Time Warps

SM Stirling, Conquistador (New York, 2004), Chapter Twelve.

What might "a time warp" mean? A space warp could be a means of FTL travel so a time warp might be a means of time travel? Sometimes, when someone has been in an out of the way place that has not kept up with the times, they say that it was like being in "a time warp," meaning a perpetually replayed past period?

Tom Christiansen has the "time warp" experience several times in the Commonwealth of New Virginia, e.g.:

"...a boy and girl were actually sipping from the same malt with two straws, something he'd never seen outside a book of Norman Rockwell prints." (p. 334)

The New Virginians, colonizing a pristine Earth with a small population,  want to preserve their ways of life and have no reason to keep up with the little that they might hear about the fashions on FirstSide. They build a simpler, more basic society. There will be more "time warp" posts.

Do the New Virginian Catholic churches retain the Latin liturgy? Do they know of any doctrines defined since 1946? Do they pray for renewed contact with the Papacy?

"The Best Hamburger He'd Ever Tasted"

SM Stirling, Conquistador (New York, 2004), Chapter Eleven, Mermaid Cafe, pp. 290-319 AT pp. 300-301.

Although I am not a meat-eater, I faithfully record the meals of the universes as relayed to us by Poul Anderson and, even more so, by SM Stirling.

Ralph Barnes, physicist, shanghaied to New Virginia in the hope that he would elucidate the Gate, refused to cooperate and called John Rolfe a fascist so Rolfe set Barnes up with a hamburger joint. After all, he cannot be allowed to return to FirstSide.

The best hamburger that Tom Christiansen has ever tasted:

meat lean, flavorful, juicy and lightly basted with a fiery sauce;
onions and tomatoes tasting of the earth;
homemade garlic mayonnaise;
bun warm and kaiser-style with caramelized onion in the crust;
a crunchy spear of pickle;
a basket of chunky fries done in olive oil;
home-brewed beer, well hopped with a nice sharp taste...

All I ask is a bean- or veg-burger instead of the meat, with a slice of cheese.

A Few Observations

There is a good interplay between discussion of SM Stirling's works and discussion of Poul Anderson's. Their alternative histories spark off each other.

I suggested an Anderson collection:

The Old Phoenix And Other Universes

"The House of Sorrows" is set in an alternative history. Furthermore, it is a history in which the Jews did not return from Babylon.

"Eutopia" is about travel between alternative histories. Furthermore, the travelers originate in a history where Alexander the Great did return from Babylon.

"House Rule" and "Losers' Night" are set in a meeting place between alternative histories.

Three stages: presentation, elaboration and summation of the concept.

I hope that I present practical demonstrations of the value of rereading. Several works by Anderson and Stirling have been read and blogged about twice. There is always more to be found in their texts.

Yesterday, Sunday, was spent with the lap top while recovering from a party. The next few days will be spent in other activities. Thus, less time from blogging. I will continue to reread SM Stirling's Conquistador.

Eutopia, Westfall And America

Poul Anderson,"Eutopia" IN Anderson, Past Times (New York, 1984), pp.112-141.

Cross-time traveler Iason Philippou:

lives on a continent called "Eutopia";

is currently visiting a timeline where that continent is called "Westfall";

remembers visiting yet another timeline where it was called "America."

A region that is preserved as a wilderness for hunting on Westfall is, on Eutopia, groves, gardens, aesthetically designed villages and athletic fields. Because dielectric motors have not yet spread this far north on Westfall, Iason smells gasoline fumes and:

"He had thought that stench one of the worst abominations in America - that hogpen they called Los Angeles!..." (p. 118)

We are still rereading SM Stirling's Conquistador in which New Virginians unfavorably compare FirstSide, including LA, with their own unpolluted North American environment.

Iason mentally reviews the history of the American timeline:

Alexander the Great died from the fever that he had contracted in Babylon;

wars of succession destroyed his empire;

"Hellas and the Orient broke apart" (p. 125);

early science degenerated into metaphysics, then mysticism;

cold, cruel, uncreative Romans, claiming the Greek heritage while destroying Corinth, took over;

men despairing of life adopted a mystery cult founded by a heretical Jewish prophet;

this intolerant cult denied all but one way of seeing the God;

its priests cut down the holy groves, destroyed idols, martyred free men and kept their grip for nearly two thousand years;

after that, it became possible for science to be reborn;

however, the idea of conformity in belief remained;

hence, totalitarianism and the threat of nuclear war;

that history is filthy, wasteful, ugly, restricted, hypocritical and insane;

pretending to be an American was Iason's hardest task.

Relearning History

SM Stirling, Conquistador (New York, 2004).

Adrienne explains to Tom and Roy:

Alexander the Great (see image) did not die in 323 BC but lived for another forty years;

the Greeks assimilated the Jews, thus preventing Christianity;

Zoroastrianism died out;

some Scandinavians visited the American continents briefly but no one else;

Eurasia still has medieval technology;

Alexander is still worshiped as a son of Zeus.

Comments
Adrienne: "'The details don't matter.'" (p. 258)
me: They do! (But not from her practical pov.)

Adrienne: "'...our best guess is that the Industrial Revolution needed the equivalent of a toss coming up heads a thousand times in a row.'" (p. 259)
me: Is our history really that improbable?

Appendix Three: "Alexander the Great died in August of 280 B.C.E., in the summer capital of Ecbatanta..." (p. 589)
me: Is this the same as the Ecbatana visited by Time Patrolmen Manse Everard and Keith Denison?
me: When did Alexander die in Poul Anderson's "Eutopia"? Reading Stirling's alternative histories has persuaded me to reread Anderson's Old Phoenix stories and now his "Eutopia."

Omnipresent Conservatives

SM Stirling, Conquistador (New York, 2004).

British politics historically were Conservative or Liberal but then became, mainly, Conservative or Labor;

US politics, beneath or behind the Party system, are conservative or liberal;

Larry Niven's Pierrson's Puppeteers' politics are Conservative or Experimentalist;

Draka politics are Conservative or Militant;

New Virginian politics are Conservative or Imperialist.

Conservatives are ubiquitous. However, on reflection, it makes sense that, in any society, opinions are divided between a conservative faction and an alternative. Ancient China had conformist Confucians and anarchic Taoists with imported Buddhism maybe providing a synthesis.

In New Virginia, Conservatives, the Rolfes and their allies, believe in minimal footprint FirstSide and limited expansion Other Side whereas Imperialists, the Collettas and the Batyushkovs, want to conquer Other Side and enslave all the natives. The Bats might also retain ambitions in FirstSide Russia.

Imperialists sound like Draka. Suddenly it is important that they do not control the Gate.

Not The Same San Francisco Bay

The image shows San Francisco Bay, FirstSide. On the Other Side, Tom Christiansen stares open-mouthed at the Bay with:

no San Francisco;
a town along the waterfront;
a small airport in place of the Naval Air Station;
no landfills on the shore;
long piers with fishing trawlers and small wooden ships;
cranes taking cargo to sheds and warehouses;
trucks carrying it to the highway;
no bridges;
Alcatraz with only swarming pelicans and guano;
fewer and smaller ships - schooners, barges, tugs, sailboats and fishing boats;
in flight, gulls, pelicans, cormorants, golden eagles and several condors;
a spouting whale;
sea lions;
a sea otter.

Adrienne explains:

"'...it's exactly what it looks like, only it's not the same San Francisco Bay you grew up with. Different...time line. A different history, two different universes existing in the same space and joined only by the Gate.'" You know the concept?'" (p. 243)

In Narnia, they would say that you cannot go there by traveling through space, only by magic.

Tom replies:

"'Yeah, you know I read science fiction.'" (ibid.)

And we know that that science fiction includes "Anderson" (p. 103) so Tom has almost certainly read Valeria's explanation to Rupert:

"'You can picture the cosmoses as lying parallel to each other, like the leaves in a book. That isn't strictly true, either; they occupy the same space-time, being separated by a set of dimensions -'"
-Poul Anderson, A Midsummer Tempest (London, 1975), p. 101.

Beautiful Scenery And Good Food

SM Stirling, Conquistador (New York, 2004), Interlude, pp. 226-230.

In the Commonwealth of New Virginia, where the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains sweep down to the Los Angeles basin (see image), Piet Botha, affiliated to the Versfelds, a recent addition to the Thirty Families, has built a long, single-storied Cape-Dutch style farmhouse with whitewashed walls and tiled roof surrounded by ten acres of orange trees.

From the stoep, Piet:

feels warmth from the stone walls despite the cool sea wind;
smells the perfume of the orange trees, also wind-blown manzanita and sage;
sees -

green growth;
flowers among tall grass;
willow, oak, cottonwood and sycamore groves beside the many streams, swamps and sloughs;
entwined alder, hackberry, shrubs, California rose, grapevines, blackberries and brambles.

Piet and his guest sip coffee and eat koeksisters, syrup-coated doughnut-like sweet pastries, while awaiting lamb sosaties and rice -

lamb cubes,
marinated in wine and vinegar,
spiced with coriander, pepper, turmeric and tamarind,
skewered with apricots and peppers,
grilled over a fire of chaparral scrub oak wood.

Piet's people have lost the good life in South Africa but regained it in New Virginia.

Investigation In Sacramento

SM Stirling, Conquistador (New York, 2004).

In medieval society, social rank mattered. In modern society, in theory, every individual is equal before the law. In practice, it is harder for the police to prosecute the rich. (p. 194) Tom and Roy must work in their own time to collect solid evidence against the Rolfes before they even approach their boss - who has already been bought by the Rolfes in any case.

Tom, when captured by the New Virginians, refers to "'...your dimensional portal...'" (p. 222). Adrienne Rolfe corrects him:

"'We usually call it the Gate...'" (ibid.) -

- but Tom had already used the term "'...Gate...'" on p. 197.

Adrienne continues:

"'Think of the other side as bizarro Sunnydale. Or another dimension of time and space.'" (ibid.)

"...bizarro..." is an obscure Superman reference.

Tom and Roy are about to leave their Earth forever.

Commonwealth Institutions II

SM Stirling, Conquistador (New York, 2004).

John Rolfe quotes:

"'Dulce et decorum est pro patria mora...'" (p. 188)

It is sweet and fitting to die for one's country. But it should end with "...mori," not "...mora."

Rolfe looks at:

"...the twelve men who sat on the Central Committee of the Gate Control Commission." (p. 201)

We needed an explanation of the difference between the Committee and the Commission. Earlier, we were told that:

"...there were a dozen men around [the table], all of his first partners who could be in Rolfeston today." (pp. 198-199)

That makes it sound as if a full meeting of the Committee would be more than twelve?

There is a limit to what can be brought through the Gate so the New Virginians need to produce as much as possible on the Other Side. Keeping the Gate itself open involves nothing more than:

"'...keeping that radio set of the Old Man's working.'" (p. 198)

But that sounds very precarious. If the radio breaks down, will they lose the Gate and, if they do lose it, will they be able to reopen it?

A Chinese With Weak Coffee

SM Stirling, Conquistador (New York, 2004).

Indian is my favorite food for eating out and takeaway but, of course, Chinese is another staple. Tom and Roy have a "Chinese," which is not described in detail but includes:

hot-and-sour soup;
shrimp wantons;
mushu;
fried rice.

Tom sips weak lukewarm coffee, made to be drunk endlessly through the night. This meal accompanies sustained research in his apartment. Every flat surface is piled with hard-copy and every wall covered in printouts. By the time they involve their FBI colleague, pizza boxes have joined the Chinese food cartons.

The research pays off. They have evidence of cross-time travel and have deduced where the Gate must be. From surveillance information, the FBI agent confirms that several hundred people spend years inside an Oakland warehouse, i.e., the warehouse conceals the Gate.

Thus, the takeaways are not food to be savored for its own sake but a necessary accompaniment of some serious detective work.

Burritos

SM Stirling, Conquistador (New York, 2004), Chapter Six, p. 160.

The San Francisco Mission District has the best burritos in the world, one of them makes a good lunch and local competition keeps the vendors honest.

Tom and Roy each have:

rice;
beans;
grilled beef;
salsa;
guacamole;
sour cream;
in a flour tortilla;
kept warm and manageable by aluminum foil.

Tom, eating, appreciates flavorful rice, tangy beans and salsa that is soothed by rich meat and cool cream. Thus, a food connoisseur, who will eat well in New Virginia.

Intercosmic Massacres

SM Stirling, Conquistador (New York, 2004), Interlude, Rolfeston, pp. 151-157.

In the twenty years since the Gate was opened on the Other Side, there have been epidemics of measles, malaria and meningitis and regular new varieties of flu. The native population has been reduced by more than three quarters and by over ninety per cent on the West Coast. Tiny nomadic bands who flee from the New Virginians cannot be vaccinated.

Chinese textiles imported to Hawaii by the Collettas carry smallpox virus and some crewmen may have transmitted chicken pox. Prognosis:

from smallpox, fifty per cent deaths, probably more;
with the chicken pox, maybe ninety per cent.

This includes secondary deaths caused by:

lack of nursing because so many are sick;
unburied bodies causing other diseases;
disruption of food supplies;
etc.

Pretty much a clean sweep, plus Rolfe's suspicion that Colletta deliberately introduced smallpox to Hawaii.

Commonwealth Institutions

SM Stirling, Conquistador (New York, 2004), Interlude, Rolfeston, pp. 151-157.

The inaugural meeting of the Commonwealth of New Virginia was in 1946. Twenty two years later, there is meeting of the Central Committee which, as always, is attended only by members of the Thirty Families. All Family heads are present many with their heirs, including:

John Rolfe with Charles;
Salvatore Colletta with Giovanni;
Solomon Pearlmutter with Abraham.

Giovanni is equivalent to John, as are Ioannes, Sean and Shane, but in what sense is this the same name if it can change that much?

John Rolfe, having been brought up to believe:

"...that self-control was the first mark of a gentleman." (p. 151) -

- later thinks:

"...if self-control makes a gentleman, that would mean Salvo was one too..." (p. 152) -

but this is a logical fallacy. If all gentlemen are self-controlled men, it does not follow that all self-controlled men are gentlemen, any more than it follows that, if all men are mammals, then all mammals are men.

The Commonwealth has acquired the Hawaiian islands. Rolfe moves and Pearlmutter seconds that the islands be Commission properties directly governed as common land like Rolfeston and the gold mines, subsidiary properties and franchises to be granted to Families on an investment and lottery basis but with some choice areas reserved for the Collettas, who opened the territory. There is a consensus for the motion which otherwise would have been referred to the House of Burgesses, a representative body with limited powers. Affiliates vote for Family candidates. Rolfe has a bigger affiliation and also more support among unaffiliated free-agent Settlers.

A Few Words And Terms

SM Stirling, Conquistador (New York, 2004), Chapter Five.

South Africans say "bliddy" for "bloody." SM Stirling captures this detail of their pronunciation, e.g., on p. 144.

Indians ambushing Adrienne and her companions hide among the "...tule reeds..." (p. 143)

Adrienne eats jerky while sheltering behind her sangar and defends herself with her FiveseveN automatic (p. 144)

The rescuing Black Hawk helicopter raises dust with its prop wash. (ibid.) When the pilot fires into the reeds, it is:

"...as if God were running a Weedwacker across them." (p. 145)

Once he fires the rocket pods, possibly at a rancheria. (ibid.) Rescuing soldiers have pintle-mounted machine guns. (p. 148) Another rescuer rides in a Hummer. (p. 149) A captured rifle smells of Break Free gun oil. (p. 150)

Regular readers will know that technical knowledge and a rich vocabulary are valued on this blog.

Smuggling Between Universes

SM Stirling, Conquistador (New York, 2004).

Although I am reverting from Poul Anderson's Old Phoenix to SM Stirling's New Virginia, this feels like a continuation of the same discussion about parallel universes.

Some New Virginians have smuggled rare species from their Earth to FirstSide. The FirstSider authorities have found a caged condor that is not related to any of the few known birds of its species and that seems to have lived until now in an entirely unpolluted environment. Prima facie evidence for time travel or cross-time travel. How do the New Virginians plan to cover their tracks? They will release a score more New Virginian condors in an isolated area of FirstSide, thus generating the impression that there has been a small unknown and uncontaminated condor population all along.

Does this work? I can't remember but I am rereading the novel now.

Associative Processes

Blogging processes are allusive and associative, not logical or linear. Thus, discussion of SM Stirling's alternative histories generated speculation as to whether any of Stirling's characters might find their way into Poul Anderson's inter-cosmic inn, the Old Phoenix, but this in turn led to discussion of the historical figures that Anderson does show us in the Phoenix and that discussion proved to be far more fruitful than I had expected, despite my relative familiarity with these texts.

"Losers' Night," if read hastily, merely presents disjointed snatches of diverse conversations. I had enjoyed it even on that level. However, when reread carefully, line by line, it turns out to be a summation of the Old Phoenix sequence because it refers to Holger, Valeria, Rupert and Abelard and also reflects on the roles of several individuals in history. They made their marks so were they really "losers"?

This means that I must finish rereading the Old Phoenix passages of A Midsummer Tempest and will then be free to return to Stirling's Conquistador. But first I hope that there will be a family visit to the Wolfhouse Gallery this afternoon and a historical talk this evening.

An Infinite Series?

SM Stirling, Conquistador (New York,2004), Interlude, pp. 94-99.

The New Virginians kidnap a physicist, Ralph Barnes, so that he can explain the Gate to them but Barnes refuses to help "'...a fascist bastard like [Rolfe]...'" (p. 96) Rolfe will neither kill Barnes nor return him to FirstSide so the latter winds up running a burger joint in the Commonwealth. An avowed dissident is allowed to reside and earn his living.

Having seen the Gate, Barnes thinks that the Big Bang must have been a quantum fluctuation initiating an infinite series of universes. Thus, apparently, a standing waveform drawing on zero energy would solve the dark matter problem. This sounds like some passages in Poul Anderson's Starfarers. See here and here.

If there is an infinite series of universes, might, e.g., the Commonwealth of New Virginia, the Angrezi Raj and the Domination of the Draka be separated from each other by infinite distances? No. Any two or even three universes can be separated only by finite distances however great even if there is an infinite series of such universes. But they could be so far apart that their cross-time travelers will never encounter each other in the entire histories of any of their universes.

New Virginian Neofeudalism

SM Stirling, Conquistador (New York, 2004), Chapter Three.

New Virginian troopers wear gray Commission Militia uniforms but mark their Family affiliation with shoulder flashes. A squad presents arms for the Batyushkov Prime when he has arrived at Colletta Hall in a convoy displaying double-headed eagles and mounted machine guns.Thus easily can ex-KGB men become technologized Cossacks.

The Colletta's Fr Sarducci greets the Batyushkov's Orthodox priest and Giovanni thinks that the two clergymen might argue about filioque. I understand that New Virginian society has lagged behind FirstSide but surely it has not gone that far backwards?

Protocol is all. For the Colletta Prime to greet the Batyushskov at the door would imply equality so the Colletta heir must do it. Batyushkov shows deference by coming to the Hall and to the Prime's office; Giovanni shows respect by meeting him privately and by observing Russian drinking rituals. However, he draws the line at matching his guest drink for drink. A clear head is more important than a minor breach of etiquette and loss of face.

Batyushkov applies the Russian custom of patronymics to his host's Italian name. Thus, he addresses Salvatore's son, Giovanni, as "'...Giovanni Salvatorovich...'" (p. 92)

Behind all this diplomacy and maneuvering is the deadliness of their plan to seize the Gate and rule the Commonwealth.

Some Information About The Thirty Families

SM Stirling, Conquistador (New York, 2004), p. 88.

Americans have a majority among the Thirty. Early land distributions near the Gate went to:

the American majority;
the English;
German-Balts;
Franco-Algerians;
British-Africans.

Granted committee-status only in the 1990s, the Russian Batyukovs got the Pajaro Valley and the Afrikaner Versfelds got Santa Monica.

The Collettas' power is based on:

their share in the oil wells, factories, power stations and gold, silver and mercury mines;
their affiliated Settlers;
their influence on the Central Committee;
their share of the Gate revenues and of the FirstSide corporations.

What's not to like? The Rolfes and their allies, dominating the committee and the Commission, impose policies of caution that are irksome to Giovanni Colletta who sees two worlds to conquer.