"'The Narodna Voyska has been a, a basic part of our society, ever since the Troubles. Squadron and regimental honors, rights, chapels, ceremonies - I'd stand formation on my unit's parade ground at sunset - us together, bugle calls, volley, pipes and drums, and while the flag came down, the litany for those of our dead we remembered that day - and often tears would run over my cheeks, even in winter when they froze.'
"Flandry smiled lopsidedly. 'Yes, I was a cadet once.'"
-Poul Anderson, A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows IN Anderson, Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight Of Terra (Riverdale, NY, March 2012), pp. 339-606 AT V, p. 409.
Not glorification of the military as in Heinlein's Starship Troopers.
No way am I militaristic but Dennitzans would have had to defend their planet during the Troubles and, in Kossara's time, they are on the marches facing the Merseian Roidhunate. Fortunately, Anderson also shows us peaceful inter-species interactions. In the Technic History, human beings and Ythrians amicably share Avalon. In the Psychotechnic History, human beings and Hulduvians amicably share the Galaxy.
Have I said before that Poul Anderson covers every option?
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
We see the young Dominic Flandry as an Ensign in ENSIGN FLANDRY, but not when he was an even younger cadet at the Imperial Naval Flight Academy, or later, after ENSIGN, when he studied at the Intelligence Academy. Both institutions had rites and ceremonies similar to those described by Kossara Vymezal. Incidentally, decades later, Flandry was an occasional instructor at the Intelligence Academy.
I disagree Heinlein was "glorifying" the military in any bad senses in STARSHIP TROOPERS.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I did not say BAD sense - although I dislike the book.
"To the everlasting glory of the infantry..."
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I don't dislike STARSHIP TROOPERS, one of RAH's last really interesting stories, before he became such a sexually obsessed bore.
I believe in "glorifying" honorable military forces deserving of respect. One example I thought of from SF being Falkenberg's mercenaries, from Pournelle's Co-Dominium series/timeline.
Ad astra! Sean
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I remember Falkenberg ordered his men to fire into an unarmed crowd.
Paul.
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