Medea

(I find it impossible to stop posting about Poul Anderson but am trying to slow down so I will add one or maybe two new posts per day for several days and see how that goes.)

Every time I read a Poul Anderson story, I learn something. In this case, "Hunter's Moon" (Space Folk, New York, 1989) turns out to be Anderson's contribution to yet another shared scenario: Medea: Harlan's World, edited by Harlan Ellison. Probably every differently authored story in this anthology has re-appeared in a collection of its author's works.

A very long time ago, I read Larry Niven's Medea story, "Flare Time," in a Niven collection. As I understood it at the time, Niven had incorporated Ellison's planet Medea into the interstellar ramjet trade circuit of his own Leshy Circuit stories. Thus, two series either crossed over or came to be amalgamated?

Again, I have had Space Folk on a shelf for years but had not yet got around to reading either "Horse Trader" or "Hunter's Moon." In a recent post on Anderson's novel, For Love And Glory, I listed the many shared series to which I knew that Anderson had contributed but Medea was not among them.

The opening sentence immediately establishes that the story is set in another planetary system:

"Both suns were now down." (p. 147)

The first two and a half pages, punctuated by three asterisks at beginning and end,***, are narrated from the point of view of a Medean flying intelligence and therefore contain references that the reader does not yet understand. In this respect, these pages are similar to the opening passages of several other works by Anderson. (See The Rebel Worlds and World Without Stars.) We get a human point of view, that of "Hugh Brocket," (p. 149) after the second set of asterisks and a double space in the text.

I have glanced ahead and confirmed that the triple asterisks are used to delineate that same Medean viewpoint later in the story. There are two intelligent Medean species and a dash, -, is used to delineate the viewpoint of a member of the other species.

A human character remarks that "'...most animals...have to take shelter when a sun flares.'" (p. 160) Thus, Anderson's Medean story refers in passing to the subject matter of Niven's. No doubt, between them, the Medea stories cover the major aspects of Medean life. 

Hunter's Moon

(This is the 100th post for the current month. Now I will definitely take a break from blogging. I must do some other things and get more exercise.)

(Friday 30 August: From Sunday 1 September, posts will resume at the rate of one per day for a while.)

"We do not perceive reality, we conceive it. To suppose otherwise is to invite catastrophic surprises. The tragic nature of history stems in large part from this endlessly recurrent mistake."

-Oskar Haeml, Betrachtungen uber die menschliche Verlegenheit

This quotation is at the head Poul Anderson's "Hunter's Moon" (Space Folk, New York, 1989, p. 147).

What is reality? We cannot perceive and necessarily conceive the microcosm described by chemistry and physics: molecules, atoms and their constituents. Believers in a supernatural reality cannot perceive that and must conceive it in terms of "God", "spirit" etc.

I argue that we do perceive our immediate environment, which is also real, although perception involves application of concepts. I not only feel hot (sensation) but also see the sun (perception) but the latter mental act involves application of the concept "sun" which can be analyzed as "round," "bright," "yellow," "hot," "above" etc. So perception combines sensation and conception. Someone who thinks about the sun while not seeing it is, of course, conceiving it.

What are the "catastrophic surprises" and the "tragic nature of history"? Many people treat their conception of reality as if it were a common perception. Thus, our shared certainty that the sun is above us is taken to be a model for what it is thought should be an equally shared certainty that God is above us. This does indeed lead to catastrophe and tragedy.