CONAN - BLOOD OF THE SERPENT by SM Stirling

We have just reread and posted about Conan The Rebel by Poul Anderson. It has been brought to our attention, editorially, that SM Stirling has written Conan: Blood Of The Serpent. 

Since this blog recognizes SM Stirling as a worthy successor of Poul Anderson, we have ordered a copy of Blood Of The Serpent on eBay and expect its arrival early next week. Reading it will be interrupted by the monthly visit to Andrea above the Old Pier Bookshop.

We gather that Stirling's novel is set early in Conan's life. It should therefore precede Anderson's novel and probably also Conan's relationship with Belit.

Anderson and Stirling have also both contributed to the Man-Kzin Wars sub-series of Larry Niven's Known Space History. We can follow these two authors' contributions to other authors' series without necessarily reading any other instalments of those other series.

Quite a while ago now, I was rereading and posting in detail about Poul Anderson's Rogue Sword. However, this was interrupted by problems with the computer. When a working computer had been restored, I had lost my focus on Rogue Sword and instead began to post about the Ythrian stories in Anderson's Technic History. It might be time to return to Rogue Sword but time will tell.

See:

The Merman's Children In Context

More Reflections On The Blog

result of blog search for "Lucas"

Van Rijn And His Team

Seven of the eleven Technic History instalments collected in Volume I, The Van Rijn Method, are not about Nicholas van Rijn. However, they present the necessary background for his existence:

interplanetary travel;

interstellar exploration;

the Ythrians, with whom van Rijn travels in Volume II;

the Polesotechnic League;

other merchants in the League;

the earlier lives of two later members of van Rijn's trader team which is introduced in Volume II.

Van Rijn and/or his trader team fill six of the seven instalments collected in Volume II, David Falkayn: Star Trader so that, at this stage, they dominate the series. However, their final appearance is in the first of six instalments collected in Volume III, Rise Of The Terran Empire, and there are four more volumes after that. A monumental future history series.

CONAN: Conclusion II - Who Knows?

Conan The Rebel, XX. 

There is, of course, a last page for Poul Anderson's Dominic Flandry and also for Anderson's version of Conan the Cimmerian. Both characters ask, "Who knows?" on their last page.

Conan:

"'Who knows what years unborn must bring? Death on a heath or life on a throne or anything in between; no matter now.'" (p. 208)

Flandry:

"'Who knows? We play the game move by move, and never see far ahead - the game of empire, of life, whatever you want to call it - and what the score will be when all the pieces at last go back into the box, who knows?'"

-Poul Anderson, The Game Of Empire IN Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, June 2012), pp. 189-453 AT CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE, p. 453.

The answer is that we live on and find out. 

In Flandry's Legacy, we turn the page to find ourselves with Roan Tom during the post-Imperial Long Night.

Conan goes on to say that everything that he has done recently has been in the service of his lady who laughs, "...vengeful and joyful...," (ibid.) on the foredeck above him. Flandry concludes by offering to fund Axor's research and the latter smiles as one:

"...winning salvation for himself and his beloved." (ibid.)

All's well that ends well.

CONAN Conclusion

Conan The Rebel, XIX.

During a battle, Conan and Falco:

"...cleared a space around themselves, red-running, piled high with mangled corpses and moaning wounded." (p. 194)

Here is another quiz question. Who does this remind us of? Someone very specific.

The narrative has been very carefully constructed so that Falco has sufficient motivation to kill Senufer/Nehekba just at the moment when she has used sympathetic magic to incapacitate Conan at the height of the battle. Falco saves the day. He reminds me of a keen young guy that we have in Lancaster right now. We worry that he will swear whenever he gets near a PA system.

The Stygians have lost:

"'...a province, an army, a king and their two foremost sorcerers...'" (p.203)

- and then, in Chapter XX, their fleet! Maybe they will learn the value of peacefulness?

Poul Anderson's rich vocabulary - some to me unfamiliar words:

"scaurs," (XIX, p. 187)

"vambraces," (XIX, p. 190)

"quagga" (XIV, p. 138)

"francolins" (ibid.)

"shadoofs," (XII, p. 118)

The Approaching ClimAx

Conan The Rebel, XIX.

"'He will make sure of the whole country. Maybe afterward his own people will colonize the waste he leaves.'" (p. 189)

This is dialogue in a fantasy novel. We quote it here for any contemporary relevance that it might have.

Ordinary military strategy combines with fantasy as Conan leads the rebels while wielding a supernaturally powered Ax. A village has been obliterated. Its inhabitants had not been warned to flee because a massacre had not been expected. The King leads the massive invading army. So this is going to be a final showdown. Chapter XIX describes the battle and XX concludes the novel. Another narrative will shortly be complete. Readers can move in either of two directions: either stay with Conan, as rendered by other authors, or stay with Poul Anderson, writing about other characters.

The Prominence Of Nicholas Van Rijn

 

In The Technic Civilization Saga, Nicholas van Rijn emerges as the most prominent continuing character but gradually:

of the eleven instalments collected in Volume I, The Van Rijn Method, he features in the fourth, ninth, tenth and eleventh;

of the seven in Volume II, David Falkayn: Star Trader, van Rijn features in the first, cameos in the second which introduces his trader team, features in the fourth and co-features with the trader team in the fifth and seventh;

of the six in Volume III, Rise Of The Terran Empire, they all make their final appearance in the first.

Van Rijn also cameos in one Old Phoenix short story which means that he appears in a total of eleven works.

In Pteion

Conan The Rebel, XVIII.

Conan and his men fight:

dried corpses made to stand, march and attack;

ghouls;

horrific animals that Poul Anderson must have invented;

falling buildings (not fight, just avoid);

a man riding a winged monster (since by now Conan has found the Ax, this last threat is easily dispatched).

The man on the monster, killed by his own magic when it rebounds from the Ax, turns out to have been the wizard, Topathis, so Conan is clearly triumphant although Nehekba still plays some game that neither Conan nor we, the readers, understand as yet. All will be made clear in the remaining two chapters which will conclude Poul Anderson's contribution to the Conan chronicles.

Would we have liked more Andersonian Conan? Not me, but I would have welcomed more Technic History. Like The Lord Of The Rings, that series is long but also too short.

Conan's Mood

Conan The Rebel, XVI.

Conan, accompanied by Daris and Falco, leads a hundred Taian troops through hot, dry, mountainous country toward the haunted abandoned city of Pteion where he hopes to find and wield the Ax of Varanghi in fulfilment of a Mitran prophecy. Conan encounters a kind of obstacle that might not exist in any other book of the series. He is in a foul humour, bad tempered and resentful, and this has an adverse affect on those around him. We know that Nekekba still follows as an eagle and that her spellcraft probes and exacerbates Conan's weaknesses. Daris suspects a spell but Conan is unable to accept her help. This kind of problem would exist in the Hyborian Age and requires a chapter without physical action.

Gods And Men

Conan The Rebel, XV.

"'Two gods are in struggle. We mortals are not mere instruments - no, it is we who must win or lose by our own efforts, lest the universe be torn asunder as they wrestle...'" (p. 147)

"'Sir,' said Merlin, 'what will come of this? If they put forth their power, they will unmake all Middle Earth.'

"'Their naked power, yes,' said Ransom. 'That is why they will work only through a man.'"

-CS Lewis, That Hideous Strength IN Lewis, The Cosmic Trilogy (London, 1990), pp. 349-753 AT CHAPTER 13, 5, p. 653.

Tear the universe asunder or unmake Middle Earth?

Conan the Cimmerian and Merlinus Ambrosius learn what their mortal roles are to be. And my present role is to seek the realm of Morpheus.

Right? Right!

Conan The Rebel, IX.

Conan and his two companions meet a band of black men whose leader, Sakumbe, turns out to be a friend of Belit so the three wanderers now have new allies. When Conan suggests that the two groups join forces, Sakumbe replies:

"'...why not go take a look? That is why we puffed and groaned over those nastily steep mountains, right? Right.'" (p. 145)

That turn of phrase rang a bell. Where have we heard it before?

"'Well, your tour'll soon be up,' Ammon said. 'Precious little to show for it, right? Right.'"

-Poul Anderson, A Circus Of Hells IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, January 2010), pp. 193-365 AT CHAPTER TWO, p. 207.

Leon Ammon says it a few times, then Dominic Flandry, with whom Ammon converses, mimics it:

"'I know you can find a capable and at the same time amiable female. Right? Right.'" (pp. 211-212)

It is marginally amusing when a single character requests agreement, then immediately issues that agreement without awaiting a response from the other party. Flandry soon learns how to converse with, then to outmaneuver, the gangster, Ammon. And maybe no one else notices this faint echo between two periods in two timelines.

I can believe that Poul Anderson's Conan The Rebel is unlike any other Conan novel. Six chapters remain to be reread.

Eagle And Silvery Cataract

Conan The Rebel, XIII.

Conan, Daris and Falco proceed by wingboat to Taia. Daris has declared her love for Conan and he could make love to her. However, Belit would reproach Conan not for disloyalty to her, Belit, but for treachery to Daris when leaving Daris to return to Belit. Falco remains besotted with Senufer, not accepting that Senufer must be Nehekba. 

"High above the boat, on wings that shone golden in the sun, an eagle kept pace." (p. 135)

At first sight, yet another hovering bird of prey. However, if we remember Nehekba's earlier dialogue, then we know that this eagle is Nehekba in magical bird form following the wingboat. In how many works by Poul Anderson do sorceresses spy in bird form? (Maybe I can get blog readers to do some of the research work?)

This will be a good place to break off because, turning the page, we must cope with a description of Taia as the wanderers arrive there:

"XIV WAYFARERS IN TAIA" (p. 136)

And we spot on the facing page a "...silvery cataract of Milky Way..." (p. 137) that we seem to have missed before.

Conan Consoles Daris

Conan The Rebel, XIII.

Conan reminds Daris that she is "'...born of a warrior folk...'" (p. 133) and then expounds:

"'Death comes to us all when fate wills it,...'" (ibid.)

This reminds us of "brave Horatius." 

It might be best to quote the remainder of Conan's remarks in full:

"'...whether we spoil our lives by skulking in fear of the end or enjoy the world while it is ours and depart it uncowed. Jehannan died in glory, in joy. He had had his revenge and he was giving his comrades back their own lives. If his belief was true, at this moment he, made hale again, rides a unicorn through the queendom of Ishtar, toward a tower where a beautiful woman waits to become the mother of his children. If his belief was wrong, well, then he has forgotten, he is at peace. He wanted us to remember him, Daris, but I do not think he ever wanted us to mourn him.'" (ibid.)

Here we meet Conan the Philosopher. His remarks inspire several thoughts.

(i) Don't mourn.

(ii) In Plato's Phaedo, Socrates says that death is either another country where we will meet the great men of the past or a dreamless sleep. In the latter case, eternity is a single night. However, people have imagined other possibilities.

(iii) Bearing children in the hereafter? Not usually but, again, every possibility is imagined by someone.

(iv) I have ordered from the Public Library a recently published book, The Case For The Hereafter by Chris Carter. I am prepared to consider evidence, if any, and in any case am interested in the various phenomena, like near death experiences, spiritualism, apparitions and apparent memories of previous lives, which are cited as evidence. The whole subject is frustrating. On the one hand, spiritualists cannot establish regular, verifiable communication in the way that we can unquestionably speak by telephone with someone across the Atlantic. On the other hand, we will all die soon and will then know - or not know as the case may be. If there is no hereafter, then we will never know. That is what makes this question different from any other. If an eclipse is predicted for noon tomorrow, then, in the afternoon, we will either know that there was an eclipse or know that there was not an eclipse. But we cannot know that we no longer exist.

In The Temple Of Set

Conan The Rebel, XIII. 

The temple is empty by day. Inside the only unlocked door, a long, cold, dank staircase cut from living rock descends to dimly lit crypts with sinister murals. The low ceiling of the staircase obliges Conan and Daris to bow to full-relief images of serpents above their heads. Conan vows vengeance. There are "...enormous sarcophagi..." (p. 132) and a shrine whose altar bears a bronze lamp of burning oil and a life-sized golden cobra. On the floor, a crystal bowl of milk has been left for a sacred cobra that lives in the crypts. Conan and Daris sleep in the shrine.

There is no battle either with the living cobra or with any returning priests/sorcerers. However, Conan must console Daris who grieves for Jehanan. Earlier, surrounded and outnumbered, Conan and his two companions attacked. They would either escape or die fighting but not surrender. In fact, Jehanan held off the enemy at the mouth of a narrow alley while Conan and Daris escaped. He did not.

The Garden Of Set

Conan The Rebel, XIII.

Conan and Daris proceed through a walled garden designed as a maze beside a temple of Set:

skeletal palms;

mossy paths between dense, thorny, man-high hedges;

crimson-flowered serpentine vines;

poisonous black or purple lotuses;

spider webs;

winged beetles;

files of killer ants;

no birds;

giant fungi;

bestial topiaries;

deadly nightshade.

Conan compares the garden to a jungle and uses his woodsman's skills to locate a fountain of cold artesian water which flows through onyx basins into a pool with lilies and carp. They drink, wash and eat raw fish. The maze brings them to the temple.

Technic Civilization Saga: Covers

See:

Technic History: Volumes And Instalments

The seven Saga covers, reproduced again here, deplorable though Volumes IV-VI are, do present a visual summary of the series:

I Nicholas van Rijn

II David Falkayn

III Ythrians

IV-VII Dominic Flandry, from youth to age

This list omits the pre-League period at the beginning of Volume I and the post-Imperial period in the second half of Vol VII but does nevertheless cover the principal periods of the Technic History.

Poul Anderson's works draw their readers' attention from the remote past to the remote future and back again in multiple timelines. We should return to Conan in the Hyborian Age (a remote past) tomorrow (a near future).

The Centre Of Luxur

Conan The Rebel, XII.

Around a broad plaza:

palace

fane of Set

barracks

parade grounds

archives

offices of councilors and their staff

aristocratic mansions

foreign embassies

the Avenue of Kings

statues of kings with inscriptions

granite buildings painted with symbols of gods

townhouses with flat gardened roofs

Traffic:

lords or ladies in litters

a pedagogue guiding wellborn boys to school

a scribe carrying writing equipment

priests

officials

wealthy merchants

military officers

liveried servants

veiled wives

deliverymen bringing orders

plebeians on errands (maybe)

List Descriptions And Three Senses

Conan The Rebel, XII. 

See previous list descriptions (scroll down).

Traffic into the Stygian capital, Luxur:

foot

cart

litter

chariot

horse

ox

donkey

camel

loinclothed labourers

ragged-tunic-clad drovers

robed desert nomads

colourfully garbed merchants

gossamer-clad courtesans

soldiers

hawkers

strolling performers

housewives

children

foreigners

They:

crowd

jostle

chatter

quarrel

scream curses

yelp laughter

importune

haggle

intrigue

shout

wail

croon

Dirty, littered, cobbled streets smell of:

smoke

grease

dung

roast meat

oils

perfumes

drugs

humanity 

beasts

This is all in Poul Anderson's continuous prose. I have merely extracted lists of nouns and verbs.

Hell Hath No

Conan The Rebel, XI.

People often say the opposite of what they mean. An old revolutionary said, sarcastically, "I'm going to join the (British) Labour Party - because it's full of old people like me!" He meant, of course, that he was not going to join the Labour Party and also that an active party needs young members.

People say, "Hell hath no fury..." They mean, of course, not "Hell hath no fury," but: "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned." Nehekba has easily manipulated Falco and Jehanan and takes for granted her ability to do the same with Conan but he easily turns the tables, earning her enduring enmity. She will, she claims, bring "'...Conan the brute to destruction...'" (p. 116) Meanwhile, Conan doubts his own ability to harm a woman. I guess that either Falco or Jehanan will dispose on Nehekba but I cannot remember what happens. I reread with interest. So many characters interact.

Conan's World View

Conan The Rebel, XII.

Poul Anderson spells out Conan's world view for us. I imagine that this is consistent with the character as presented by Robert E. Howard. Conan cares nothing for fine distinctions between Stygian commoners on the one hand and their "'...overbearing nobles and fanatical priests...'" (p. 119) on the other.

"In his world view, apart from fierce immediate loyalties, the hand of every man was against every other man. At best there was truce, for practical reasons and always fragile. That did not mean that individuals could not share work, trade, enjoyment, liking, respect. He had been sorry to kill certain men in the past, though he lost no sleep afterward. Strife was the natural order of things." (pp. 119-120)

If there is ever any "Judgment" of human actions, then everyone will have to be judged in accordance with the perspectives and values that had made sense to him. Conan's experience teaches him that every man's hand is against every other and that strife is natural but how does he conduct himself within that world view? He is loyal and honourable. Dominic Flandry's mentor, Max Abrams, said that virtues amount to loyalty. See The Wisdom Of Max Abrams. For Flandry's loyalties, see Loyalty.

Conan should heed class conflicts. He might find allies among commoners against nobles and priests. A heroic fantasy novel by Poul Anderson raises such issues.

Soaring Hawk

Conan The Rebel, XI. 

Conan and his three companions are fugitives and Daris suggests that they steal the lightly guarded wingboat. Conan ponders, staring into heaven. And what happens while he does this?

"A hawk soared there." (p. 107)

Not the wind this time but yet another hovering bird of prey. Such birds are another Andersonian motif although not as ubiquitous as the wind. This hawk might represent the troops searching for the fugitives or the freedom of the fugitives if they steal the wingboat. 

We realize that the text has been carefully constructed. Both Daris and Falco have been been transported in the wingboat and have heard the monosyllabic spells spoken by the acolytes to control the motion and speed of the boat. Probably escape by this route will proceed as planned but we will have to read on to find out and, as some of you might now, I turn to other reading at this time of the evening. I will be up early tomorrow morning for an adventure of sorts in another town but should be back to blogging again later in the day.

Crom

Conan The Rebel.

Belit, the heroine of Poul Anderson's Conan novel, was a Robert E. Howard character.

I saw a scene from Conan the Barbarian where Conan played by Arnold Schwarzenegger asked his god, Crom, for help and added "But, if not, to Hell with you!" My attitude to the gods is: "We ask your help but, if not, we'll do it ourselves."

According to Anderson, Crom bestows, on those that he favours, strength and heart but nothing else. We are pleased to learn that Crom Cruach was an Irish pagan god who ran afoul of St. Patrick, of course. 

I was pleased to find Crom in Conan The Rebel because Mitra seems too civilized a god for Conan. With some gods, the message basically is that we are on our own and that it is up to us what we do.

Technic History: Volumes And Instalments

The seven volumes of The Technic Civilization Saga, which is Baen Books' omnibus collection of Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization, are uniform in length but not in numbers of instalments collected in each volume because the instalments vary so much in length.

I: 11

II: 7

III: 6

IV: 3

V: 6

VI: 4

VII: 6

Volumes I-II average 9 instalments per volume whereas III-VII average 5.

Volumes I-II cover a historical cycle from interplanetary exploration in "The Saturn Game" to the beginning of the end of the Polesotechnic League in "Lodestar." III goes from League to Empire. IV-VII take a long time to get through the life of Dominic Flandry but eventually takes us into a much further future! In any case, it is all the best future history series, in my opinion.

Conan On Civilization Again

Conan The Rebel, IX.

"'You civilized people think that because we barbarians have no cities or books we must be a lot of dumb animals. Hell, we need our wits more than you do!'" (pp. 92-93)

Barbarians are alert and active human beings, not dumb animals. Does Conan speak like a civilized man or am I merely expressing the prejudices of such a man? I think that the answer is partly that Conan has travelled through many civilized realms and has done business with civilized people like, in this volume, Belit, so that he is no longer an unsophisticated barbarian.

He easily sees through the wiles of Nehekba and is overpowering her as my rereading is interrupted. I read this book so long ago that each new plot twist comes as a surprise.

Onward with the Cimmerian.

Conan In Khemi

Conan The Rebel, VII-VIII.

(I am posting during a gap in gardening if anyone out there is interested in keeping up with the minutiae of Lancaster life. It is not all plays and Festivals.)

Four prisoners are allowed to meet and converse in comfort so that their captor, Tothapis, can gather intelligence by remote viewing and eavesdropping. We are familiar with three of the prisoners, Conan, Daris and Jehanan, and have read a reference to the fourth, Falco. Conan The Rebel is a multi-character narrative unlike any other instalments of the series, I believe. 

Capturing Conan and taking him alive is an expensive business. He kills five and wounds nearly everyone else in a Stygian squad before they pummel him into unconsciousness. If there had been fewer of them, then he would have escaped as Manse Everard did in similar circumstances. Next, Nehekba will attempt his corruption. 

Khemi is so haunted that Conan had to overcome his fear of the supernatural to enter it.

Uminankh's Inn

Conan The Rebel, VII.

It is late here and I will be brief.

We appreciate inns in many worlds and times in Poul Anderson's works. I was all set to summarize an account of Uminankh's place in Khemi. However, it is so dreadful that I will leave it to other Poul Anderson enthusiasts to read it for themselves. I mean this, folks. Usually inns sound comfortable. This one does not. The plan is that Conan will spend at least a week holed up there but I am sure that something else will happen although I do not remember what.

I would not be reading a Conan novel if it had not been written by Poul Anderson. This one is good. He turned his hand to anything, also including the Man-Kzin Wars period of Larry Niven's Known Space History. The multiverse is vast.

Conan The Libertarian

Conan The Rebel, VII.

(I googled "Conan the Libertarian" but found only a "Conan the Librarian.")

Do I really want to get back into this argument yet again? No. But the argument is in Poul Anderson's text. I am not importing it. First, I will paraphrase a dialogue between two characters on p. 68.

Conan: If enough serfs cooperated, then they would be able to overthrow the state.

Otanis: But that would end civilization, the heritage of the ages, learning, art and refinement!

Conan: Civilization has much to offer but the price of having a state is too high.

So Conan thinks that it would be better if humanity had remained in the kind of primitive barbarism in which he grew up? I disagree with Conan because I value heritage, learning and art. However, slavery and serfdom are not good.

Could history have proceeded differently with less of the bad and more of the good? It might be difficult to imagine how. But, in any case, we are stuck with how history did happen. But that in turn gives me reason to hope that Conan's preference for a stateless society might be realized in future. This is one theory of how humanity not only has developed but also might continue to develop:

Four Stages

(i) Primitive barbarism. No social surplus of wealth.

(ii) Agriculture. Cities. Slavery. A small surplus necessarily distributed unequally. A state, a body of armed men, necessary to maintain social order, i.e., to ensure the continued rule of the surplus-controlling minority, initially a priesthood, I think.

(iii) Industrial production of a much larger surplus still distributed unequally. Social tensions and conflicts of all kinds. Continued need for a state to prevent theft, looting, rioting etc.

(iv) Advanced technology now socially controlled. An even larger surplus now distributed equally. No ruling group needing a state to maintain its rule.

The fourth stage is arguably possible but evitable. The conflicts inherent in (iii), where we now are, can certainly drive humanity backward instead of forward.

OK. I didn't want to go through all that but, for me, it all comes out of what Conan and Otanis say so that's my take on the issue.

Amidst Sea Wind

Conan The Rebel, VI.

Conan offers "'...shiploads of wealth...'" (pp. 62-63) to a rescued slave if he helps Belit to rescue her brother. 

"'Would those not buy plenty of mercenaries for your cause?' [Conan] pondered a moment, silent amidst the sea wind. 'If you fail us,' he finished bluntly, 'you die.'" (p. 63)

A first-time or one-off blog reader might wonder why I quote Conan's offer and threat. However, regular readers know by now how often the wind punctuates Poul Anderson's dialogues and emphasizes the dramatic pauses. We have got into the habit of noticing and noting this each time it happens which is regularly. We have just been treated to another Anderson action scene as Belit, Conan and their crew capture a Stygian merchant ship. But there are wheels within wheels.

Conan's Absence

Conan The Rebel, IV-V.

I have been using this lap top to follow world events so have not used it to blog for a while.

Conan is absent from Chapters IV and V. We meet several other characters and learn some history, geography and prophecy. There is an Andersonian action scene, a battle, in which Daris, daughter of the Taian rebel leader, is captured. She is transported to Khemi in the magically fast wingboat of Set, the equivalent of a hyperspace spaceship. 

Conan, off-stage for these two chapters, is kin to the Taians and will fulfill one of their prophecies although that destiny is unique to this novel by Poul Anderson and should not affect events in any other volume of the Conan series.

This Hyborian Age literally had good and bad gods and it would have been right to serve the former and to oppose the latter. Maybe this is another timeline or maybe the gods have withdrawn from the human realm since then? Both Poul Anderson and Neil Gaiman present explanations of the latter possibility.

Conan will return to the page in VI which we might reread tomoz. Earth Real conflicts also impact consciousness. Parallel narratives: as I heard a hospital porter ask, after grinning when shown a tabloid headline: "Wha'? In real life or int' soap?" We live in two worlds. 

Rip Van Winkle

 

I have just read Washington Irving's "Rip Van Winkle" for the first time in my life. We notice:

the kind of vivid description of the colours of nature that we on this blog appreciate in Poul Anderson's works;

that there is a whole narrative about Van Winkle as a person and about his home life of which we are unaware until we read the story;

that this story must surely count as precursor of later works about suspended animation or futureward time travel.

Some modern fictional characters have become myths. By this I mean that they are universally recognized even by those who have not read the original work. A second criterion might be that the essence of the character can be summarized in a single phrase, e.g.:

he is a great detective;

she entered a mad world through a rabbit hole;

he did not grow up;

he was raised by apes;

he slept for twenty years;

he fights crime dressed as a bat;

he is strong, flies and is "American pie";

he is an alien and logical;

he animated a corpse;

he drinks blood;

he made himself invisible;

he talks to animals.

Once, in a private correspondence, I listed over a hundred. How many sf characters are on this list? Some of Wells'. None of Poul Anderson's. Perhaps Nicholas van Rijn is widely known among sf readers by the description:

he is a flamboyant interstellar trader.

Successful films of Anderson's works would make van Rijn and other characters more widely known but the books have not yet had this effect although they definitely deserve to be more widely circulated.

Hudson And Connecticut

Rip Van Winkle lives in a village near the Hudson. When Poul Anderson's Martin Saunders, in "Flight to Forever," travels into the far future and returns, his departure and return point is a house on a hill near the village of Hudson, New York. A river is visible from the hill.

Robert Heinlein's novel of suspended animation and time travel opens:

"One winter shortly before the Six Weeks War, my tomcat, Petronius the Arbiter, and I lived in an old farmhouse in Connecticut."

-Robert Heinlein, The Door Into Summer (London, 1974), One, p. 7.

I need not explain the significance either of Rip Van Winkle or of Connecticut. But it is worth noting that:

Van Winkle sleeps;

Saunders time travels;

Heinlein's Dan Davis both sleeps and time travels;

Mark Twain's Connecticut Yankee both time travels and sleeps.

Twain wrote pre-Wells. Wells coined "Time Machine," "Time Traveller" and "time travelling." Twain used the term, "transposition of epochs." The Yankee returns by suspended animation.

I wanted to post about Rip Van Winkle but these few paragraphs will suffice as a post for now.

Anderson acknowledges Washington Irving and Heinlein acknowledges Twain. Heinlein also references HG Wells' The Sleeper Wakes.

Conan And Many Others

Conan The Rebel.

Poul Anderson clearly did not want to write just about Conan or from Conan's pov. 

In Chapter I, Tothapis converses with Set who gives Tothapis a remote viewing of a conversation between Conan and Belit. Mitra detects and interrupts Set but remains off-stage.

In II, Tothapis converses with Ramwas and Nehekba and gives them a remote viewing of Jehenan and his guards.

In III, Belit tells Conan about Hoiakim, Shaaphi, Jehanan, Aliel, Kedron, Ramwas and three men that she killed. We read not only her dialogue but also some flashbacks.

In IV, Shuat converses with his adjutant, then Ausar addresses his men and converses with his daughter, Daris.

I have not reread any further yet. Clearly, Conan is one of a large cast of characters. There are XX chapters and I am probably going to reread Larry Niven or someone else for the rest of this evening. 

Ivory, Apes, Peacocks And Jealous Gods

Conan The Rebel, III.

"'With what ivory, apes, and peacocks we could muster, I sent back a commission for a warcraft to be built and outfitted.'" (p. 29)

For some history of the phrase, "ivory, and apes, and peacocks," see two previous posts here.

Belit says that Conan and she will have:

"'...a life together. If the jealous gods allow.'" (ibid.)

Probably series editors and authors will not allow but I cannot remember what shape the Conan-Belit relationship is in at the end of this volume and will wait to find out.

We know of one "jealous god" in the Bible but what is the origin of this phrase? Were other gods "jealous"?

Belit's remark reminds us of Manse Everard's realization that the gods are "...a miserly lot." Time travellers who spend a lot of time in the past probably learn to think that way.

I expect to be doing more gardening than blogging tomoz.

Laterz.

Belit And The Wind

Conan The Rebel, III.

Conan is currently with a woman called Belit whose parents, husband and son are dead because of a Stygian raid led by Ramwas. The men were killed. The mother killed herself and Belit killed her young son to save him from slavery. She and her brother were enslaved but she has escaped. She must have revenge so that her dead will have slaves in the hereafter. While she is telling Conan about this, there is a characteristic Andersonian interruption:

"'...I must use my wits, so that Hoiakim, Shaapi, Aliel, and Kedron may have many slaves to attend them.'

"A flaw of wind made the ship lurch and the sail crack.

"'Ramwas had business in Khemi...'" (p. 26)

At the mention of slavery in the hereafter, the ship lurches and the sail cracks because of the wind. It seems to be automatic for Anderson to use the wind to emphasize dramatic moments in the dialogue. By now, regular blog readers have become very familiar with this motif.

Genre Requirements

 

In hard sf, when a spaceship moves faster than light, Poul Anderson has to present a scientific rationale, e.g., in his Technic History, a rapid succession of quantum jumps of the entire ship, whereas, in fantasy, when a sea vessel moves with supernatural speed, magic or the will of a god is a sufficient explanation.

In Virgil's Aeneid, Neptune, favouring one captain in a boat race, reaches up and moves that boat forward by hand! Another captain, realizing what must be happening, rallies his men by declaring that the first place is the gift of the gods and that men must strive for second place.

In Poul Anderson's multiverse, universes with quantum jumps and gods coexist and there is some limited contact between them but never enough to compromise the integrity of the distinct genres.

It is a matter of individual taste which kind of narrative we prefer.

Jehanan And Ramwas

Conan The Rebel, II.

A prisoner, Jehanan, spits on an image of Set in front of his guards. This is unwise. Set is powerful and his worshippers are vengeful. In any case, maybe Set as a deity merits some passive respect although no more than that.

Addressing Ramwas, who is a Stygian military officer, minor nobleman and large landholder, Topathis says:

"'Though the penalty for failure is unbounded, the reward for success can be high.'" (p. 16)

This is a characteristic of evil organizations in fiction and probably also in fact. Failure is punished as if it were deliberate wrong-doing! Knowledge that I was working for such a regime would certainly make me want - and plan - to get out. Ramwas is concerned not about that but only about the dangers of the task that Topathis sets for him.

As in Ian Fleming's From Russia, With Love, the villains assemble before we see much of our hero.

I appreciate Conan The Rebel as one part of Poul Anderson's works but not as an instalment of the Conan series, not having read any other volumes of the latter.

Myth And Fact

 

"'...that which was myth in one world might always be fact in some other.' PERELANDRA"

-CS Lewis, "Forms of Things Unknown" IN Lewis, The Dark Tower and other stories (London, 1983), pp. 124-132 AT p. 124.

(Lewis quotes from his own novel, Perelandra. I have Perelandra upstairs but will not now go to look for that passage in the original.)

Yggdrasil, the World Tree, is a myth to Dominic Flandry (see Yggdrasil And Youth) but a real place to Odin and Loki (see Yggdrasil). Poul Anderson's War Of The Gods is set in a universe where Yggdrasil is real. That universe is visited by Virginia Matuchek from the goetic universe in Anderson's Operation Luna (see Mimir).

Neil Gaiman retells Norse myths and asks whether Ragnorak has happened yet. The ambiguity of the answer to this question makes these myths:

"...seem strangely present and current..."

-Neil Gaiman, Norse Mythology (London, 2018), p. xii)

- instead of just past.

Lewis, Anderson and Gaiman are a trinity of the imagination.

Set And Mitra

Conan The Rebel, I.

We are on familiar imaginative territory. Although the magician Tothapis addresses Set as:

"'...lord of the universe...'" (p. 2)

- Set reminds Tothapis:

"'...how many and diverse are the gods of earth, sea, sky, and underworld...'" (p. 3)

Many peoples regard serpentine Set as a devil. His main divine enemy is solar Mitra, worshipped by the Hyborians (not on our map), who would tread him underfoot.

What would we do if we inhabited such a universe? Not worship Set. Tothapis' mattress is:

"...stuffed with the tresses of sacrificial maidens...'" (p. 1)

I would probably pay due respect to Mitra and to local gods while continuing to practice a form of meditation that works just as well in a universe without gods. All kinds of universes coexist in Poul Anderson's multiverse. 

Night In Stygia

See the previous post.

If the fifth dimension is spatial, then we say that the timelines coexist in parallel with each other. If it is temporal, then we say that they succeed each other. If it is something else, then we do not know what to say.

It would be strange to read Poul Anderson's canon in chronological order of fictitious events starting with Conan The Rebel and we would not usually advise anyone to do this. But when we do begin to read the novel, we find Anderson's characteristic detailed descriptiveness:

"Night lay heavy on Stygia. Where the great river emptied into its bay, no whisper of wind came off the ocean beyond. The sky was hazed, so that only a few stars glimmered in sight above Khemi..."

-Poul Anderson, Conan The Rebel (New York, 1981), I, p. 1.

We find Stygia and Khemi on a two-page map after the contents page.

We, editorially speaking, remember almost nothing of previous readings so maybe it is time for another reading at a leisurely pace?

5 Dimensions + 3 BC

Imagine that the events of Poul Anderson's fictional narratives occur in different parts of a single five-dimensional space-time. Each particular sequence of events has the usual three spatial dimensions and one temporal dimension. Additionally, the sequences are separated by a fifth dimension which is either a fourth spatial dimension, a second temporal dimension or a third kind of dimension. The fifth dimension is traversed by multiversal travellers and by guests of the Old Phoenix.

Each sequence of events is a single timeline. Thus, there are multiple pasts and futures. In some cases, we are shown very remote futures. When we say that three of Anderson's novels are set BC, we do not necessarily mean that they are set in the BC period of the same timeline. In fact, they are almost certainly not.

Conan The Rebel is heroic fantasy set in a remote fictional past.

The Dancer From Atlantis is historical sf/time travel fiction set in Atlantis.

The Golden Slave is historical fiction set in 100 BC.

Conan... is the earliest.

The Changes Concluded

Brain Wave, 21.

Archie Brock presides over a community of morons, imbeciles and animals. A chimpanzee and a moron build a charcoal apparatus.

A small silent ovoid with no visible means of propulsion lands and a man steps through its shimmering side. Intellectual mankind will leave Earth not to conquer the many lesser intelligences out there but just to build its own interstellar civilization which might help others now and again. Spacefaring human beings do not:

"'...intend to establish a galactic empire. Conquest is a childishness we've laid aside...'" (p. 187)

These guys know what they are doing in a way that we need to.

Brock's community and any others like it will inherit the Earth. They might be helped now and again but basically they are on their own. Brock would not want to return to the old days. Everyone is making the most of their new reality which, I suddenly realize, is what we have to do every day. 

Future Histories And Poul Anderson

We can look back on future histories as a twentieth century literary tradition with Poul Anderson, I will argue, as a culmination. 

Wells and Stapledon wrote before we were born. Published in 1945 and set loosely after the war, CS Lewis's That Hideous Strength is an imaginative Christian reply to Wellsian/Stapledonian anthropocentric extrapolations. 

American future histories are embedded in our lifetimes if we are old enough. The opening story of Robert Heinlein's Future History is set in 1951. His second volume is set around 2000. Larry Niven's Known Space History opens with:

"...the near future, the exploration of interplanetary space during the next quarter-century."

-Larry Niven, Tales Of Known Space (New York, 1975), p. xii.

That quarter-century is 1975-2000. Niven wrote in 1975 that:

"The Known Space series is now complete." (ibid., p. 223)

It was not. But think about 1975. It is now fifty years ago.

James Blish's Cities In Flight opens with Year 2018!

In Poul Anderson's main future history series, the early twenty-first century is:

"...a violent period of global unrest known as the Chaos."

-Sandra Miesel, CHRONOLOGY OF TECHNIC CIVILIZATION IN Poul Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, June 2012), pp. 795-804 AT p. 795.

We are not out of that yet!

Anderson's Genesis, published in 2000, summarizes past human history, then proceeds through billions of years in a galactic future of post-organic intelligences that will not be superseded either in our lifetimes or for a very long time after that.

Stillness

Brain Wave, 20.

Corinth feels "...the sea wind in his face..." (p. 176)

When Helga tells him that it is he who has become afraid to face life:

"There was a long stillness, only the sea and the wind had voice." (p. 178)

Then he asks for her help. We leave them with sea, stars and a full moon. However, the concluding chapter belongs to those who remain the old kind of human beings, Archie Brock and Sheila. We will reread it shortly.

(Short posts punctuate other activities.)

Known Space And The Earth Book

Tales Of Known Space has the same relationship to Larry Niven's Known Space future history series as The Earth Book Of Stormgate has to the Polesotechnic League period of Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization. 

Both volumes collect previously uncollected instalments. Tales... collects thirteen. The Earth Book collects twelve.

Tales... has an introduction and interstitial notes by Niven. The Earth Book has the same by Hloch of Stormgate Choth.

Tales... begins with early interplanetary exploration; the Earth Book with early interstellar exploration.

Tales... features the continuing characters, Lucas Garner, Beowulf Shaeffer and Louis Wu. The Earth Book features Nicholas van Rijn, David Falkayn and the other members of the trader team.

Tales... shows the beginning of conflict with the kzinti. The Earth Book shows the origins of conflict with the Merseians.

Each shows some daily life in its history and is a definitive collection of its series.

Glimpse Or Trance

 

Brain Wave, 20.

A Hindu says that, since the change, he has:

"'...lost the feeble glimpse of the ultimate that I once had...'" (p. 173)

Mandelbaum replies that the Hindu's mind has become too strong for:

"'...the kind of trance which was your particular fetalization...'" (ibid.)

What an appalling antithesis!

Contemplation is not a trance. In zazen, we sit in an alert posture with eyes open facing a wall. Contemplation and intelligence are complementary. I expect them to coexist in a better future but we need to build that future to find out.

Sea Wind

Brain Wave, 19. 

When Peter Corinth is told that his wife, Sheila, who had been unable to cope with the change, has given herself unsupervised electroshock treatment which nearly killed her but has instead restored her pre-change personality:

"Corinth was dimly aware of how live and fresh the sea wind felt in his nostrils." (p. 163)

The wind almost always accompanies a pause in the dialogue when the viewpoint character has to absorb what he has just been told. The wind is live and fresh. Sheila has restored her sanity. She has lost the enhanced intelligence which she did not want. She is mentally healthy again although she and he are now irrevocably apart. As if from a distance, he is dimly aware of the fresh wind that signifies her restored wellbeing. Readers often do not analyze how the text conveys its message.

The Change Continues IV (But Nearly Finished)

Brain Wave, 18.

Sensitives make the postal service redundant.

Men's and women's washrooms are no longer separated.

Of necessity, scientists work together for a while to address the change but then become free to follow their own interests. A few recidivists plan to reproduce the inhibitor field and thus to reverse the change but they will be easily detected and stopped by the majority. 

Poul Anderson tries to present the new truncated conversations using italics and brackets as well as quotation marks and the text becomes somewhat disjointed. 

Mankind is advancing beyond the readers' comprehension. The novel approaches its conclusion and as with many other such works, e.g., Starfarers and The Boat Of A Million Years, there will be no sequel. I am a series man, myself.

The Change Continues III

Brain Wave, 18.

The few road vehicles in New York run off the new powercast system. The air is dustless and smokeless. Mid-week feels like Sunday. It is "...like being in the country." (p. 150) The city is dying.

Ten year olds play in an empty shop, then run down the street but do not shout and are no longer like children.

A long noiseless metallic flying shape might mean that gravity has been mastered. An overheard conversation is gibberish to the viewpoint character and to the reader. In the Institute lobby, there is only a blinking, glowing machine. In the building, light is diffused through the air without bulbs.

There is more but it is getting late here. Poul Anderson generates the impression that the changes will continue indefinitely. 

The Inhibitor Field

Brain Wave, 16.

Earth entered the inhibitor field before intelligence had evolved. When intelligence did emerge, it adapted to compensate for the field so that animals and human beings became about as intelligent as they would have done without the field. Then, when Earth left the field, their intelligence quantitatively increased to a qualitatively new level.

The opposite happens for intelligent beings whose planets enter the field. They are suddenly reduced to a sub-moronic level and probably do not survive. Because passage through the field benefits some species, including humanity, Nathan Lewis wonders whether there is a reason for all this but, if there is a reason, then it has to account for the bad effects as well.

At the end of Poul Anderson's There Will Be Time, Robert Anderson wonders whether time travellers from a far future travelled into the past to sow the genes that generated mutant time travellers. That is a better worked out "reason."