to live literally forever. This is implied in Methuselah's Children and explicitly stated at the end of Time Enough For Love. I do not accept that latter volume as a valid addition to Heinlein's Future History but it is relevant here as expressing Heinlein's thought on the subject.

Poul Anderson, of course, has more sense than to affirm that anyone will live forever although he does not show us the deaths of any of his main characters. Van Rijn remains active into his old age and beyond the end of his series. We think that Flandry will die near the end of A Stone in Heaven but he doesn't. We think that Hanno will die near the end of The Boat Of A Million Years but he doesn't. Both are rescued. When Hanno's friends rescue him, he is told not that he cannot die - absurd - but that they would never want to be without him.

Blish wanted to face the fact that even characters with indefinitely prolonged lifespans must eventually die sooner or later. An early version of the Chronology of Cities In Flight had John Amalfi dying in a hunting accident in 4004. See here. Then Blish added an entire novel, The Triumph of Time, whose title makes the point even more forcibly. Time triumphs. Even this universe will end - and does in this novel.

The universe ends in Anderson's Tau Zero and some characters outlive it - but they will not last forever.