Three Comparisons With Heinlein

Reflecting on time travel has made me aware yet again of three specific cases where it makes sense to read a work or works by Robert Heinlein, then to follow this with a subsequent body of work by Poul Anderson.

Fantasy
Heinlein's Magic Inc: magic as technology;
Anderson's two Operation... novels: magic as technology but developed in considerably more detail;
two other novels and two short stories connected to Operation... by the inter-cosmic Inn, the Old Phoenix.

Future Histories
Heinlein's substantial and seminal Future History series;
Anderson's Psychotechnic History, directly modeled on Heinlein's but also substantial, as I realized recently when rereading and posting about it;
Anderson's Technic History, a much longer and very substantial Heinleinian future history series that was not planned but grew organically;
several later future history series by Anderson, including the long Harvest Of Stars tetralogy.

Time Travel
Heinlein's three classic statements of the circular causality paradox - one time traveler is both his own parents, another short story is entirely populated by a single character meeting and interacting with his older and younger selves and The Door Into Summer is a novel;
Anderson's several works of time travel discussed in recent posts.

Hard Fantasy II

While discussing Poul Anderson's views on fantasy, I coined the term "hard fantasy" but used it in two senses:

fiction that combines magical or supernatural premises with acknowledgement of social and technological realities;

fiction that combines such premises with rigorous deductions from said premises.

The meanings overlap because the deductions derive from interaction between the premises and the realities. Thus, in Heinlein's Magic Inc, magic works and replaces technology. Therefore, haulage firms use flying carpets. However, flying carpets stop working if they pass above consecrated ground. Therefore, a haulage firm's insurers must pay compensation for a damaged church. Heinlein built an entire society on that premise and Anderson followed his lead in considerably more detail.

In James Blish's fantasies:

What if prophecies of the defeat of Satan are untrustworthy war propaganda?
And what would follow from a demonic victory at Armageddon?

Blish asks and answers both these questions with the rigor of Heinlein or Anderson.

Heinleinian Origins

In his Introduction to Operation Chaos (New York, 1995), Poul Anderson explains that this work develops a theme that had originated in "Magic, Inc.," by Robert Heinlein. What we retain from a book read decades ago is our always incomplete and sometimes mistaken memory of its content. Such memories lack scholarly precision. However, since I am currently rereading not Heinlein but Anderson, let me exercise memory alone by summarizing what I remember, or misremember, of two Heinlein works.

"Waldo" and "Magic, Inc.," two short narratives published in a single volume, are conceptually connected though without any direct cross-reference. "Waldo" is the source of the technical term "waldo." In that story, characters perform otherwise impossible feats by accessing energy from another universe. One obvious question, not raised in this work, is whether that other universe is inhabited. "Magic, Inc.," can be seen as replying affirmatively.

In the second story, "...magic works - and is treated quite matter-of-factly as a set of technologies." (Introduction)

Thus, a transport company uses a flying carpet. Since magic does not work on or above consecrated ground, a carpet flying above a church falls straight down onto the church, thus raising legal issues like insurance claims and compensation payments. Hence, Anderson's descriptive phrase, "matter-of-factly." Supernatural realms and beings like Hell and demons exist. Near the end, our heroes visit Hell and confront Satan who convenes a gathering of all his demons.

Neil Gaiman has said that that demonic gathering inspired a similar Infernal crowd scene in his graphic series, The Sandman. In graphic fiction, of course, we do not read a description but literally see the demons as drawn to the author's instructions.

In Operation Chaos, which I am about to reread, magic works and is treated as a technology and the narrative ends with a raid into Hell. Thus, it is appropriate to acknowledge Heinleinian inspiration which Anderson does both in the Introduction and by dedicating the book to Robert and Virginia Heinlein, the latter possibly having influenced at least the name of the heroine.