Sagittarius

"Theoretically, one man can run a spaceship..."
-Poul Anderson, "Holmgang" IN Anderson, Cold Victory (New York, 1982), pp. 112-163 AT p. 123.

As in his Technic History, Anderson writes as if he is familiar with future spacecraft.

"...unemployed spacemen available for immediate hiring are found once in a Venusian snowfall." (ibid.)

A good future simile, although it should be "...a Venerian snowfall."

"...there was the hill he had left, stark against Sagittarius." (p. 162)

This is Sagittarius as seen not from Earth but from an asteroid during the Solar Union period of the Psychotechnic History.

"'The Union, both as a cultural and a semipolitical unit, is expanding inward toward Galactic center, Sagitarri...
"And where are we? On the Sagittari-ward frontier of the Union...'"
-Poul Anderson, The Peregrine (New York, 1978), Chapter II, p. 15.

"'You will go the Sagittarian frontier of the Stellar Union...'" (Chapter IV, p. 23)

This is Sagittarius as perceived by interstellar travelers during the Stellar Union period of the History.

"'You haven't seen starlight till you've been by Sagittarius.'"
-Poul Anderson, "The Chapter Ends" IN Anderson, Starship (New York, 1982), pp. 253-281 AT p. 262.

"'...there'll be Hulduvian colonies between Sol and Sagittarius...'" (p. 268)

This is Sagittarius as perceived by interstellar travelers in a much later period of the History when human civilization has moved from the Solar System to the Galactic center. Thus, successive references to Sagittarius show us how far humanity travels in this future history.

Chronology Of The Future

The contents page of Poul Anderson's Starship (New York, 1982) tells us that a "Chronology of the Future" begins on page 283 but, when we turn to that page, we find instead "A CHRONOLOGY OF THE PSYCHOTECHNIC SERIES."

There are two ways to construct such a fictitious chronology. In his Author's Note at the end of The Psychotechnic League, Anderson wrote:

"...I drew up a chart in the manner of Heinlein and, from time to time, completed a piece whose title was on it." (p. 284)

On this model, the chart listing fictional dates and titles preexisted the pieces corresponding to the titles. The opposite approach is to compile the chronological chart while writing a series. Thus, the chart hopefully prevents inconsistencies without prescribing what is to be written. It cannot become a straightjacket.

Doctor Who visited many historical and future periods. Script editors should have compiled a chart to keep the series consistent. However, Terrance Dicks, meeting fans at Lancaster Literature Festival, said that they did not keep it consistent. Fans were supposed either not to notice or not to care. But there are two kinds of fans. We value Heinlein's Future History and Anderson's future histories for several reasons, not least because of their detailed and careful consistency.

Star Ship In Starship

"Star Ship" is the title story of Poul Anderson's Starship (New York, 1982). Like the preceding installment of Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History, "Gypsy," and the succeeding installment, "Virgin Planet," "Star Ship" is about interstellar travelers who have gone astray although for an entirely different reason.

"Star Ship" is Poul Anderson 1950 action-adventure pulp fiction with a characteristic opening passage: the hero, returning home, is suddenly attacked and almost killed because there has been a revolution in his absence. Joining his friends in hiding and learning of the current faction fight, Anse deliberates, then announces:

"'I have an idea...'" (p. 50)

- but, of course, does not tell us what it is yet.

As with "Gypsy," I am not finding any internal evidence to link this story back to the pre-interstellar period of the Psychotechnic History and, if anything, the reference to "Galactic Coordinators" implies that the story is set not, as we are told, in the early stages of interstellar exploration but in a much later period of galactic history. There are "Coordinators" in the later Stellar Union period.

Human beings are plastic organisms that would indeed adapt to and fully accept a barbaric alien culture if a small number of them were stranded on an inhabited planet with such a culture, as happens in this story.

Gaps

When the short story, "Gypsy," introduces the hyperdrive in Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History, we are told that the principles of the drive involve multiple dimensions and discontinuous psi functions. Thus, this is not the multiple quantum jumps hyperdrive of the same author's later Technic History.

In a future history series, the author might develop a near future period and a further future period, leaving a chronological gap between them. In Robert Heinlein's Future History, "Logic of Empire" shows indentured servitude on Venus while a Prophet gains support in the US whereas the succeeding installment, "If This Goes On -," shows a US theocracy that has caused a hiatus in space travel. We have not seen the First Prophet come to power although we are about to see one of his successors overthrown. Perhaps seventy years - as well as three "stories-to-be-told" - occupy the gap between the two installments.

The gap in Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History is much longer, 545 years according to the Chronology. In "Brake," human beings have spread through the Solar System but there is turmoil on Earth. In "Gypsy," human beings are spreading at faster then light speeds beyond the Solar System but the hyperspace ship, Traveler, is lost and its crew have settled on an Earth-like planet that they call "Harbor."

I am currently rereading "Gypsy" and have not yet found any internal evidence that it belongs in the same future history. In fact, when does the FTL period of the history make clear that it connects with the STL period?

The Chronology reads:

2270  "Brake"
2300  The  Second Dark Ages
2600
2784  Hyperdrive invented
2815  "Gypsy"
           Nomad culture develops  

So what happened in 2600 that we are not told about? It must be something to do with the restoration of civilization after the Second Dark Ages but it is not the founding of the Stellar Union because that comes later:

2875  "Star Ship"
2900  Stellar Union and Coordination Service founded

The Coordinators begin less than a century after the Nomads.

Seeds Of Knowledge

"...as Trevelyan had wisely foreseen, the self-sufficient, enterprising Nomads bore various seeds of knowledge through the Third Dark Ages. The antecedents of our own civilization were among those who reaped what the Nomads had sown."
-Sandra Miesel, interstitial material IN Anderson, Starship, p. 252.

Does Trevelyan explicitly predict that the Nomads will bear seeds of knowledge through the coming Dark Ages? I will find out by continuing to reread The Peregrine. The following story, "The Chapter Ends," describes a later civilization although it does not indicate any Nomadic influence.

However, the idea that such a group would survive and would preserve something of value is entirely consistent with everything that Poul Anderson wrote, for example in his Technic History. And not just surviving groups - the Bronze Age and the Roman Empire also leave legacies.

"He found the Nomads' closeknit, tradition-laden ways more satisfying than the atomized, cerebral existence considered normal on Earth." (ibid.)

Really? I would be quite happy with an atomized, cerebral existence - but I also recognize the value of traditions. And it makes sense to think of Trevelyan, after a career in Coordination, joining a Nomad ship. According to the Chronology, the Third Dark Ages were then less than a century hence.

An Old Problem

Two Coordinators, Trevelyan and Smokesmith, discuss their suspect, Murdoch:

"'...available data indicate that his companions are quite unintegrate.'
"'...yes, hard cases, none Earth-born, several nonhumans from raptor cultures among them.'"
-Poul Anderson, "The Pirate" IN Anderson, Starship (New York, 1982), pp.211-251 AT p. 220.

Later, when confronting this "unintegrate" crew, Trevelyan:

"...was aware that his own body quivered and went dry in the mouth. A remote part of him decided this was an unintegrate reaction and he needed more training." (p. 249)

These passages shed further light on some earlier posts. I thought that psychological conflicts had destroyed the Solar Union whereas it was cosmic complexity that was to overwhelm and destroy the Stellar Union. This view was correct as far as it went. However, the first problem had not yet been eradicated and indeed it also contributed to the fall of the Stellar Union. People on Earth had attained, or at least had begun to approach, integration of emotion with reason but two other groups had not:

some human beings born off Earth;
nonhumans from raptor cultures.

Thus, Sandra Miesel commented:

"One - even many - foes without could be vanquished; against the enemy within there was no defense. Given the prevailing stage of psychodevelopment, the innate contradictions with individuals and societies could not be resolved. Critical data that needed to be gathered surpassed the capacity of any organization to comprehend, much less coordinate. The Stellar Union flew apart like an overwound spring." (p. 252)

There are two points to note here -

(i) Against the enemy within, there was some defense. Coordinators received integration training. However, many more beings in extrasolar cultures did not.

(ii) Miesel mentions both problems, the stage of psychodevelopment and the inability to comprehend or coordinate critical data, but maybe runs them together, making them sound like a single problem? Of course, they interact. The Coordination Service:

"'...can't coordinate as many planets as are included in our civilization-range today. And that range is still expanding.'"
-Poul Anderson, The Peregrine (New York, 1979), Chapter IV, p. 30.

- and the problem is made even greater because many of those planets are inhabited by unintegrated populations. Noticing that Nomad fliers are armed, Trevelyan thinks:

"Earth thought it had achieved peace...and now this has blossomed again between the stars." (The Peregrine, Chapter VII, p. 51)

A Few Details In "The Pirate"

"Ship Harpsong of Nerthus, out of Highsky for David's Landing, is long overdue..." (Starship, p. 211)

Three words in this passage remind us of no less than four features of the same author's later Technic History:

Highsky Choth on Avalon;

David Falkayn, Founder of Avalon;

Thursday Landing on Diomedes;

Olga's Landing on Imhotep.

A mother trying to protect her child is said to be "...driven by the instinct of Niobe." (p. 238)

A planet with a slain population is described as "'...an archaeological and biological Golconda.'" (p. 243)

Two spaceships are called the Campesino and Genji. (p. 219)

Trevelyan "...had been living for a while at Laugerie Haute..." (p. 212)

On the dead planet, he found an "...ossuary..." (p. 238) - where people, poisoned by radiation, gathered to die.

There are a few unfortunate typos, e.g.:

"...clouds panted briefly to show high towers by a lake..." (p. 232)

The Pact

Poul Anderson's "The Pirate," about Stellar Union Coordination Service field agent, Trevelyan Micah, is narrated a generation later by another Cordy who begins:

"We guard the great Pact: the young generation, the folk of the star frontier, so often do not understand."
-Poul Anderson, Starship (New York, 1982), p. 211.

What "Pact"? The Social Contract? A Constitution? A Pax? A Pax enforced by nuclear or other futuristic weapons? (Remember the Space Patrol in Robert Heinlein's Future History or the Lunar Guard earlier in Anderson's Psychotechnic History.)

In this story, a planetary population has been killed by radiation. The title character aims to get rich quick by selling the idyllic planet with its empty dwellings to would be colonists. The Cordies say no, first, scientists and scholars need as long as it takes to study the dead civilization. The story ends as its narrator explains what he meant by the Pact:

"We guard the great Pact, which is the heart of civilization, of society, and ultimately of life itself: the unspoken Pact between the living, the dead, and the unborn, that to the best of our poor mortal abilities they shall be kept one in the oneness of time. Without it, nothing would have meaning and it may be that nothing would survive. But the young generations so often do not understand." (p. 251)

Anderson had to put the narration into the mouth of another Cordy. The omniscient narrator would not have been able to preach or philosophize like this. Having read to the end, surely we realize that "The Pact" would have been a more appropriate title?

The Psychotechnic History II

See The Psychotechnic History.

In Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History, clones (not yet called that) are grown exogenetically, not in a host mother.

On reflection, this History should definitely be collected in two omnibus volumes:

Vol I, THE SOLAR UNION - the entire contents of The Psychotechnic League and Cold Victory plus The Snows Of Ganymede;

Vol II, THE STELLAR UNION - the entire contents of Starship plus "The Acolytes," "The Green Thumb," the longer version of "Virgin Planet" and The Peregrine but maybe minus "The Chapter Ends."

For comparison, the first three omnibus volumes of the Technic History should be:

RISE OF THE POLESOTECHNIC LEAGUE;
DECLINE OF THE POLESOTECHNIC LEAGUE;
RISE OF THE TERRAN EMPIRE -

- and we know that the political framework of the League is the Solar Commonwealth. Thus, in Anderson's first future history, the Solar Union is succeeded by the Stellar Union whereas, in his second, the Solar Commonwealth is succeeded by the (interstellar) Terran Empire.

Recently, when I began to reread this future history, I became entirely focused on the future historical content of its opening three stories:

Etienne Fourre;
Stefan Rostomily;
political gangsterism;
the protean enemy;
the Pacific Colony;
the three class education system.

However, this post-World War III period is dwarfed by the much vaster context of two Dark Ages and two periods of interstellar civilization. The Un-man, Naysmith, flies his air boat to the Rockies; the Stellar Union Coordination Service field agent (Cordy), Trevelyan, flies his air car to that same mountain range but over a thousand years later in a different civilization facing different problems.

Naysmith identified the UN's protean enemy as man himself. This "enemy" destroys the Solar Union. Trevelyan, psychologically integrated, instead confronts the external problem of cosmic complexity overwhelming any cerebral or computational attempt to coordinate it. This problem destroys the Stellar Union.

Disaster

"...the supernova was aloft by day, invisible. Disaster, Trevelyan thought with a shudder. How little had Earth's ancient astrologers known of how terrible a word they were shaping!"
-Poul Anderson, Starship (New York, 1982), p. 234.

Why does Trevelyan think that? Because just as "nova" is short for nova stella, meaning "new star," "disaster" means disastro, "bad star." (Latin: stella; Greek: aster.) I learned that by googling after rereading Anderson's "The Pirate."

Two words not related to astronomy but frequently used on this blog came to have their present meanings in similar ways:

"novels" are so called because very recently, historically speaking, they were a new/novel form of literature;

"comic strips" are so called because originally their contents were exclusively comical - hence also, "funny papers."

Words encapsulate history. To be bewildered is to be lost in the wilderness.

Trevelyan And Smokesmith

Smokesmith says:

"'In my race, messages are always intended as vectors on the world line of the percipient.'" (Starship, p. 229)

I don't understand that. Do you?

Do the Reardonites, Smokesmith's race, directly perceive world lines? It sounds as if he treats them as more than a theory or a mathematical abstraction.

Trevelyan and Smokesmith discover a supernova. Thus, Poul Anderson's "The Pirate" becomes a supernova story like:

"The Star" by Arthur C Clarke;
"Day of Burning" by Poul Anderson;
"Lodestar" by Poul Anderson.

In "The Pirate" and "The Star," a rational species has been destroyed. In "Day of Burning," such a species is saved. In "Lodestar," the explosion occurred long ago but had scientifically interesting, and industrially exploitable, consequences.

Trevelyan says that civilization is based on communication. Yes. He adds that life:

"'...depends on communication and feedback loops between organism and environment, and between parts of the same organism.'"
-Poul Anderson, The Peregrine (New York, 1979), Chapter IV, p. 28.

"...communication and feedback loops..." is redundant - unless "communication" implies conscious communication, in which case it is wrong.

Trevelyan argues that there are natural limits to the size of information-processing brains and computers and that the number of extrasolar planets contacted is growing beyond anyone's ability to coordinate them. Anderson's fiction primarily celebrates those who value and exercise freedom. His Psychotechnic History mainly focuses on successive guardians of social order. Trevelyan of the Coordination Service is about to come into contact/conflict with the Nomads. Asked why the Cordys dislike the Nomads, he replies:

"'They're the worst disruptive factor our civilization has...They go everywhere and do anything, with no thought of the consequences. To Earth, the Nomads are romantic wanderers; to me, they're a pain.'" (p. 30)

Anderson always presents both (or all) sides of any argument.

With Trevelyan Micah

The first three novels written (not published) by Poul Anderson were:

The Broken Sword (fantasy);
Vault Of The Ages (juvenile sf);
Star Ways/The Peregrine (a volume of his first future history).

A future history is event-driven, not character-driven. In this, the Psychotechnic, future history, three characters appear twice and that is it as far as character continuity goes:

"Un-Man," about clones of the dead but well remembered Stefan Rostomily, cameos Fourre;

"Marius," written later but set earlier is about Fourre and cameos Stefan;

in Star Ways, Trevelyan Micah of the Stellar Union Coordination Service bids farewell to Braganza Diane before departing on a mission;

in "The Pirate," written many years later but set a few years earlier, Micah again bids farewell to Diane before departing on a mission.

Thus, Fourre, Micah and Diane each appear twice.

Trevelyan refers to the Second Dark Ages which happened between "Brake" and "Gypsy." When he visits Port Nevada, we read one of Anderson's list-descriptions:

"...humans and nonhumans hustled, jostled, chiseled, brawled, clashed, stole, evangelized, grew rich, grew poor, came, went, and were forgotten..."
-Poul Anderson, Starship (New York, 1982), pp. 213-214.

Trevelyan's nonhuman colleague says of the man whom they are investigating:

"'Our information concerning his world line is fragmentary, and zero about its future segment.'" (p. 220)

Of course information about the future is zero! But does Smokesmith imply that his species does sometimes have information about future segments of world lines? The very fact he (?) discusses a man in terms of his world line is suggestive.

"...the mother-of-pearl iridescence on [Smokesmith's] rugose torso was lovely to watch." (p. 221)

(I took "rugose" to mean "red.")

Nerthus, like Tyrfing, is a name that links Anderson's hard sf to his mythological fiction.