There is a gunfight on Mars exactly as in a Western film. In the 1950's, I enjoyed Westerns a lot but preferred sf. I realized that I enjoyed pictures of men in spacesuits more than pictures of men on horseback. Many of my contemporaries preferred footballers. I still wonder about that a lot.
The main outcome of this Martian gunfight is that Fenn's fiancee, Kinna, is shot dead. Thus, Fenn suffers exactly the same kind of bereavement as Poul Anderson's series character, Dominic Flandry.
In the following chapter, Chuan begins to tell Fenn the Big Lie that is meant to distract and mislead humanity. Human beings are to be shown manufactured evidence of a cosmic civilization so that they will spend entire lifetimes entranced by this fiction instead of venturing out into the universe, beyond the control of the cybercosm.
Knowing from previous readings that this cosmic civilization is an elaborate falsehood makes it anti-climatic to reread what would otherwise have come across as a massive revelation by Chuan to Fenn. I will reread The Fleet Of Stars to the end but might not find much more to say about this concluding volume of Anderson's Harvest Of Stars future history.
Ad astra.
16 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
It's obvious to me why fans of football/soccer in the US/UK like such games: it appeals to the innate human fondness for vicarious violence, to enjoy watching people risking their lives. That's why, at its most extreme, the barbaric gladiatorial games were so wildly popular in Roman times.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
What I wonder is why interests are so arbitrarily different.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I don't wonder, I expect people to so often have such arbitrarily different interests. IWHBD.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Yes, we expect it because we know it happens but it would still be interesting to know what happens in each mind/brain.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
For that we would need the universal telepathy of an Aycharaych. Or the telepathy seen in Anderson's "Journeys End."
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Paul!
"Journeys End" shows us Anderson speculating how telepaths might react to knowing the deepest, innermost thoughts of others--thoughts that were not aways pleasant.
Ad astra! Sean
Telepathy would not tell us about neurology.
My taste in sports runs to gymnastics, though I played cricket and soccer in my teens.
Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!
Paul: Real telepathy would tell us what human beings were thinking and feeling. And, considering how nasty the thoughts of sadists and other such deviates are, I'm glad not to be a telepath.
Mr. Stirling: Cricket? How British of you! (Smiles)
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: I went to British-run boarding schools in my teens (in Kenya); one was run by an ex-Colonel in the Indian army during the Raj. Assisted by his ex-RSM. And then largely British-staffed boarding schools on my return to Canada.
Sean,
Telepathy would tell us how others were thinking and feeling but not how this connected with neurology.
Paul.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling and Paul!
Mr. Stirling: That interests me, that you knew Anglo/Indian soldiers of the Raj as a boy. I recall from Kipling's stories and poems how highly he regarded most of the Anglo/Indian soldiers he came to know.
Paul: Of course.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: well, old Massy-Blomfeld told us stories about the NW Frontier. They resembled Kipling... but Kipling left out a lot of the blood.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Certainly, Kipling left enough of that bloodshed in his works to make it plain he had no illusions about war. I would not be surprised if Col. Massy-Blomfeld also read Kipling, who also mentioned those Afghan raids over the NW frontier.
Ad astra! Sean
Oh, he did read Kipling.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Good! These mentions of Kipling reminded me of this bit from page 190 of THE ENEMY STARS (Lippincott: 1958), Magnus Ryerson speaking: "They have forgotten Kipling now," he said. "One day they will remember. For no people live long, who offer their young men naught but fatness and security."
I'm sure your old headmaster would agree!
Ad astra! Sean
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