Did the question come up recently: who is your favourite Poul Anderson woman character?
Some main candidates:
Coya Conyon
Tabitha Falkayn
Diana Crowfeather
Wanda Tamberly
I particularly like Coya in "Lodestar" which might also be my favourite Technic History story. It begins with an Andersonian action scene but is much more than that:
the cartelization of the League;
van Rijn becoming dated;
the generation gap between him and Coya;
the confrontation between van Rijn and Falkayn;
hints, as in "How To Be Ethnic...," at what life is like in the Solar Commonwealth.
What's not to like?
(Blogging any longer this evening is not to like.)
18 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I don't agree Old Nick was becoming "dated." My belief is that he was wiser than many, many others as his times were getting worse.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
He was becoming out of date, out of tune with the times, but not less wise.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Old Nick was "...getting out of tune with the times" because Technic society and the League were betraying the principles which had worked so well and made them great.
Ad astra! Sean
Indeed.
Kaor, Paul!
I was reminded of this bit from a conversation Gimli Gloin's son had with Legolas near the beginning of Book V, Chapter 9 of THE LORD OF THE RINGS, after entering Minas Tirith: " 'And doubtless the good stone-work is the older and was wrought in the first building,' said Gimli. 'It is ever so with the things that Men begin: there is a frost in Spring, or a blight in Summer, and they fail of their promise.' "
Too true, all the efforts of Men might begin well, and great achievements be made, but foolishness, folly, blundering, etc., always eventually crops up.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Fantasy and sf authors can have other intelligent species commenting on mankind:
"Lord, what fools these mortals be!"
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
They do! And I recall Targovi the Tigery saying something roughly analogous about mankind in THE GAME OF EMPIRE.
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Paul!
I also thought of this quote from Chapter VI of WE CLAIM THESE STARS, indicating the frustration Flandry had with human foolishness: "But would the whole long climb of man, from jungle to stars, fall back in destruction--and no single person even deserve to have his knuckles rapped for it?"
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
That question faces us now.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Too true, like the fools recently elected to be mayors of New York and Seattle, great cities being wrecked by insane ideas.
Ad astra! Sean
Of course many people regard the person elected to be president of the US to be a fool wrecking that country with insane ideas, like high tariffs on potash needed by US farmers, or on aluminum needed by aircraft manufacturers.
There are differences of opinion on:
What constitutes foolishness?
Who is foolish?
Are ideas that we disagree with literally insane?
Is the danger of civilizational self-destruction more deeply rooted than the recent election results in two American cities?
Paul.
Kaor, Jim!
It's no use, I'm never going to have anything but fury and contempt for the Democrats as a party. My anger goes back to how these bunglers turned tail and scuttled away after they wrecked the war against the Hanoi tyrants in Vietnam. These hypocrites stuck the Republicans with the messy and painful job of extricating the US from Vietnam.
I also have only contempt for the Democrats for how shamelessly they have fallen prostrate in adoration of Moloch--fanatical support for "legalized" abortion, which is nothing but the revolting murder of unborn human beings.
I can easily go on and on listing why American leftists sickens me!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
But that is not the only point here, is it? What is your critique of the Republicans? And what are the reasons why our civilization might destroy itself? I do not think that "fury and contempt" do us any good! (Uncharitable, to say the least.)
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Of course the Republican Party, as an institution, has its own flaws and vices. And I too have had frustration with it, esp. when it fails to live up to ideas/ideals I believe in. One of those flaws being how the G.O.P. is too often far too timid about forthrightly standing up for its avowed beliefs. Also, there are times when, being only human, Republicans succumb to the temptations of power and varied kinds of corruption.
That said, the G.O.P. is the only political institution capable of opposing the Democrats. Given the two party system which exists in the US, third parties have next to no chance of seriously challenging the major parties of right and left. Major new parties emerging only when one of the old parties disintegrates--as happened in the US during the 1850's, when the new Republican Party replaced the Whigs.
I think it's obvious what are some of the reasons why I dislike the Democrats. Ever since the 1960's they have shown increasingly reluctant or incompetent in defending the interests and security of the US. Which means they have too often been inclined to appease the enemies/rivals of the US: the USSR, Maoist China, post-Soviet Russia, jihadist movements within Islam, etc., all of whom correctly regard the mere existence of the US as the prime blocker of their ambitions. A world where the incompetence of the Democrats led to the destruction or impotence of the US would delight them!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Two party systems can break down as seems to be happening in the UK right now.
The US regards the mere existence of the other power blocks as the prime blocker of its ambitions and these rivalries ignore the imminent destruction of the environment by the present global economy which requires a united response from all governments such as would be given to an alien invasion.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Good, the UK needs a strong, forthright, genuinely conservative party willing to fight for and roll back bad ideas and policies.
Disagree, the post-WW II order set up and defended by the US and its true allies is better than anything Maoist China or jihadist Islam would set up.
Thank you, I'll take the Terran Empire and Technic civilization (oops, I meant the US and Western civilization) over such alternatives.
Global unification is not going to happen until a single power or alliance of powers conquers the world.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Disagree.
The UK needs billionaire Farage able to implement his xenophobia? That will be opposed both in and out of Parliament.
I am not defending China or jihadism! We have got to get beyond such good guys-bad guys politics. We need unity to save the environment.
You want the US to conquer the world? Such a project is an agenda for endless resistance and conflict.
We do not know how the world will be unified but it will definitely not be like that.
Paul.
Post a Comment