An Ending And A Question

I have read to the end of "A Man To My Wounding." The first person narrator thinks:

"...we are the kings who die for the people..." (p. 201)

Ideas are being recycled.

The enemy sets out to assassinate not only current political leaders but also talented younger people who might become future leaders. Thus, the assassination system escalates just as war had done and the story ends not with a conclusion but with a question:

"'Where is it going to end?'" (p. 209)

The narrative had seemed to meander but this turns out to have been its destination point. OK. We can now move on to something else.

Rationalization

An author can address an issue either in an article or in a work of fiction. Articles discuss; fiction dramatizes. An author can also express a viewpoint either directly in nonfiction or indirectly in fiction. Both characters and readers hold viewpoints and discuss issues. Hence, blog comboxes.

The broadcast address heard by the first person narrator of "A Man To My Wounding" acknowledges that MAD is mad but also (literally) rationalizes violence. I try to avoid lengthy quotations but sometimes a text is so dense and compact that selection is difficult. The address includes the following proposition:

"'At the same time, force remains the ultima ratio.'" (p. 189)

Here is a dictionary definition:

"Ultima ratio" means the final argument or last resort, often implying the use of force when all other measures fail."

-Merriam-Webster.

It was the use of "ratio" that made me describe this address as a "rationalization." The passage continues:

"'It is no use to preach that killing is wrong, that human life is infinitely valuable, and so on. I'm afraid that in point of blunt, regrettable fact, human life has always been a rather cheap commodity. From a man defending his wife against a homicidal maniac, on to the most complex international problems, issues are bound to arise occasionally which cannot be resolved. If these issues are too important to ignore, men will then fight.

"'The need of the world today is, therefore, not to plan grandiose renunciations of violence.'" (ibid.)

Solutions

In Poul Anderson's "Kings Who Die," war is still waged but beyond Earth and Moon.

In his "License," crime is legalized.

In this story, political leaders are assassinated.

My point, however, is that the broadcast address, which fills more than a page, reads too much like an article and not enough like a fictional dialogue in which a character expresses his viewpoint. The narrator approves of what he hears, thus reinforcing the message. That message is reasonable but is this how to present it?

I remember a British children's TV series with a lot of sword fights. The theme song ended:

"For life and love and happiness are well worth fighting for.

"They're well worth fighting for!"

They are but this was a blatant rationalization of a series that was all about fighting and not about life, love or happiness!

To War Or Not To War

Poul Anderson's Seven Conquests (New York, 1970) is a collection of short stories about war:

"...human conflict leading to institutionalized violence."

-Foreword, p. 9.

In "Kings Who Die," war, too dangerous on Earth, is waged in space.

In "Wildcat," nuclear war destroys all life on Earth.

(Thus, these two stories agree about something.)

In "Cold Victory," a "civil war" involves three planets, Earth, Mars and Venus, because it is a conflict within the Solar Union.

(What we can do with words!)

In "Inside Straight," the war is between two extra-solar planets colonized by human beings.

(Our first step outside the Solar System in this collection.)

In "Details," well-meaning extra-solar intervention on twentieth century Earth causes more wars than it prevents.

(Thus, this story is about wars that are all too familiar to us.)

"License" is about war in the sense that it is about a society that has to cope with the fact that war is too dangerous to wage on Earth and cannot be moved into space.

"Strange Bedfellows" is about a human conflict but not one that leads to institutionalized violence. Also, the author's introduction to this story seems to have no bearing on the story so is there some mistake here?

CONFLICT

After Conquests/Seven Conquests, we (might as well) turn to Conflict (not Conflicts!), a similarly themed Poul Anderson collection. Having recently reread:

"Time Lag"

"The Alien Enemy"

"Kings Who Die"

"Details"

- we are left with:

"High Treason"

"The Pugilist"

"I Tell you, It's True"

"A Man To My Wounding"

"Among Thieves"

"The Turning Point"

Sometimes the title of a short story evokes an inchoate memory not of any plot details but only of emotional tone and not necessarily a favourable memory. However, this is irrelevant. We have demonstrated that a Poul Anderson story reread analytically repays our analysis with a wealth of entirely forgotten details and nuances so we will start with "High Treason" the next time that we return to this blog although, since I now approach the end of a period of recuperation from a cold, I will be publishing considerably less than ten so or so posts per day! Other aspects of daily life in twenty-first century Lancaster will resume. Into the future.

Five Wars In Four Stories

It is getting late here. Let us summarize the wars that we have read about so far in Poul Anderson's Seven Conquests.

In "Details"

World Wars I and II. (Galactic intervention put Lenin into Russia in 1917! The Galactics later regretted it. In another timeline, the Time Patrol would have to ensure that Ulyanov/Lenin got into that sealed train.)

In "Kings Who Die"

An interminable war beyond the Moon between the United States Astromilitary Corps and the Cosmonautical Service of the People of United Asia. (World War III taught the powers to move war off Earth.)

In "Wildcat"

A Cold War culminating in a nuclear exchange that destroys all life on Earth in the twentieth century.

"Cold Victory"

The Martian and Venerian colonies intervening to help the anti-Humanist counterrevolution and to restore Earth to the Solar Union in a future history that had begun in the aftermath of World War III.

That is four of the seven stories. What are the other three about?

Descriptive Passages

Two descriptive passages that we have read past in Seven Conquests:

The Cantina In "Kings Who Die"

a low, noisy room

bullfight posters

dense smoke

tourists

loud clothes

fat faces

3V (future TV in several Poul Anderson works)

a juke wall with a three times life size singer

deafening singing

Herries' Vision Of "One Place Stretching Through Time" (p. 50)

exhausted oil wells

abandoned tanks, pumps and shed

rain and jungle

sea

dry land

"...cold prairie scoured by glacial winds..." (ibid.)

growing warmth

"...a waste of years..." (ibid.)

the time projector on this very spot

after that?

(A very different "time projector" from the one in "Flight to Forever.")

"Luckily..."

 

"Kings Who Die."

How many short stories begin and end with the same sentence?

"Luckily, Diaz was facing the other way when the missile exploded." (p. 11)

"Luckily, Diaz was facing the other way when the missile exploded." (p. 40)

In the first sentence, Diaz has survived the destruction of the spaceship in which he had been a crew member. In the concluding sentence, he has sabotaged and escaped from the command ship of the enemy fleet, thus decisively winning the battle for his side, and has also gained crucial military intelligence. He has come a long way and has come full circle. Luck has stayed with him. She favours the brave.

And maybe the insight gained into the underlying sociopsychological cause of the war can help to resolve a conflict which otherwise will remain endless because it is fought only in space and never allowed to harm Earth or even the Lunar bases? 

The Theoretical Basis

"Kings Who Die."

L. F. Richardson is to this story what John K. Hord is to Poul Anderson's Technic History and Oswald Spengler is to James Blish's Cities In Flight.

Rostock claims that he has:

"'...carried Richardson's work a good deal further and more rigorously. I say to you now only that civilized societies must have a certain rate of immolations.'" (p. 32)

- hence this story's title: 

"'Today the machine age has developed its own sacrificial kings. We are the chosen of the race, the best it can offer. None gainsays us. We may have what we choose, pleasure, luxury, women, adulation - only not the simple pleasures of wife and child and hope, for we must die that the people may live.'" (p. 33)

Diaz will wind up defeating Rostock militarily instead of joining forces with him but surely this Richardsonian theory warrants further investigation?

Consciousness And Computation

"Kings Who Die."

Rostock is one of those sf characters who have linked their brain to a computer, thus combining conscious intuition with rapid computation. Since this story was published in 1963, what Rostock says about computers must have become dated:

"'In spite of much loose talk about giant brains, computers do not think, except perhaps on an idiot level. They simply perform logical operations, symbol-shuffling, according to instructions given them...

"'...the larger a computer becomes, the more staff it requires..." (p. 28)

Right now, not individual computers but data centres, networks of computing and storage resources, are becoming dangerously big. 

Rostock compares his situation to that of mortals who became gods in the Greek myths:

"'I think they hardly noticed the palaces and music and feasting on Olympus.'" (p. 30)

What a conception of the gods! When, and only when, human labour had produced palaces for a tiny social minority, it was then imagined that supernatural beings dwelt in even greater palaces. But Rostock imagines that what mattered to a new god was how he:

"'...mastered his new capacities... won a god's understanding...'" (ibid.)

Like the change from animal to human?

I can't find this online but I think that the manuscript of one of John Keats' unfinished epics, either Hyperion or The Fall of Hyperion, had ended:

"Immortal glory dawned. He was a god."

War In Different Periods Of Different Timelines

"...whether the cause be good, bad, or indifferent, the human flesh caught in the middle is just as dead and maimed, the wealth is just as wasted."

-Poul Anderson, Foreword IN Seven Conquests (New York, 1970), pp. 9-10 AT p. 10.

This is a persistent Andersonian point and we recall two echoing events -

Diaz remembers men:

"...who stared without immediate comprehension at a red spurt which a second ago had been an arm or a leg..."

-"Kings Who Die," pp. 35-36.

Manse Everard sees a "...burly Italian peasant...":

"...staring without belief at the stump of an arm..."

-Poul Anderson, "Delenda Est" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, December 2010), pp. 173-228 AT 8, p. 223.

And they are not alone. Diaz also remembers:

breath and blood from bursting helmets;

the shuddering, vomiting and defecation of radiation sickness;

gassing the insane because insanity catches in space.

The Italian peasant sits beside a Carthaginian slinger feebly pulling at a javelin in his stomach.

"War is hell."

Awareness Of An Environment

"Kings Who Die."

Poul Anderson frequently appeals to at least three of the senses in descriptive passages so what does he do here?

"[Diaz's] mind was sharply aware of its environment -" (p. 20)

- and that environment is:

"...muscle play beneath his skin,..." (bodily sensation);

"...pastel bulkheads and cold fluorescence,..." (light and colour);

"...faint machine-quiver underfoot,..." (something partly felt and partly heard?);

"...gusts from ventilator grilles,..." (felt on the skin);

"...odors of foreign cooking..." (smell);

"...and always the men, with alien faces and carefully expressionless voices..." (sight and sound).

Careful rereading shows that only taste is lacking.

Angels And Devils?

"Kings Who Die."

That fanciful back cover blurb reads:

Angels Above, Devils Below...

Since the first human stood upright the stars have been a source of wonderment and inspiration. All our heavens have been placed in...the heavens, our hells in the depths of the earth. Angels above, devils below. Mankind between. 

But perhaps heaven isn't so heavenly. Perhaps those who live there are as self-interested and violence-prone as any earthbound mortal. And even if they're not, we will be there soon.

Cause enough for

CONFLICT

A Tom Doherty Associates Book

Who wrote this? By defining a theme and explaining the title, it serves the purpose of Poul Anderson's own Introductions to several of his other collections. 

The casual assumption that any earthbound mortal is violence-prone is a tired cliche. An extraterrestrial who was given the impression that my excursions into town are punctuated by routine acts of violence against other pedestrians and of rage against the drivers of motor vehicles or that I would return home to find that my property had been vandalized by my neighbours would have been seriously misinformed.

Most of the stories collected here are about intra-species conflicts.

I had set out to post about a passage in "Kings Who Die" but was distracted when I found this image of the back cover of my edition of Conflicts. Normal service will be resumed shortly.

Emotional Control

"Kings Who Die."

"Emotional control, drilled into [Diaz] at the Academy and practiced at every refresher course, took over. It was essentially psychosomatic, a matter of using conditioned reflexes to bring muscles and nerves and glands back toward normal. If the fear symptoms, tension, tachycardia, sweat, decreased salivation, and the rest, were alleviated, then fear itself was." (p. 19)

But we all need that, not just Astromilitary Corpsmen with the benefit of a "satorist" trainer! 

Zazen practice is "Neither trying to think nor trying not to think, just sitting with no deliberate thought..." Thus, it is not a psychosomatic technique for controlling muscles, nerves, glands or emotions. Dogen wrote:

"The means of training are thousandfold but pure meditation must be done."

-Rules for Meditation. 

Zazen is "pure meditation" whereas Diaz's emotional control would be one of the thousandfold means of training. I sometimes wonder whether one of those means might be helpful although not as an alternative to zazen.

I also find just about everything to discuss in works by Poul Anderson.

Treated Like Kings

"Kings Who Die."

The previous post focused on a future transport system and this theme continues in Poul Anderson's text:

"'We can catch the transpolar shuttle to Paris if we hurry.'" (p. 17)

However, the main thrust of this passage is a set of social relationships. 

First, there are unpublicized parleys between the US Astromilitary Corps and their enemies. For example, when Bailey visits Asia to return a borrowed craterbug and to give them some alga-blight antibiotic:

"'They poured me full of excellent vodka.'" (p. 15)

Secondly, and even more importantly, is the way that the Corps is regarded at home:

"'The Corps can do no wrong.'" (ibid.)

When Bailey switches off an "Ugga-wugga-wugga, hugga-hugga me, do!" (p. 16) juke box to satisfy his companion, a large tourist gets heavy until Bailey shows his ID bracelet and introduces himself:

"'First Lieutenant Carl H. Bailey, United States Astromilitary Corps, at your service,' he said..." (p. 17)

Silence spreads. The tourist apologizes and buys drinks. Others buy. The spacemen are given privacy but receive smiles and waves. The proprietor, who had welcomed Diaz and had backed him against the tourist, has phoned his family and friends who arrive with castanets, guitar and more bottles. The fiesta continues until dawn.

Corps prestige has developed exponentially... They are the kings who die.

This has been a flashback. We return to Diaz in space and to something else across the Milky Way:

"Another jet splashed fire across the Milky Way." (ibid.)

Giro

 

"Kings Who Die." 

After mentioning aircars, we find a different means of transport:

two spacemen, Diaz and Bailey, catch a giro outside their hotel;

Diaz punches the name of a cantina;

the autopilot searches its directory and swings the cab onto a skyrail;

the great view through the bubble comprises blazing city, glowing ocean and full moon with a glittering Unasian (United Asian) (enemy) base;

the giro descends to the street and rolls three blocks to the cantina whose interior is then described vividly.

A one-off story but a densely realized Andersonian future.

Aurora

"Kings Who Die."

We are focusing on details and not getting to the heart of the story yet but give us time. A weekend stretches ahead.

"A few years ago [Diaz]'d spent a furlough at Antarctic Lodge. He and some girl had taken a snowcat out to watch the aurora, thinking it would make a romantic background. But when they saw the sky, they forgot about each other for a long time. There was only the aurora." (p. 12)

For the Northern Lights in Poul Anderson's The Shield Of Time and in Neil Gaiman's The Sandman, see:

 The Winter Hunters

And on a personal note:

It is sometimes reported that the Northern Lights are or will be visible in Britain, even in places to the south of us here in the North West of England. One night, my daughter, Aileen, and I drove to Morecambe Bay; on another occasion to a hill inland but both times saw nothing. When I told her the story of people being carried away by the Northern Lights, she suggested that this might have a basis in reality. Some people, fascinated by the lights above their heads, might have wandered too far for safety in the dark...

The Satorist

Poul Anderson, "Kings Who Die" IN Anderson, Seven Conquests (New York, 1970), pp. 11-40.

(Nearly finished for this evening.)

See War, Wells And Anderson. 

An unexpected word:

"[Diaz] drew a breath which was a good deal shakier than the Academy satorist would have approved of." (p. 11)

"Satorist" is to be found neither online nor in any earlier posts on this blog. Obviously it is a noun derived from the noun, "satori." The latter term is familiar especially since I practice zazen. The Japanese connection is confirmed in the immediately following sentence when Diaz imagines the satorist speaking:

"('If your nerves twitch, cadet-san, then you know yourself alive and they need not twitch. Correct?' To hell with that, except as a technique.)" (ibid.)

Since Diaz, who murmurs, "'Nombre de Dios,' (p. 12) and crosses himself but is trained by a "satorist," is at war with Unasians, this story is set in a period of cultural interaction and conflict. But  how much deeper will we dig into this evening? Only time will tell.

SEVEN CONQUESTS: The Introductions

As in Homeward And Beyond (and here), each story in Seven Conquests has a short auctorial introduction.

Summarizing The Introductions (If Possible)

"Kings Who Die": Technology changes not only the methods but also the nature of war.

"Wildcat": Men turn every new capability against each other, indirectly and subtly but significantly.

"Cold Victory": revolution is different from war until it causes civil war.

"Inside Straight": war is often the only way to preserve values dearer than life.

"Details": even if we knew how to end war, could we do it?

"License": Abolition of war would leave a potentiality for violence.

"Strange Bedfellows": Progress happens but will insanities remain?

"Inside Straight" also has a fictional introduction that is the opening passage of the text and is presented as an extract from a history of this fictional timeline. Two paragraphs are followed by:

"-Simon Vardis, A Short History of Pre-Commonwealth Politics, Reel 1, Frame 617" (p. 95)

We remember similar fictional historical introductions in Anderson's Technic History but "Inside Straight" is a one-off story. However, Vardis repeats some of what we know from the Technic History:

Reasons For Extra-Solar Emigration

fresh start

malcontents

"peculiar people"

Consequences

colonies from colonies

human scattering

isolated odd societies

each planet economically self-sufficient

- but other causes of conflict.

Again like Homeward And Beyond, Seven Conquests includes a Psychotechnic History story, in this case "Cold Victory." Just from reading them, there is no way to tell that "The Pirate" and "Cold Victory" are two installments of a single future history series.

Conquests And Conflict

Poul Anderson, Seven Conquests: An Adventure In Science Fiction (New York, 1970).

Collection titles remain confusing. Conquests and Seven Conquests are the same collection but different from Conflict although both contain "Kings Who Die" and "Details."

Seven Conquests has an explanatory Foreword whereas Conflict does not. This Foreword states:

art, including sf, must entertain;

entertainment involves telling stories but also examining reality;

reality is more than the little that we have experienced;

there are billions of years and light-years and infinite possibilities;

speculation illuminates past and present;

Seven Conquests is "...a one-author one-theme one-genre collection." (p. 9);

the theme is "...institutionalized violence." (ibid.)

I am not fully in accord with the way that Anderson discusses the issue. Should peace parades be decried for being "noisy"? Is United Nations Day "mealy-mouthed"? Sure, opposing Nazism was necessary but let's talk about how to prevent Nazis from coming to power again.

"...we don't understand the phenomenon [of war]. He who claims to have final answers to the question of why men fight and how to stop them from fighting, is merely showing his own ignorance." (p. 10)

No one should claim to have final answers to anything! But I think that we can understand the phenomenon readily enough without being able to stop it so easily.  

Some War In SF

In HG Wells' The War Of The Worlds, the Martians brought heat rays and poison gas to Earth.

In Wells' The War In The Air, war went into the air.

In Poul Anderson's "Kings Who Die," war goes into space.

I know that there is more to war in sf than that! But that is enough for this evening and those are three high points with Anderson admirably succeeding Wells.

See also War, Wells And Anderson.

"Kings Who Die" is in Seven Conquests, Anderson's war-themed collection, which could be read after the two Wells novel.