Monarchy And Freedom

Well, here is a new way to free a people: become their king, then take an indefinite leave of absence, thus obliging them to develop democracy. Georges I and II were in England but did not speak English. In Poul Anderson's and Gordon R Dickson's Star Prince Charlie (New York, 1976), Charlie Stuart speaks Talyinian but does not stay in Talyina (on the planet New Lemuria). (George I, meaning to say, "I have come for the good of you all," instead said, "I have come for all your goods.")

In both cases, the king's first minister must conduct governmental business on his behalf. Nowadays, the Georges' current successor is the hereditary Head of State whereas the leader of the largest group in the elected Commons is the appointed Head of Government. Thus, Charlie has a precedent and a model for Talinya. He stays there just long enough to establish a bicameral Parliament with financial power in the lower House.

This is a happy ending for the novel but is it also a happy new beginning for Talinya? Only a sequel would tell. Constitutional monarchy is at least preferable to the previous absolute monarchy.

Despite its title and its central character's name, Star Prince Charlie does not present a science fictional version of the story of Bonnie Prince Charlie. The conclusion:

"Better lo'ed ye canna be.
"Will ye no come back again?" (p. 189)

- is ironic because in our world that song addresses not a distant eternal king but a Pretender who failed and fled.

Alliteration And Humanity

"How grossly ungrateful, no glory goes ever
"To us who do also face anger-swung edges,
"That tales of the deeds may be talked of in towns,
"We careful recorders, we war correspondents..."
- Poul Anderson and Gordon R Dickson, Star Prince Charlie (New York, 1976), p. 154.

Awesome, amazing and astonishing alliteration, even involving internal letters and sounds.

Line 1: 4 g's and 4 r's, including 2 gr's, and 2 s sounds.
Line 2: 5 s sounds and 1 rhyme.
Line 3: 4 t's and 3 s's.
Line 4: 3 w's, including 2 we's, 3 c's, 6 r sounds and 2 s's.

Again, the text transcends humor when Charlie realizes that, "...regardless of biology..." (p. 150),  the comical New Lemurians are intelligent, sensitive, brave and basically decent, therefore are men and women with human rights. As it happens, his interstellar civilization, the Interbeing League, already recognizes this, which is precisely why there is a rule of non-interference that Charlie has been drawn into transgressing - although, as someone asked about Star Trek, if they do not interfere, then how can there be a story?

"In spite of his growing distrust of Dzenko, Charlie had to admire the noble. Calm and self-possessed, he went about his work as if it were routine, not a clash which would decide the fate of the kingdom and his own life or death." (p. 149)

We know that Dzenko's motives are far from disinterested. Thus, some of what I am about to write is not applicable. Nevertheless, in his conduct of the battle, Dzenko sounds like a karma yogi (one who controls thought though action) as described to Arjuna by Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita:

do your duty;

attend fully to each task, undistracted either by desire for success and praise or by fear of failure and blame;

if you are a theist, then offer each act to God (laborare est orare, to work is to pray), although Buddhists may also practice "working meditation."

One hero of the Roman Republic, summoned by the Senate to lead an army, left his farm, led the army to victory, reported back to the Senate, then returned to his farm. He did not make the mistake of Marius who went disastrously into politics on the strength of having been successful as a general. That Republican hero, whose name I forget, sounds like a Pagan karma yogi.

Meanwhile, back to Star Prince Charlie's predicament, we expect some treachery from Dzenko before the end of the novel. When he has become king, he will no longer need the Prince of the Prophecy.

Alliteration And Air Power

(OK. I wanted to end the month on a round number but it goes against the grain to write new posts and save them for days on end so there will be a few more posts before the end of January.)

"Fearlessly faring and frightful to foes,
"The Prophecy's Prince will prong them on bladepoint.
"Happily goes he to hack them to hash.
"No sweep of his sword but will slay at least five..."

- Poul Anderson and Gordon R Dickson, Star Prince Charlie (New York, 1976), p. 148.

I quote this passage because it is alliterative verse which I had neither read nor heard until I received JRR Tolkien's The Fall Of Arthur (London, 2013) as a Christmas present:

"...the West waning,  a wind rising
"in the waxing East.  The world falters." (p. 32)

(Alliteration: West, waning, wind, waxing, world.)

Can we improve on Anderson's and Dickson's alliterations?

"No sweep of his sword but will slay at least six..."?

or:

"No sweep of his sword but will slay six or sev'n..."?

Immediately after the short verse, a lighter than air air fleet attacks a sea fleet. First, the bombers are so high that they often miss their targets with, in any case, inadequate explosives. Next, they come so low that they are "...in easy range of catapults..." (pp. 148-149). Thus, the easily repulsed "...onslaught was a pleasant diversion..." (p. 149). Yet the dictator who sent the fleet has a slogan, 'Victory through air power'!" (ibid.)

Before that, Charlie had discovered that, on New Lemuria, very easy riddles have been kept religiously and ritualistically secret with the result that the Priests expect him to be stumped by, e. g., "Why did the chicken cross the road?" Thus, he easily passes one of the prophesied tests without needing any extra help or outright fakery. And he is moved by the simple sincerity of the New Lemurians in a passage temporarily transcending humor.

Star Prince Charlie III

This was unexpected. I was persevering with Poul Anderson's and Gordon R Dickson's Star Prince Charlie (New York, 1976) but it was not holding my attention. I even preferred to return to my struggle with Virgil's Aeneid. No easy task: I thought that the Greeks were offering virgins to the goddess when they were really making offerings to the virgin goddess. Then an old friend arrived unexpectedly for an overnight stay so that I did not get very far with Virgil either.

"Sark" (see earlier post) is a Scottish word for a shirt or similar garment.

Despite its humor, Star Prince Charlie does make serious points about society. Charlie as Prince of the Prophecy is a stooge for an ambitious local ruler but, of course, does not see eye to eye with him. The local, Dzenko, defends the social role and rights of the nobles who:

led against sea rovers and savages;
keep the peace;
manage productive estates;
try cases;
"...conduct olden usage and ceremony which hold society together..." (p. 117);
"...support learning and religion..." (ibid.);
"...deal with foreigners..." (ibid.);
maintain order and progress;
work hard to do all this.

Charlie replies that perhaps the nobility was necessary and can still supply leaders but:

"...we're ready for the common people to have a chance at leadership, too, and freedom in their private lives, and a better break all around." (pp. 117-118)

Weighty matters for a lightweight work.

Star Prince Charlie II

The chapter titles in Poul Anderson's and Gordon R Dickson's Star Prince Charlie (New York, 1976) are mostly (or all?) familiar:

1. The Innocent Voyage.
2. Stranger In a Strange Land.
3. A Night at an Inn.
4. Kidnapped.
5. The Redheaded League.
6. Songs of Experience: The Tiger.
7. Man and Superman.
8. Soldiers Three.
9. A Midsummer Night's Dream.
10. Wind, Sand, and Stars.
11. The Social Contract.
12. The Return of the Native.
13. Fahrenheit 451.
14. Beat to Quarters.
15. The Prince.
16. The Deep Range.
17. Earthman's Burden.

"The Redheaded League" is title of a Sherlock Holmes short story although I am not sure of its relevance here. The titles Star Prince Charlie and "The Prince" present very different connotations of the word "Prince."

I must consult a dictionary for the meaning of the word "..sark..." as used on p. 111.

Star Prince Charlie

An Interim Report

I am reading this book for the first time. However, unusually for a work by Anderson, I cannot think of much to write about it yet. I would have preferred a historical novel by Anderson about the Jacobite Rebellion rather than yet another Hoka historical reenactment!

Before our young Charlie Stuart can be accepted as a military leader on the planet of New Lemuria, he must pass five tests prescribed by local legend and it remains to be seen how he will pass even the first although, since the novel is a comedy and since there might be a powerful vested interest on his side, we should not be surprised to read about a series of implausible events.

I will read this work to its conclusion although not with a great deal of enthusiasm as yet.

Next

Hello, Poul Anderson fans.

Tomorrow, because of a birthday, I will drive some members of my family to the nearby city of Preston (see image) for the day. Usually, while they shop, I meditate in a church, maybe walk in the park and visit a temple, then read some carefully chosen book in a couple of coffee places.

After recent detours into Ian M Banks (see the Science Fiction blog), Alan Moore (see the Comics Appreciation blog), JRR Tolkien and the Higgs boson (see the previous post), I expect to return to Anderson with his and Gordon R Dickson's Star Prince Charlie, which I have yet to read for the first time. After that, I must scour Anderson collections for any short stories not yet read or not reread recently.

I might also reread some earlier posts on this blog. I remember, for example, finding fascinating details in The Game Of Empire, which I had previously considered a light weight work - and I noticed many of these ingenious details in Anderson's fictitious worlds because I was pausing to post while rereading, not merely rereading at a normal pace.

I do not know what comes next. It is difficult to predict, especially about the future.

Schedule

Provisional schedule

Finish reading Iain Banks' second Culture novel;

before starting the third Culture novel, start reading Poul Anderson's Star Prince Charlie or Murder Bound - having read neither before;

scan through the Poul Anderson collections in my possession for any remaining stories that I have not read or not reread recently;

hopefully get a copy of Multiverse, the anthology about Poul Anderson;

decide whether to attend the World SF Con in London this August - possible contact with other Anderson, Blish, Gaiman etc fans versus practical problems to do with staying in London for a long weekend?

As ever, any comments or suggestions would be welcome...

The Horn Of Time The Hunter And Other Matters

It is possible to get completely blown off course when blogging. I have not yet started to read the recently acquired Star Prince Charlie by Poul Anderson because I needed first to finish rereading his The Makeshift Rocket but that has been interrupted by illness, by other reading, by posting on another blog and by the arrival of Anderson's The Horn Of Time, containing six stories of which I had not read two and wanted to reread a third. Meanwhile, Yule, Christmas, New Year and my birthday bear down upon us.

One previously unread story, "The High Ones," addressing major issues and evoking other stories not only by Anderson but even also by Wells, merited considerable discussion.

The story that was to be reread, "The Horn of Time the Hunter," is, like the other works mentioned here, hard sf but one of its several interesting features is psychological, mysterious or even, potentially, fantasy: an unexplained sound like a hunter's horn, heard by only one of the characters, on a briefly visited planet. Was it just the wind? The story was originally entitled "Homo Aquaticus" but that gives away the surprise discovery that the sea-dwelling inhabitants of the visited planet are descended from human colonists. The second title is far superior and extremely evocative.

When the interstellar traders called the Kith were persecuted in the Star Empire, they scattered and fled. One of their ships now returns from a twenty thousand year relativistic round trip towards the galactic center. This ship's crew did not find the Elder Race that they sought and do not yet know whether the Empire, the Kith or even humanity still exist. They find that one human colony has undergone a sea change. One of their number is killed by the aquatics and another hears the horn of time blowing on the wind...

Up-Date II

I am still immersed in Neil Gaiman's The Sandman series and we are now immersed in preparations for Yule (Dec 21) and Christmas (Dec 25).  

Star Prince Charlie (New York, 1976) has arrived by post. Like The Makeshift Rocket, it refers to the royal house of Stuart. Like the Hoka series, it refers to the Interbeing League and its plenipotentiaries and to a place called Bagdadburgh. The cover, the blurb inside the cover, the Prologue and the back cover do not mention Hokas. The blurb does refer to the title character's imaginative tutor and a correspondent has informed me that that tutor will turn out to be a Hoka.

We have previously read about Hokan society but not about a sole individual in another context. Thus, we have here a perfect example of an independent story set against an established futuristic background.

The League guides, educates and develops primitive beings and the Prologue lists reasons why guided development has to be slow:

primitives must not acquire advanced weapons;
natives must not become dependent on an industry that it is beyond their means to sustain;
ancient institutions must not be overthrown too quickly;
every people has the right to choose its own destiny.

I suspect that our hero will be in danger of transgressing some of these principles.