Kipling & Co

Poul Anderson's collection, All One Universe (New York, 1997), includes articles on three individuals:

Johannes V Jensen;
Rudyard Kipling;
John W Campbell.

Unexpectedly, they "cross over." First, Anderson quotes Jensen's description of Kipling after interviewing him, although I am not sure what Jensen meant by describing Kipling's head as "...not large but singularly full..." (p. 156).

Secondly, the article on Campbell mentions the Campbell school of science fiction writers, including Robert Heinlein. Heinlein wrote detailed descriptions of fictitious futures. Anderson tells us that Kipling did this in his sf story, "As Easy as ABC," "...with the same eye for detail as would later distinguish the work of Robert Heinlein." (p. 157) I have read very little Kipling but have liked what I read although my reading has not included "As Easy as ABC."

Anderson also replies to George Orwell's criticisms of Kipling. Thus, we have now referred to three writers of technological dystopias:

in 1984, television is used to spy on the population;
in "If This Goes On -," television is used to fake miracles for a religious dictatorship;
in "As Easy as ABC," I gather, "...technology driv[es] the evolution of the managerial society..." (ibid.)

Pretty smart stuff.

Johannes V Jensen

Having read CS Lewis, we can go on to read George MacDonald, knowing that Lewis read and enjoyed MacDonald before writing Narnia or The Great Divorce. (The latter features MacDonald as a character in conversation with Lewis.)

Thanks to Poul Anderson's article, "Johannes V Jensen" (All One Universe, New York, 1997), we can try to track down English translations of Jensen's Danish novels, knowing that they influenced Anderson.

Anderson summarizes the thousand year history of Scandinavian literature:

the Eddic poems;
the writing down of the Icelandic sagas;
the Danish folk ballads;
a revival during the Reformation;
eighteenth century playwright Holberg and poet Bellman;
the Romantic movement;
Hans Christian Anderson;
Ibsen and Strindberg;
literary realism in the nineteenth century;
many well known writers from the beginning of the twentieth century until the Second World War;
Jensen, 1873-1950.

Jensen "...invented a whole new literary form for himself, the 'myth' - a sketch which in a few pages, whether of straightforward description, fiction, or fantasy conveys an intensely personal impression of something, someplace, or somebody." (pp. 193-194)

Although these "myths" were brief, "...a few pages...," Jensen also wrote The Long Journey, a six volume series of mythological-historical novels stretching from before the Ice Age until the voyage of the Beagle. The series incorporates fantasy. Some of the characters live for centuries and one chapter of Anderson's The Boat Of A Million Years is a homage to Jensen. Since Jensen also has characters who may be the originals of Odin and Thor and shows the Cimbrian invasion of northern Italy, it is easy for a reader of Anderson's historical novels to recognize Jensen's influence.