Contradiction Resolution

"However, one friend, who prefers to remain anonymous, to whom I sent this essay made an interesting suggestion which helps at rationalizing the contradiction I found from comparing TDOTR with "Honorable Enemies." It was suggested that the reason why Imperial Naval Intelligence failed to inform Flandry and Chang-Lei of Aycharaych's telepathic powers was due to a bureaucratic obsession with guarding valuable information. This concern for security, legitimate in itself, was carried too far when the information about Aycharaych was not revealed at least to a few key field agents who NEEDED to know it, especially Terra's agents at the court of the Sartaz of Betelgeuse, at a time when it was likely the Chereionite master spy was going to be there."

Earlier today, Sean M Brooks added the above paragraph to his article, "An Unexpected Contradiction" (see here). This is a perfect resolution of the apparent contradiction. We were not told that Flandry knew, then that he did not know. We were told that others, who should have told Flandry, knew. But people do not always do what they should.

It is entirely plausible that Intelligence Chiefs would think, "We must prevent the Merseians from finding out that we know. Therefore, we must prevent our own people from knowing that we know!" But knowledge that is not acted on is useless.

James Blish shows us security stifling science, then democracy. See here, here, here and especially here:

The adverse effect of “security” on science is central to Blish’s They Shall Have Stars:
“…scientific method…depends on freedom of information, and we deliberately killed that.” ¹⁶

Textual Inconsistencies

I argue here that (what I call) the first four Captain Flandry stories form a coherent tetralogy. However, unusually for him, Poul Anderson also wrote a partly inconsistent prequel (see here). In The Day Of Their Return, set earlier, Terran Naval Intelligence learns of Aycharaych's telepathy even though, at the beginning of the second Captain Flandry story, Dominic Flandry, a Terran Naval Intelligence officer, does not know about it.

It is always possible - and enjoyable - to try to iron out even the most glaring inconsistencies in a fictional series as Holmesians, who included Poul Anderson, know. However, the simplest explanation of this particular inconsistency is just that, although Anderson did revise some of the Captain Flandry stories for later republication, it escaped his notice that the later written prequel necessitated one specific revision of "Honorable Enemies."

Some texts are finished products, perfect and complete with not a word out of place, whereas others remain works in progress even after publication. An example of the former is Pride And Prejudice, although even it was enhanced by gestures and facial expressions added in a high quality TV dramatization. An example of the latter is Hamlet which means whatever a theater company can make it mean in each performance. I have seen one short dialogue given diametrically opposed meanings without the alteration of a single word. Shakespeare revised plays between performances. However, as soon as as an author has died, his texts become fixed, although their interpretation and reinterpretation continue.

Any unfinished or on-going series is a permanent work in progress. Thus, in Anderson's Technic History, "Diana, Daughter of Dominic" remains a proto-series because Anderson needed time to write some less space operatic speculative fictions. So we can try to iron out the telepathy contradiction or can just accept that, massive though it is, the History of Technic Civilization remains a fascinating work in progress.

Captain Flandry, Parts I-IV

The first four Captain Flandry stories:

(I) "Tiger by the Tail"
(II) "Honorable Enemies"
(III) "The Game of Glory"
(IV) "Hunters of the Sky Cave"

are a perfect tetralogy.

(i) Flandry defeats the Scothanians in (I), is described as the single-handed conqueror of Schothania in (II) and commands a crew that includes a Scothanian in (IV). (His crew also includes two Gorzuni and one Donarrian - two other species that had been introduced earlier in Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization.)

(ii) Admiral Walton, introduced in (I), reappears in (IV), where he is described as "...one of the last brave and wholly honorable men in all Terra's Empire." (Sir Dominic Flandry, p. 272)

(iii) Flandry learns how to lie to the telepath Aycharaych in (II), this incident occurs between some of the events in (III), which is mostly set on Nyanza, and Aycharaych congratulates Flandry on his handling of l'affaire Nyanza in (IV).

(iv) Flandry first meets Aycharaych in (II) and captures him in (IV) - but the Merseians arrange a prisoner exchange.

(IV) reveals a curious effect of the Technic History version of hyperspace. Flandry's ship, the Hooligan, while pursuing an Ardazirho craft, briefly interpenetrates it so that Flandry sees into its turret and even recognizes its pilot. Then the Hooligan matches phases and captures the Ardazirho.

(IV) is the only installment of the History to feature the Ymirites. Flandry encounters them on Jupiter before traveling to the colony planet Vixen, which plays important roles both earlier and later in the History, as does the Vixenite family, Kittredge.

Falkayn And Merseians

Anyone who starts to read Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization now can read the entire series in chronological order of fictitious events in Baen Books' seven-volume The Technic Civilization Saga, compiled by Hank Davis. Many of us in the past have of necessity read later installments before earlier installments. Anyone who followed the entire series as it was first published (before it was even recognized that many of its parts did belong to a single series) read of:

Dominic Flandry and Merseians in 1951;
Flandry's first encounter with Merseians in 1966;
David Falkayn's centuries-earlier encounter with Merseians in 1967.

Thus, when Falkayn conversed with Morruchan Long-Ax, the Hand of the Vach Dathyr, we were already familiar with Merseian personal names, nick-names, Vachs and Hands. It was as if an entire section of the Dominic Flandry/Terran Empire series had intersected with the Polesotechnic League/David Falkayn/trader team series whereas, to anyone reading the series chronologically now, this is their first knowledge of Merseians.

Morruchan has to be persuaded that the nearby supernova, Valenderay, poses a threat. He says:

"'The radiation, when it comes to us, will equal a mere one-third of what comes daily from Korych. And in some fifty-five days' (Terrestrial) 'it will have dwindled to half...'"
-Poul Anderson, David Falkayn: Star Trader (New York, 2010), p. 218.

The omniscient narrator intervenes awkwardly at this point. We know that Morruchan speaks Eriau whereas we read English. The author wants us to know that the radiation will be halved in the equivalent of fifty-five Terrestrial days even though "fifty-five" is not the number spoken by Morruchan. Another way to do this would have been for Morruchan to state the number of Merseian days and for Falkayn, the viewpoint character of this passage, to recalculate mentally.

Falkayn spells out the effects of radiation on electronics. And the story began with the omniscient narrator's account of the supernova and its generation of transuranic elements, including technetium, which may be appropriate for the Technic History?

Having said that, this is not really an omniscient narrator because he states:

"This was the first chance in our history to observe a new supernova." (p. 212)

Two words, "...our history...," make him one of us. He is someone living later in the Technic History and reflecting back on this period.

Honorable Enemies

"Honorable Enemies" (1951) by Poul Anderson introduced three alien species:

large green Merseians, sitting on their tails;
tall golden Chereionites, with feathers instead of hair;
small blue Betelgueseans, playing off Terrans against Merseians.

Merseians are the collective continuing villain of the Dominic Flandry series and Aycharaych of Chereion became the main individual continuing villain. Compare SMERSH/SPECTRE and Blofeld.

The story assumed a large inhabited planetary system in orbit around a red giant star and later had to be revised to explain this anomaly. See here.

It refers to two previous exploits of Dominic Flandry:

his single-handed conquest of Schotania, described in Anderson's "Tiger by the Tail" (1951);

his recent discovery of how to nullify Merseian robolocks, an untold story.

The entire action of "Honorable Enemies" is incorporated into the time scale of "The Game of Glory" (1958), which, in turn, is referred back to in "Hunters of the Sky Cave" (1959). Thus, the Flandry series grew and this process continued with the addition of novels, prequels and sequels.

Can anyone read what is printed on the cover of FUTURE between "Honorable Enemies" and "by Poul Anderson"?

Later: It says "Feature Novelet."