Independence Days

Will colonists of planets, asteroids or space habitats have to fight for their independence from Earth? It is to be hoped not. I am conscious of not having read Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy although I have found a lengthy summary of it on Wikipedia. Wars of independence occur in that trilogy, in three novels by Robert Heinlein, in Poul Anderson's Tales Of The Flying Mountains and no doubt in other sf works. When cities escape from Earth in James Blish's Cities In Flight, the Bureaucratic State collapses. However, cities and colonials must then overthrow the Vegan Tyranny which has been ruling this galactic sector, fortunately without knowing what has been happening in the Solar System.

All of these narratives project our past onto our future and I think that we can expect the future to be different - and unpredictable. Maybe someone could write a novel about what is likely to happen on Earth over the next few centuries? Will space travel continue and become more important? Sf narratives focus on that whereas the bulk of mankind - if, indeed, there continues to be a "bulk" - are likely to remain on Earth. But we do not even know that.

The only thing that is certain about sf is that its authors need to keep thinking of new premises which Poul Anderson did continue to do.

This post is occasioned by rereading Tales Of The Flying Mountains even though it lists that book among several works by other authors. Sf is really a collaborative enterprise.

Life On Mars

Fictional accounts of Mars:

when first explored;

as inhabited by Martians;

as colonized by human beings.

The second and third kinds can be combined, e.g.:

The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury;

Red Planet by Robert Heinlein.

The Fleet Of Stars, 5, describes Mars when it has been colonized for centuries by two human species:

Terrans, who evolved on Earth;

Lunarians, who had been adapted to live in Lunar gravity although not on the Lunar surface so that their entire lives have to be spent inside enclosed habitats, spaceships or spacesuits.

Both species can breed in Martian gravity which is greater than Lunar but less than Terrestrial. Earthlings stride, Lunarians bound, Martians of either species lope.

This might be one of the most carefully contrived accounts of life on Mars as that planet might really be like. It is many years since my single reading of Red Planet and I have not read Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy which, I now learn, covers the period 2026-2212.

Huma On Luna

Satan's World, X.

If we pull back from The Technic Civilization Saga and consider The Trouble Twisters and Satan's World as discrete volumes, it is obvious that these two books form a continuous sequence. The trader team has come into existence in the third and last story in The Trouble Twisters and continues to operate in the opening chapters of Satan's World. We have skipped past the team's adventure on Merseia in "Day of Burning" but will catch up with that in The Earth Book Of Stormgate.

Meanwhile, we appreciate some humour in Satan's World.

"Garver suppressed most of his automatic rage at glimpsing that man." (p. 94)

- "that man" being Nicholas van Rijn. Automatic rage! Garver ought to learn to appreciate van Rijn as a colourful character. Certainly, Garver has grounds to disapprove of the machinations of this and other Master Merchants. As a law enforcement officer:

"...he saw his agents retreat, baffled and disheartened, from a trail that led to the League..." (p. 92)

Unlike some Anderson readers, I do not cheer the League. But the humour continues. When Kim of Serendipity refers to van Rijn as a "gentleman":

"Each word seemed to taste individually bad; he spat them out fast." (p. 94)

When Kim says that van Rijn will broker the sale of Serendipity, Garver groans:

"'At a fat commission...'" (p. 95)

- and Kim cannot refrain from groaning:

"'Very fat.'" (ibid.)

Serendipity patrol boats were shot down not by Chee Lan but by malfunctioning guns in the castle tower. Indeed, Chee Lan valiantly demolished the tower in an attempt to save the Serendipity people but too late!

Finally, conceding that Serendipity has settled with van Rijn, Kim speaks:

"...like one up whom a bayonet has been rammed." (p. 97)

Serendipity has learned what we already knew: don't mess with van Rijn.

Genius Or Fool

In Poul Anderson's Technic History, if you negotiated with the Merseian Roidhunate, then you would have to understand clearly that their long term goal was your enslavement. They do not want peaceful coexistence even if the Terran Empire does. Exactly the same can be said of SM Stirling's Draka. 

I was reminded of this when reading the following:

"...analysts debated whether Kim Jung Un was a brilliant, strategic genius manipulating other countries, including the U.S., or an inexperienced, impulsive fool."

-Bob Woodward, Fear: Trump in the White House (London, 2018), Chapter 12, p. 97.

The psychology of a potential enemy must be the most important item of military intelligence.

Guns And Robots

On TV and in comics in the 1950s:

people were always raising their arms when someone else pointed a gun at them both in Westerns and in space operas;

I received mixed messages about "robots" - were they enemies of mankind or just humanoid mechanisms?

Of course, that ambiguity is built into Frankenstein/Robots literature.

In Poul Anderson's Satan's World, when the Serendipity people detain David Falkayn, Kim points a stun gun at him and tells him to raise his hands. When Falkayn enters Gahood's battleship, Latimer points a blaster at him and is accompanied by a tall, complex, cylindrical, metal shape with multiple specialized limbs, sensors and effectors: a robot working for enemies of mankind.

Thus, our childhood heritage accompanies us into adult prose sf but not too often, I hope. Although Poul Anderson enjoyed his action scenes, a David Falkayn or Dominic Flandry series dominated by fights and gun battles would not warrant a lot of rereading.

Falkayn On Buddhism

Satan's World, V.

In the Serendipity castle on the Moon, Kim wants to get Falkayn out of a room with a view so that he won't see a spaceship take off. Sensing that Kim wants him out although not yet knowing why, Falkayn stalls, says that he wants to remain in the room alone to meditate and meanwhile runs off at the mouth about Buddhism, saying that:

purer Buddhist sects might not count as religions because they are agnostic about gods and other "'...animistic elements...'" (p. 374);

karma need not imply reincarnation;

nirvana is not annihilation but can be achieved in this life...

Before he can say what nirvana is, the spaceship takes off.

I suppose that, by purer sects, Falkayn means basic forms of Theravada. I understand that Buddhism has always been practiced within local worldviews. Buddhist texts refer to Indra. In Japan, there are Buddhas and Shinto gods. But the deities are not necessary for meditation. However, Buddhism is a religion because it is an approach to spiritual emancipation and transcendence.

Having analyzed mental processes, the Buddha concluded that there are no souls, therefore no reincarnation, but still referred to rebirth of karmic consequences. I think that rebirth is an unnecessary hangover from reincarnation. Karma is right or wrong action with good or bad consequences, respectively. We experience karma within a single life.

Buddhism can be presented very negatively, thus:

the only way to end suffering is to end consciousness;

the only way to end consciousness is not by suicide but by meditation which prevents rebirth;

thus, effectively, monasticism is elaborate suicide and an optimal world would be one with neither sex nor birth/rebirth ever occurring in it!

In fact, Buddhists experience joy here and now. The fact that Jiddu Krisnamurti, who rejected all supernaturalism, said that, if the Buddha were here, he would follow him to the end shows that the essence of Buddhism is not the teaching about ending rebirth or any other set of ideas.

Friend And Sprite

The Game Of Empire, CHAPTER ONE.

Poul Anderson's Introduction tells us that this book is partly a homage to Kipling. He means Kim. For previous blog references, see here. Scroll down.

Kim is described as "Little Friend of all the World." Axor addresses Diana as:

"'...little sprite of all the world...'" (p. 214)

The Wikipdia article for Kim informs us that Robert Heinlein's Citizen Of The Galaxy, Poul Anderson's The Game Of Empire and some other works parallel Kim.

That is short but also all that I have time for tonight but there are another twenty-two chapters of The Game Of Empire. Good night. Good flight. 

Gaean Practice

Orion Shall Rise, CHAPTER EIGHT.

Vanna Uangovna Kim, a Gaean priestess (?), guides and blesses an old man on his death bed. Do they practice "mediation" (p. 100) or meditation? Leaving the man smiling but unconscious, she advises his family, waiting in an outer room, that he will probably remain unconscious and definitely die soon.

A doctor said that about CS Lewis, then, after a clergyman had administered Last Rites, Lewis woke up and asked for a cup of tea! For an account of a post-mortem apparition of Lewis, see here.

Kipling, Heinlein, Anderson And Gaiman

Both Heinlein and Gaiman quote Kipling:

"There are nine sixty ways of constructing tribal lays,
"And every single one of them is right!"

Heinlein presents this quotation in a SFWA Bulletin where he, Anderson and others discuss their future histories and where Anderson also both refers to Kipling and tells us that he modeled his first future history directly on Heinlein's.

Anderson quotes Kipling in his later Harvest of Stars future history.

Gaiman tells us that one of his Sandman stories was him "doing Kipling."

Addendum: The culminating novel of the Dominic Flandry period in Anderson's Technic History is a homage to Kipling's Kim. See the combox.

The Game

For "The Game," we may consult Rudyard Kipling, Agatha Christie and Poul Anderson. In reverse order:

"Flandry spread his hands. 'Who knows? We play the game move by move, and never see far ahead - the game of empire, of life, whatever you want to call it - and what the score will be when all the pieces at last go back into the box, who knows?'"
-Poul Anderson, The Game Of Empire IN Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, 2012), pp. 189-453 AT p. 453.

"'It is not fair! It is not sporting! It is not playing the game! Admit all that and pass from it. This is not a game - it is not le sport.'"
-Agatha Christie, Curtain: Poirot's Last Case (Glasgow, 1980), Chapter EIGHT, p. 59.

And for Kipling's contribution to "the Great Game," we can consult Wikipedia:

Historians consider the end of the Great Game to be 10 September 1895 signing of the Pamir Boundary Commission protocols,^[7] when the border between Afghanistan and the Russian empire was defined.^{[8][9][10][11]:p14} The 1901 novel Kim by Rudyard Kipling made the term popular and introduced the new implication of great power rivalry. It became even more popular after the 1979 advent of the Soviet–Afghan War.^[12]

Some Humor In Satan's World

Visiting Serendipity, Inc., Nicholas van Rijn prepares to smoke a cigar. Reminded that he has not been invited to smoke, he replies:

"'Oh, that's all right, don't apologize, I know you got a lot on your minds.'" (Chapter IX, p. 419) (For full reference, see here.)

- and exhales a blue cloud, thus symbolizing his complete control of the meeting in which he turns the tables on his adversaries.

On screen, the director of Security, Garver sees an SI partner and:

"At his back loomed van Rijn. Garner suppressed most of his automatic rage at glimpsing that man." (Chapter X, p. 425)

The SI man must retract his earlier accusations against van Rijn's outfit:

"Each word seemed to taste individually bad; he spat them out fast. 'We find there has been a deplorable misunderstanding. It must be corrected at once.'" (p. 426)

"'Freeman van Rijn generously' - Kim had to fight to get the adverb out - 'offered us advice.'" (ibid.)

"'...Freeman van Rijn will, sub rosa, be our broker.'
"'At a fat commission,' Garver groaned.
"Kim could not refrain from groaning back, 'Very fat.'" (p. 427)

"'You have made your own settlement - with van Rijn?' Garver whispered.
"'Yes,' said Kim, like one up whom a bayonet has been rammed." (p. 428)

Behind this humor, we glimpse van Rijn's cunning and power. He directs this power towards a worthy end. Van Rijn suspects a threat to civilization and takes unilateral action against it. However, other merchant princes of the Polesotechnic League do the exact opposite: endanger civilization for short-term selfish goals. The decline of the League has begun.

Familiar Names

"'The same dynasty misruled part of Korea before the Change, I understand.'
"Jared blinked. 'Wait a minute, Kim-Jong-Il survived the Change?'
"'That was his name, yes,' Reiko said. 'His grandson rules there now, as sorcerer and priest of the dark powers and God-King, claiming a right to command all mankind.'"
-SM Stirling, The Desert And The Blade (New York, 2016), Chapter Twenty-Two, p. 556.

Some people alive at the time of the writing of a fictional future survive into that future. See also:

Ralph Nader
Gorbachev
Prince Charles and others

In contemporary fiction: Paolo Roberto.

Interplanetary Independence

The colony on Venus declares independence in:

Heinlein's Future History;
Heinlein's Between Planets;
Anderson's Psychotechnic History;
James Blish and Robert Lowndes' The Duplicated Man.

The Martian colony declares independence in:

Heinlein's Future History;
Heinlein's Red Planet;
maybe in Anderson's "War-Maid of Mars"? (I don't remember exactly);
Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy.

The lunar colony declares independence in Heinlein's The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress.

The Asteroid Belt declares independence in Larry Niven's Known Space future history.

Comparative future historical studies could become a major sub-discipline in sf scholarship.

The Serendipity Partners

The Beldaniel sisters
Kim Yoon-Kun
Anastasia Herrara
Freeman and Freelady Latimer

Six individuals lacking normal human responses because they have been entirely raised, educated and indoctrinated by aliens. See image.

There is an erroneous comma between "Anastasia" and "Herrara" on p. 341 of David Falkayn: Star Trader.

Also of interest in Lunograd are Gagarin Corridor and Titov Circus. I am old enough to remember the first and second men in space. Robert Heinlein gave us an entire series of stories set in Luna City and elsewhere on the Moon in his Future History. Poul Anderson could also have done this in his Technic History.

Pride, Pomp, Priesthood And Power

(Chandni Chowk, Old Delhi.)

"...Cyrus the Great King rode past with his chief courtiers Kobold, Croesus, and Harpagus, and the pride and pomp and priesthood of Persia followed."
-Poul Anderson, "Brave To Be A King" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006), pp. 55-112 AT p. 110.

"......the pride and pomp and power of the Mughals was the wonder of the world..."
-SM Stirling, The Peshawar Lancers (New York, 2003), Chapter Ten, p. 168.

A phrase in ...Lancers rang a bell although it turns out not to be identical.

Dare I say that I prefer Stirling's description of multi-ethnic Indian street life in ...Lancers to Kipling's in Kim? For page after page, Athelstane King and his companions ride through the outskirts and into the center of Old Delhi where Chandi Chowk, the Square of Silver Moonlight:

"...was a shoving, chattering mass of folk on foot, riders or rickshaws, oxcarts..." (ibid.)

Anderson's description of a multi-species market on an extra-solar planet in The Game Of Empire is comparable.

When Stirling refers to "...the First Men and the Tree of Life...," (p. 164) I think that that is a homage to Edgar Rice Burroughs' The Gods Of Mars?

Poul Anderson And SM Stirling

I am informed that a character in Conquistador by SM Stirling is a Poul Anderson fan. Further, this novel shares a premise with a Poul Anderson short story. These are adequate reasons to discuss the novel on this blog but first I must buy and read a copy.

There have been two previous Anderson-Stirling connections.

(i) Both The Game Of Empire by Anderson and The Peshawar Lancers by Stirling refer to Kipling. This got me to read Kim for the first time.

(ii) Sf writers including Anderson cameo in the Prologue to Stirling's In The Courts Of The Crimson Kings. This prompted me to reflect on fictional versions of Mars in general and on Anderson's several versions in particular.

Comparisons with Wells, Stapledon and Heinlein are productive and Stirling is now definitely on this list.

What To Reread

Reading Kim by Rudyard Kipling is entertaining and so far has generated five posts, including this one, so it seems worthwhile to continue, at least until SM Stirling's In The Courts Of The Crimson Kings arrives. Another option is to reread parts of Stirling's The Sky People in preparation for ...Crimson Kings. Despite having read The Sky People recently, I do not recall all of its events by any means. Most such information remains outside conscious memory, necessitating continual reference back to the relevant texts.

I think that the comparisons and connections that I make between Kipling and Poul Anderson are valid but, in any event, this is free composition where anything goes and the sky is the limit! It is good to read and discuss such works even if in the process Poul Anderson Appreciation becomes a more general literary appreciation. However, on this blog, other texts will usually be perceived insofar as they connect with or relate to Poul Anderson.

A List Description

Having frequently quoted and commended Poul Anderson's colorful and comprehensive list descriptions (scroll down) of busy street scenes, I have now found such a description in Rudyard Kipling's Kim (London, 2010) as could have been written by Anderson.

Kim and the lama enter the Kashmir Serai, a "...huge open square...surrounded with arched cloisters where the camel and horse-caravans put up on their return from Central Asia." (p. 17)

In the Serai, "...all manner of Northern folk..." (ibid.):

tend ponies and camels;
load and unload bales and bundles;
draw water;
pile grass for stallions;
cuff caravan dogs;
pay camel drivers;
engage grooms;
swear, shout, argue and chaffer.

In addition to the sounds of human voices, the well-windlasses creak and the stallions shriek. The four descriptions of conversations, "...swear..." etc, are particularly Andersonian, especially the chaffering. However, Anderson would also have listed:

the kinds of Northern folk;
more noises from animals and other sources;
the various, intermingling smells!

All The World(s) Going And Coming

Science fiction writers have sometimes based Terrestrial colonials and extraterrestrial natives on European colonials and Asian or African natives. Equally, an account, for example, of British-ruled India can seem so exotic as to remind the reader of a science fictional setting:

"'Look! Brahmins and chumars [or see], bankers and tinkers, barbers and bunnias, pilgrims and potters - all the world going and coming.'"
-Rudyard Kipling, Kim (London, 2010), p. 58.

And, on the extrasolar planet Imhotep, Diana Crowfeather sees, among the "...brawling, polyglot, multiracial population, much of it transient, drifting in and out on the tides of space..." (Poul Anderson, Flandry's Legacy, p. 195), Tigeries, a Donarrian, Irumclagians, Shalmuans and a Wodenite.

Religions on Imhotep are also as diverse as in Kipling's India. Whereas Tigeries are inchoate pagans and Diana sleeps in "...a ruinous temple..." (p. 196), the Wodenite, Francis Xavier Axor, is ordained in the Galilean Order of the Jerusalem Catholic Church. The orphan Diana guides Axor just as the orphan Kim had guided a Tibetan lama (see image).

Read Kipling, then Anderson (if you haven't already).

The Universal Quest In Kipling And Anderson

Kim's lama walks around North West India seeking his River of Enlightenment. Mad though this quest is, we are all on the same quest in different forms. My friends go to church. I sit facing a wall. None of us walks around England peering into every river or stream. But we will know Enlightenment when it finds us - or when He finds us if you are a theist. The lama and I refer to one Aryan Lord whereas my Anglican friends refer to their Hebrew Lord. The Ways transcend nation and race. (Malcolm X met white Muslims at Mecca.)

Poul Anderson's Fr Axor travels between planetary systems seeking evidence for the Universal Incarnation. Will he find it? He might, but we expect that many of his contemporaries will not accept his interpretation of the data.

The lama and Axor, clergy beings in their respective traditions, are equally sincere. However, seekers are as multifarious as the Truth is manifold.

"'Stand by. The Divine, in whatever form It manifests Itself to you, the Divine is with us.'" (Flandry's Legacy, p. 261)