War is waged between bat-winged Diomedeans in Poul Anderson's sf novel,
The Man Who Counts, and by bat-winged demons in James Blish's fantasy novel,
Black Easter/
The Day After Judgement. Diomedeans, obeying known laws of physics, are able to fly in their planet's heavy atmosphere whereas demons, obeying unknown laws of metaphysics, are seen to fly even without wings. Thus, although the visuals of the two novels bear some similarities, these are entirely dissimilar narratives. This is an early morning post because I have got up early and have not meditated yet. We might walk along the canal today on this Sunday between Christmas and the New Year.
Happy New Year and let us not only hope but also campaign for less wars in 2026.
Kaor, Paul!
ReplyDeleteBut non-corporeal spiritual beings, like the angels, good or fallen/evil, are not bound by the laws of physics, unlike the Diomedeans and Ythrians. It's merely an artistic convention to depict angels and demons as having wings.
Happy New Year! Sea
Well, one's SF and the other is fantasy...
ReplyDeleteThey are. Blish wrote a kind of "hard fantasy" such that the difference is not always apparent.
ReplyDeleteIf it includes God and demons, it's fantasy. Spaceships are SF...
ReplyDeleteYes, so far. Sf can be about a lot of things. In THE DAY AFTER JUDGEMENT, some of Blish's characters write an equation for eternal life as permanent negative entropy and begin to discuss how to disrupt it but the story does not move any further in that direction.
ReplyDeleteWhen the Strategic Air Command attacks the demon fortress, Dis, in Death Valley, none of the demons are killed but they are seen to change form repeatedly as if discomfited or inconvenienced by missiles, explosions etc.
Whatever God was, He died or was killed so He was some kind of powerful but finite being. This background stuff could have been rationalized further and become sf.
Kaor, to Both!
ReplyDeleteAnd what I thought was recalling how, in the Hell universe seen in OPERATION CHAOS, most of the devils took on whatever fancifully grotesque forms they chose to adopt. But I now wonder what happened to their spirits after any of them were "killed" in that universe?
Happy New Year! Sean