Percy Shelley wrote -
"A new Ulysses leaves once more
"Calypso for his native shore.";
Poul Anderson quoted those lines in Trader To The Stars;
Ulysses is Odysseus;
we have just had a family outing to the film, The Odyssey;
in that film, of course, Odysseus leaves Calypso for his native shore.
And now your friendly neighbourhood blogger needs some food and drink after hours at the cinema.
We might be more focused laterz.
13 comments:
Can someone explain the previous comment or should we just delete it?
Kaor, Paul!
I have no idea who that person is, what he wants, or what he is trying to say. I would delete it.
Ad astra! Sean
Right.
That comment was deleted by me, not by its author.
My objection to "The Odyssey" is that it makes the hero too modern. I like the alienness of Homer's people.
Kaor, Mr. Stirlng!
I agree, I have no use for these wretched "modernizations" of ancient classics. I shudder to think what a "modernization" of THE SONG OF ROLAND would be like.
Ad astra! Sean
Note that the First World War was an epoch-making change in human experience, because it was the first war in which the majority of the dead in combat did not see the people who killed them. That had all sorts of psychological effects.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Certainly! The shock of massed industrialized warfare was a stunning shock to Western civilization in 1914-18. As so often Anderson touched on this in his works, as this bit from "Brave To Be a King" (Section 6) shows, after Cyrus the Great/Keith Denison rebelled against Astyages: "I found myself enjoying it. Not like that wretched twentieth-century business of sitting in a fox hole wondering if the enemy barrage will ever let up. Oh, war is miserable enough here, especially if you're a buck private when disease breaks out, as it always does. But, when you fight, by God, you fight, with your own hands! And I even found a talent for that sort of thing."
Ad astra! Sean
Yeah. Before gunpowder weapons, you fought within 200-300 yards or so of the enemy, even when you were using bows. Initially gunpowder weapons had similar range, though they were much easier to use.
"Don't shoot until you see the whites of their eyes" was an actual command, for instance.
Rifled firearms (and cannon) changed that, and then smokeless powder and long-range artillery. You no longer fought face-to-face.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I remember that, about the limited range of early gunpowder weapons. Muskets were better than bows because they needed so much less for training soldiers to use them than in archery.
Re "whites of their eyes," I was reminded of how there were times during their wars when French and British officers would politely invite each other to fire first. I know there were practical reasons for that.
I think modern warfare places stress on small unit action to take advantage of the damage done to the enemy by advanced weapons.
I also know logistics is of primary importance. Tactical skill is not of much use if you don't have the means for tactics to be effective.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: yes, but modern warfare -- with constant danger from long-range weapons -- also promotes PTSD. It's much more stressful than face-to-face encounters. We evolved with those; we didn't with long-range artillery.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I can believe that, re the stress caused by long range weapons, and how we evolved far more for face-to face combat.
Ad astra! Sean
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