Christmas happens everywhere on Earth and on the planet Ivanhoe in the Technic History. Poul Anderson's Christmas story is a conceptual sequel to Arthur Conan Doyle's.
The Terran Emperor's Birthday happens only in the Technic History: carnival; crowds; pleasure houses; near riot; the court following daylight around the globe. A hundred years before Flandry's time, Birthday had meant something. Fathers showed their sons the Imperial stars.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And Birthday should, ideally, mean a lot. Because people doing so means they would be taking the Empire seriously. That kind of seriousness would help its leaders to try to govern well. I recall Lord Hauksberg reflecting that in return for paying tribute to the Empire and obeying its laws the 100,000 planets it ruled got peace and the wealth of peace.
Ad astra! Sean
Great empires are mainly valuable for the internal peace they impose. Neighbors would be cutting each other's throats otherwise.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Absolutely, and that includes the US, an empire in all but name. You reminded me of some of the things Darius the Great of Persia wrote in one of his inscriptions: "...these are the nations I seized beyond the boundaries of Persia; I ruled over them; they bore tribute to me; what was said to them by me, that they did; my laws held them firm." After a long list of the nations the Persians conquered: "Saith Darius the King of Kings: Much which was ill done, that I made good. Provinces were in turmoil, one man smiting another. By the favor of Ahuramazda this I brought about, that the one does not smite the other at all. Each one is in his place. My law, of that they feel fear, so that the stronger does not smite nor destroy the weak." Quoted from pages 4 and 5 of IMPERIAL STARS, Vol.I, ed. by Jerry Pournelle (Baen Books, Dec. 1986).
Ad astra! Sean
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