Judgements About Empires And Options About Time Travel

Robert Heinlein's Future History avoids empires and culminates with a first mature culture. 

SM Stirling's Draka are an evil empire in an alternative twentieth century. (They are "evil" in my judgement and in that of some other readers. The author will remind us of the view that all such judgements are subjective.)

The Antonine Roman Empire in Stirling's Make The Darkness Light series is a benign empire in an alternative second century. Thus, the Antonines present a formidable antithesis to the Draka.

Poul Anderson's Terran Empire is just another empire in a fictional future. It is perceived as benign or oppressive depending on the viewpoint of any particular character. Certainly, "The Game of Glory" shows the intelligence officer, Dominic Flandry, routinely participating in the conquest and oppression of the sovereign planet, Brae.

The arrival of two books interrupted our (editorially speaking) rereading of Tim Powers' The Anubis Gates. Again, the two time travel options: the past can be changed in Make The Darkness Light but not in The Anubis Gates. Poul Anderson is distinguished by the facts that he (i) addressed both options and (ii) addressed both well.

Red Skies On Other Planets

On Brae in the Technic History:

"Wherefore Flandry walked through smashed ruins under a red dwarf sun, with a few raindrops falling like blood drops out of great clotted clouds."

-Poul Anderson, "The Game of Glory" IN Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, February 2010), pp. 303-339 AT p. 304.

Clouds like clotted blood?

Is Flandry a "Defender" or a conqueror?

"...he was lonesome among his fellow conquerors..." 

-ibid., p. 306.

On Mars in the Harvest Of Stars History:

"Corpses lay strewn among blackened, twisted hulks. Behind them, the hills out of which the guerillas had struck rose dark, torturous, riddled and seamed with hiding places, toward Arsia Mons and a sky the color of clotting blood."

-The Fleet Of Stars, 20, p. 252.

The sky matches the scene on the ground, of course.

"...landscape tumbled away in black desolation, weirdly pocked and riven, under a sky gone murrey."

-ibid., p. 256.

"Murrey" is one of Anderson's words that I had to google and my computer does not recognize it.

We, editorially speaking, are reading about a historical revolution and also about the Inrai outrages on one future Mars.

(For the full story, please read The Fleet Of Stars. I comment only on whichever arbitrary details catch my attention.)

Good And Empire

The People Of The Wind, IV.

Eve Davisson to Philippe Rochefort:

"'Do you believe the Terran Empire is a force for good?'"  (p. 47)

Rochefort replies:

"'On balance, yes. It commits evil. But nothing mortal can avoid that. Our duty is to correct the wrongs...and also to recognize the values that the Empire does, in fact, preserve.'" (ibid.)

This is not like any empire on a single planet. If a human colony or a non-human intelligent species practices communism or anarchism, it can be incorporated into the Terran Empire under the minimal conditions that:

it pays modest taxes;

it receives Imperial protection;

it is free to, although not compelled to, trade with other Imperial planets.

The human colony on Esperance tries to set an example of pacifism. Eventually, Esperance is used as a naval base in the war between Empire and Domain. But the Empire has made no attempt to suppress Esperancian pacifism.

Eventually, we see Dominic Flandry involved in the violent Imperial annexation of the non-human planet, Brae. At that stage, Rochefort, your Empire has not only committed evil. It has transgressed the conditions that I outlined above.

Deaths In Different Dimensions

"Death And The Knight."

Everard and his gang should have been able to stun a couple of guards and rescue Marlow without causing any damage except to property but how would the author have given this story a dramatic climax? Marlow's fellow Templar, Fulk de Buchy, who is also both his captor and his lover has stayed overnight in the house and has recalled the household staff so that a regular battle ensues in which Fulk is accidentally killed. A tragedy:

"But all men die." (p. 765)

There is a lengthy Andersonian fight scene which I will not summarize here! We recall combat in many other works by Poul Anderson. For some reason, I think of Dominic Flandry on Brae where another man dies tragically. He had fought for the Empire to learn how to fight against it but instead dies for it. Everard in Paris and Flandry on Brae are universes and time periods apart - but the Andersonian multiverse is multi-dimensioned.

Sorry, folks. Today has been a long meeting in the Gregson Centre, followed immediately by a large social gathering in a private house, so Andersonianism has become very much the third order of the day. We seem to be close to exhausting the short story, "Death And The Knight," for the time being although you never know, do you? I had not expected it to yield as much as it has done this time. Where next? We will stay with the Time Patrol timeline for a while.

Tempora mutantur nos et mutamur in illis.

Keening And Chanting

"Star of the Sea," 1.

Poul Anderson lets us escape from time travel paradoxes into historical fiction within a single narrative. When Germanic barbarians besiege Old Camp, their women keen rhythmically:

"...ha-ba-da ha-ba, ha-ba-da-da." (p. 471)

Although Anderson spells it out for us, I cannot hear this beat in my head. However, it reminds me that I once saw a mass picket pushing policemen down a street as if in a big rugby scrum. The pickets were chanting something that I initially did not understand:

"Da - da-da-dadada!

"Da - da-da-dadada!

"Da - da-da-dadada!"

Then I discerned the words. It was an ironic reproach to the police:

"Job - only doin' it!

"Job - only doin' it!

"Job - only doin' it!"

Lupercus the Roman legate reminds (some of) us of Dominic Flandry involved in the suppression of the planet, Brae. Lupercus also has something in common with the viewpoint character of section 2, Manse Everard: two men doing a job. Both must respond to a threat to the Roman Empire albeit for different reasons. 

The Roman Empire exists in different timelines. In one, it is guarded by the Time Patrol. In another, it inspires the Terran Empire. The Romans know nothing of either.

The Patrol does recruit one Roman from Caesar's time who:

"'...never got it through his head that a machine can't be treated like a horse.'"

-Poul Anderson, "Time Patrol" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, December 2010), pp. 1-53 AT 2, p. 14.

I did not expect to wind up with that when I began to write this post.

Desai And Ivar

The Day Of Their Return.

Chunderban Desai and Ivar Frederiksen are the viewpoint characters of their respective passages until they meet when it has to be one or the other so it is Desai, signaling the triumph of his point of view. When Desai is trying to have the fugitive Ivar apprehended, which of them do we identify or sympathize with? Perhaps each as we read about him. Poul Anderson shows the Terran Empire as good guys or as bad guys in different instalments of the Technic History. Issues become ambiguous when Dominic Flandry participates as chief of Intelligence in the conquest of Brae.

The good guys-bad guys issue needs to be explored through historical fiction, e.g.:

a German Nazi versus a Russian Communist during World War II

a Native American versus a settler

a Cavalier versus a Roundhead

Trilogy: Cavalier as hero of Volume I; Roundhead as hero of Volume II; Volume III?

Poul Anderson has a Cavalier hero in an alternative history. 

The issue here is not where our sympathies lie but what is our understanding of both sides. Garth Ennis wrote a war comic in which a Spanish Republican, an English socialist, a Luftwaffe pilot and an Irish Fascist, none of them armed, swap stories while sheltering in a bomb crater during a battle of the Spanish Civil War and I did not expect to wind up writing about that.

Multiple Perspectives

When the planets Avalon and Freehold successfully resist the Terran Empire, the implication of Poul Anderson's texts is that these are good outcomes whereas, when the planets Ansa and Aeneas unsuccessfully resist the Empire, the implication is that these are also good outcomes. However, when the planet Brae unsuccessfully resists the Empire, the implication is that brutal military conquest is just business as usual for the Empire. Dominic Flandry participates without any qualm of conscience. Immediately afterwards, he thwarts Merseian subversion on Nyanza but Brae and Nyanza are not comparable. The Braean High Temple merely wants to remain independent and has not become a tool of Terra's enemy, Merseia. For these reasons, we commend Anderson's Technic History series for its multiple perspectives on what reads like authentic history.

Poul Anderson And Frank Herbert

In Poul Anderson's Technic History:

the planet Aeneas resembles Frank Herbert's Dune in that it is a dry, humanly colonized planet that is a potential flashpoint for an interstellar jihad;

the planets Satan and Mirkheim resemble Dune in that they are single sources of unprecedented wealth - except that Dune is more so (see the combox here).

Herbert's Dune series focuses on a single fictional planet whereas the Technic History presents:

Ythri

Avalon

Ivanhoe

Ikananka

Merseia

Satan

Mirkheim

Hermes

Dennitza

Chereion

Daedalus

Imhotep

Diomedes

Babur

Suleiman

Cain

Trillia

Gorzun

Starkad

Talwin

Wayland

Aeneas

Freehold

Alfzar

Brae

Nyanza

Vixen

Altai

Dido

Unan Besar

(not a complete list)

Hatred Of Terra

A tavern song on Ansa:

"Comrades, hear the battle tiding,

"hear the ships that rise and yell

"faring outward, standard rising -

"Kick the Terrans back to hell!"

-Poul Anderson, "Sargasso of Lost Starships" IN Anderson, Rise of the Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, March 2011), pp. 367-436 AT I, p. 369.

Draun of Highsky on Avalon:

"'We've many new-made dead this night. The more Terrans for hell-wind to blow ahead of them, the better.'"

-Poul Anderson, The People of the Wind IN Rise of the Terran Empire, pp. 437-662 AT IX, p. 547.

"'Cast them onto hell-wind!' The slug-thrower stuttered in Draun's grasp."

-ibid., XVII, p. 640.

"A platoon trotted toward Draun. He stood above [his dying son] and fired as long as he was able."

-ibid., p. 641.

Hugh McCormac's son on Aeneas:

"'Save death for the Terries, hey?' asked Bob."

-The Rebel Worlds, CHAPTER SIX, p. 422.

An Arulian on Freehold:

"'...what can your law mean to us, Terran - ?'"

-Poul Anderson, "Outpost of Empire" IN Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender of the Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, February 2010), pp. 1-72 AT p. 12.

Ivar Frederiksen on Aeneas:

"'...too many of us are dead in war, while Impies tell us to change ways of our forefathers.'"

-Poul Anderson, The Day of Their Return IN Captain Flandry: Defender of the Terran Empire, pp. 74-240 AT 10, p. 154.

A Nyanzan on Brae:

"'Ai! 'List nay, they said. Nay let recruiters 'list you...damned Empire...even to gain warskill, don't 'list...shall freedom come from slave-masters...'"

-Poul Anderson, "The Game of Glory" IN Captain Flandry: Defender of the Terran Empire, pp. 303-339 AT I, p. 305.

The phrases, "Terrans," "Terries," "Impies" and "...damned Empire...," all refer to human beings. Some of us have to accept that the nationality to which we belong is hated in other parts of the world. In Poul Anderson's Technic History, members of our species are hated in other parts of the known galaxy both by members of other species and by human beings who have settled elsewhere.

Philippe Rochefort has a simple response:

"He straightened in his chair. Man is my race."

-The People of the Wind, IV, p. 487.

Substantial Planets Visited Only Once

Suleiman: where Emil Dalmady outwits Baburites.

Babur: sub-Jovian.

Tametha: turning point for Falkayn.

Starkad: doomed to destruction.

Scotha: newly industrialized; subverted by Flandry.

Alfzar: a planet of Betelgeuse.

Brae: where Terrans are conquerors.

Nyanza: mostly water.

Dido: tripartite intelligences.

Dennitza: where Flandry would have settled...

Chereion: Aycharaych's home planet.

Ramnu: Miriam Abrams was in rapport with a native.

Imhotep: where the Starkadians are settled.

Daedalus: no horizon; home of the Zacharians.

This is not a complete list. Blog readers will think of other examples. Every planet deserves to be remembered.

Tramp Ships, Flitters And The Hooligan

Despite representing the Terran Empire, Dominic Flandry had travelled to Altai as a passenger in a Betelgeusean merchant ship. When Terran Navy ships arrived to rescue him, he could have returned at least as far as Catawrayannis in one of them but instead preferred to travel in another Betelgeusean ship to the Imperial port at Spica VI. From there, he would have returned to Terra in the luxury liner, the Empress Maia. However, the second merchant ship stopped at Orma where Flandry learned about the self-isolating human colony planet, Unan Besar, and hired a space flitter to go and investigate. On a later mission, he took a high-speed flitter to travel from Brae to Nyanza. The main point here is that Flandry did not as yet have his private spaceship, the Hooligan.

Shortly after returning home from Nyanza, Flandry is in possession of the Hooligan and is served by the Shalmuan, Chives, whom, we later learn, he had acquired, initially as a slave, while outside the Solar System. I deduce that Flandry had acquired Chives before going to Altai, that Chives had remained on Terra while Flandry was on Altai and Unan Besar and that Flandry completed the purchase of the Hooligan shortly after returning from Nyanza.

Flandry Reading Order

The Technic Civilization Saga, Volume V ends with:

"Honorable Enemies"

"The Game of Glory"

"A Message in Secret"

Volume VI begins with:

"The Plague of Masters"

"Hunters of the Sky Cave"

Volume V should end with:

"Honorable Enemies"

"A Message in Secret"

"The Plague of Masters"

Volume VI should begin with:

"The Game of Glory"

"Hunters of the Sky Cave"

"Hunters..." comes immediately after "The Game..." which makes an early reference to the events of "Honorable Enemies." Two years elapse between the very beginning of "The Game...," when a monster flees from Conjumar, and the main narrative of that story, when Flandry is on Brae, then Nyanza. "Honorable Enemies" occurs in that two-year period. "A Message in Secret" and its sequel, "The Plague of Masters," must also occur then.

After "The Plague..." and "Hunters...," Volume VI concludes with:

"The Warriors from Nowhere"

A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows

"The Warriors..." was revised to be a prequel to A Knight... Although written much earlier, "The Warriors..." fits with "Hunters..." and A Knight... because all three feature Flandry's Shalmuan servant, Chives, and his private spaceship, the Hooligan. However, "The Warriors..." should also have been revised to recognize Flandry's knighthood in its opening sentence.

Karlsarm And Ridenour

"Outpost of Empire."

In the opening passage about Karlsarm, only the single reference to "'...Anglic...'" (p. 1) indicates that this story might be an instalment of Poul Anderson's Technic History. References to "'...dragons...'" (p. 1) and to "...a spell..." (p. 3) suggest that the narrative might instead be fantasy - although we soon learn that it is not. Karlsarm prepares to lead an attack on the city of Domkirk.

After a double space, the text continues:

"John Ridenour had arrived that day." (p. 4)

This means that Ridenour had arrived specifically in Domkirk. The following sentence clarifies:

"But he had made planetfall a week earlier..." (ibid.)

Thus, pp. 4-19 present an extended flashback. The Germanian merchant ship, Ottokar, approaches Freehold bearing Ridenour as a passenger. Ottakar lands at Sevenhouses - reduced to rubble by the planetary war. Ridenhour travels in a supply barge to Terran military headquarters at Norsdyke where he interviews an Arulian prisoner. The mayor of Domkirk, Richard Uriason, visits Norsdyke. After conversing with Uriason, Ridenour accompanies him to Domkirk in order to interview savage prisoners. Instead:

"And thus it happened that John Ridenour was on hand when the city was destroyed.

"Karlsarm loped well in among the buildings, with his staff and guards, before combat broke loose." (p. 19)

The narrative has returned to its starting point and has presented two viewpoint characters on opposite sides in a conflict. Which do we support? We have to think for ourselves.

In other Technic History instalments, do we support:

Terra or Avalon?

Terra or Brae?

Terra or Aeneas?

In Lulach

The Game Of Empire, CHAPTERs THIRTEEN-FOURTEEN.

"'Abide in peace and repletion.'" (p. 336)

Another of those future greetings.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN is another chapter with no human protagonists. Diana is mentioned in one sentence but does not have any active or speaking role here. The Cynthian Wo Lia releases the Tigery Targovi from his cage. After shedding his "performing beast" disguise, Targovi walks through Lulach and converses with the Cynthian Rihu An in the patrol station. Rihu's superior, the station commandant, Lieutenant Commander Miguel Gomez, obviously human, is mentioned, if only in Targovi's inner reflections, but does not appear.

Cynthians are squirrel-like extra-terrestrials and Lulach is a Cynthian town with many houses and travel routes hidden in the branches of enormous trees imported from Cynthia. Buildings under the trees have growing plants on their roofs and flowering vines on their walls. There is a rambling timber inn on the waterfront.

The descriptions sound like pictures in a juvenile story book. This chapter could be dramatized as an animated cartoon. However, in CHAPTER FOURTEEN, Targovi, still in Lulach, visits the Zacharian dealership which is "arrogantly" marked out by:

"Its artificial material, curved contours, and metallic hues..." (p. 337)

The human woman, Pele Zacharia, is described in minute detail. This scene calls for a live actor in a realistic film set. Could the Technic History be dramatized in episodes that alternated between animation and live action as appropriate? Another candidate for animated cartoon treatment is the Dominic Flandry short story, "Honorable Enemies," with its small squat blue Alfzarians, bulky green Merseians, tall golden Chereionite and human characters. The opening sequence of "The Game of Glory," when a monster flees Conjumar, could also be an animation before switching to live action with Flandry on Brae.

The Enemy

In Doctor Who, the Doctor's time traveling companions were English but, in one story-line, they visited a time and place where the Scottish were fighting the English so that suddenly the latter were the enemy. Juvenile fiction is a good place to present ambiguities. Cavaliers were usually good guys and Roundheads bad guys but I found one series where it was the other way around. I was sent from England to a boarding school in the Republic of Ireland and learned an entirely different attitude to "the English."

Real history is ambiguous, therefore so is Poul Anderson's Technic History. The Terran Empire is resisted successfully on Avalon and Freehold but unsuccessfully on Ansa, Aeneas and Brae. Ivar Frederiksen leads an ambush of Terran marines on Aeneas whereas Dominic Flandry works alongside the marines on Brae. Although Merseians were introduced as stereotypical space opera villains, complete with green, scaled skin, the members of their species who live on the human colony planet, Dennitza, are friendly and loyal to the Emperor, not to the Roidhun. Are rich merchants good or bad? We see both kinds. And so on.

"None Dare Call It..."

Mirkheim, XIII.

The commander of the occupation forces provides all the right language to welcome collaborators into his fold. The population is being "protected" and won't get it for nothing. They must produce supplies, food etc. Hermetians attacking the invaders were "subversives"! If so many naval personnel acted like that, then civilians too might commit sabotage or espionage or help the enemy!

There are two relevant situations in the later Imperial period:

Dominic Flandry organizes resistance to the Ardazhiro occupation of the human planet, Vixen;

Flandry directs the Intelligence operation during the occupation of Brae - search, inquiry, interrogation, exile of irreconcilables and incorporation of collaborators into a new governmental framework.

Nice work, Flandry.

Nyanzan Discontent

It seems that we can discuss the history and politics of Technic civilization endlessly as if this were real history. Rereading "The Game of Glory," we are reminded that the planet Nyanza:

"...had been made an Imperial client about a century ago, a few abortive revolts were crushed, now there was only a resident - which meant a trouble-free but unimportant and little visited world." (II, pp. 306-307)

So Nyanza, like Ansa, Aeneas and Brae, was incorporated into the Empire by force. Was that necessary? Some Nyanzans saw reasons to rebel but now the planet is thought to be trouble-free although this turns out not to be the case. What are the current reasons for discontent? We are not told, unless I find something by continuing to reread. Fiction is less detailed than reality. In reality, there would have to be reasons but in fiction they might not be stated. 

Earlier in the Technic History, the reasons for conflict within the Polesotechnic League were explicit. Cartelization was mentioned in "Lodestar" and came to a head in Mirkheim.

Although Flandry does not know of any reasons for discontent on Nyanza, he recognizes that there might be some:

"...the days and weeks and months between stars let their systems drift culturally apart - let hell brew for years, unnoticed till it boiled over -..." (II, p. 308)

That thought will lead to a comparison between the Technic and Psychotechnic Histories. Whereas students of history study a single timeline, students of future histories are able to compare alternative timelines. World War III occurs in one but not in another etc.

Gaining Warskills

"The Game of Glory," I.

An ambushed Nyanzan marine dies on Brae:

"'Ai! 'List nay, they said. Nay let recruiters 'list you...damned Empire...even to gain warskills, don't 'list...shall freedom come from the slave-masters, asked he in Uhunhu. He and his 'ull teach what we must know, see you?'" (p. 305)

Issues encapsulated here:

I remember Ben Hur saying that he would fight for Rome if Rome taught him how to fight against her;

the Nyanzans are not enslaved but there are slaves in the Terran Empire;

"...he in Uhunhu..." is an agent of Merseia so his claimed opposition to "slave-masters" is cynical and manipulative;

however, every opponent of slavery is not a dupe of a foreign power. ("We serve neither King nor Kaiser but Ireland.")

Brae

Poul Anderson, "The Game of Glory" IN Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 303-339.

"This world had been more or less independent until a few months ago." (I, p. 304)

So Brae was in Imperial space but otherwise had no direct contact with the Empire until it was invited to host a military base?

"The Braean High Temple, which had long watched its old culture and religion sapped by Terran influence, declined." (ibid.)

No doubt the Empire practices church-state separation. However, if another planet is represented by a "High Temple," then that is who the Terrans deal with.

Finally, for now, what do Braeans look like? We do not see them but a statue is described as not quite human: long legs, tail, pouch and fur. As with Tametha and with many other planets visited briefly in the Technic History, there is a long potential story here. Ythrians and Merseians become important on the interstellar stage whereas many other intelligent species do not.

Exotic Locations

Dominic Flandry's exotic locations are Starkad, Merseia, Irumclaw, Talwin, Admiralty Center, Shalmu, Llynathawr, Dido, Scotha, Alfzar, Brae, Nyanza, Altai, Unan Besar, Vixen, Varrak, Vor, the Coral Palace, Diomedes, Dennitza, Chereion, Archopolis, Ramnu, the High Sierra and Imhotep whereas James Bond's are Royale-les-Eaux, Harlem, Jamaica, Saratoga, Las Vegas, Istanbul, Paris, Crab Key, Miami, Fort Knox, Italy, Nassau, Toronto, New York State, the Swiss Alps, Japan, Berlin, the Seychelles and a few that I have missed.

Many people enjoy fictional narratives set in real places but not those set in imaginary extraterrestrial locations. Why and why not? Entirely different kinds of writing skills are involved. I can neither visit New York, then write a convincing account of it, nor imagine somewhere new and write a plausible account of it so I fully appreciate works by authors able to do either or both. Poul Anderson, of course, does both, e.g., see his accounts of Amsterdam in "Star of the Sea."

I suggest that anyone who has never read any fantasy or sf samples some Poul Anderson.