Divine

The Game Of Empire.

Olaf Magnusson accepts the immediate objects of his thoughts:

"...as the aspect of the Divine which was set before him tonight."

-CHAPTER FOUR, p. 250.

The announcement that he is going to:

"...take leadership of the Terran Empire..."

-CHAPTER FIVE, p. 261 -

- ends with:

"'Stand by. The Divine, in whatever form It manifests Itself to you, is with us.'"

-ibid.

A very carefully worded statement that can provide a basis for any response whatsoever to the announcement!

A long time ago, I was impressed with the phrase, "the Divine Ground," in Aldous Huxley's The Perennial Philosophy because I wanted to move into mysticism while remaining monotheist. However, "Ground," like "It," is an impersonal term.

Today, I met with another guy called Paul who practices meditation taught by Elan Vital, the former Divine Light Mission, reads Christian mystics and attends the Church of England. Again, a light is not a person although I have just texted Paul to ask whether "Divine Light" implies a personal God.

If I were in the Patrician System to hear that announcement, then I would accept the statement that the Divine - in some sense! - is with us but I would also be wondering how to respond to Magnusson's attempted coup and, of course, I would not yet know what was really behind it. Poul Anderson is always full of surprises.

Magnusson's Background

The Game Of Empire, CHAPTER THREE.

Admiral Olaf Magnusson:

was born on Kraken whose spacefolk trade as far as Betelgeuse or Merseia;

enlisted young in the Marines;

at Syrax, took command of a crippled ship;

was sent to the Foundry, the Navy officer school in Sector Aldeberan, which is where he was during the civil war;

helped to suppress two later rebellions and to negotiate with the Merseians (we read elsewhere that he speaks three Merseian languages, including Eriau, fluently);

married a Nyanzan heiress.

Regular readers of Poul Anderson's Technic History recognize multiple background details:

Kraken

Betelgeuse

Merseia

Syrax

Sector Aldeberan

the civil war

(Eriau)

Nyanza

- but not the Foundry which is introduced here.

Each instalment of a future history series builds on the foundation provided by earlier instalments and adds more - but we know that by now.

Screen Adaptation

Today, we, editorially speaking, are recuperating from that minor illness of yesterday. I sit at home while Sheila walks through the rain to meet our daughter, Aileen, for a coffee in town.

This is neither to everyone else's taste nor currently a commercial proposition but what I would really like to see is a detailed screen adaptation, leaving nothing out, of Poul Anderson's Technic History beginning with Minamoto's introduction to "The Saturn Game" and ending with Daven Laure's concluding remark and laughter at the end of "Starfog." Even the shorter works should be serialized. The many characters who appear in only a single story would be seen in a few episodes but then would be gone forever. Hloch's narration of The Earth Book Of Stormgate would be a major feature, beginning with the second story, "Wings of Victory." Ythrians, Merseians and other extraterrestrials would be CGI. There would have to be two actors for Dominic Flandry, before and after his biosculpt. Maybe when Nicholas van Rijn reminisces briefly about his younger days as a spaceman, we could see a cameo of another, younger, slimmer actor in the role? The Merseian, Tachwyr, would have to be shown as aged in his later appearances. I would like to hear some Eriau, Planha etc with subtitles. For English to be replaced by Anglic, then by later languages, would be asking too much! Olaf Magnusson is said to be fluent not only in Eriau but also in two other Merseian languages so maybe we could hear some snatches of them also. We would not understand what was said but would notice different sounds like between French and German.

There is an entire universe to explore.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE, concluded

The Game Of Empire, CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE.

This chapter informs us that Olaf Magnusson fought Merseians at Syrax. That conflict happened during "Hunters of the Sky Cave," an instalment of the Captain Flandry series. Next, Magnusson performed well under Emperor Hans, who had come to power in A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows. He, Magnusson, was then put in charge of the defence of a critical Imperial sector facing the Roidhunate, although not Sector Taurus which is where Kossara Vymezal's home planet, Dennitza, is located. That brings events up to date with The Game Of Empire.

Thus, the kind of overall narrative perspective that we appreciate in The Earth book Of Storrmgate is to a lesser extent reproduced later in the Technic History.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE, continued

The Game Of Empire, CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE.

This chapter reminds us that there are human subjects of Merseia and Merseian subjects of Terra. We saw some of both in A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, the concluding Captain Flandry instalment, where Flandry and his fiancee join a demonstration of zmayi/ychani, Dennitzans of Merseian descent, which marches not only to but also into the Parliament of Dennitza, an Imperial planet. Poul Anderson's Technic History is almost as complicated as real history.

Brechdan Ironrede had deployed human subjects of the Roidhunate to persuade Erik Magnusson to join their cause. Aycharaych the universal telepath would have been able to confirm that a conversion was genuine. Several plot elements that we have previously encountered converge to explain Olaf Magnusson's Rebellion, a fitting conclusion to the recorded Flandry period of the Technic History.

Shortly, I will set off for the monthly visit to Andrea above the Old Pier Bookshop. Hours of blog silence will ensue.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

The Game Of Empire, CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE.

In this chapter, as in CHAPTER EIGHT, records are consulted and interpreted but, in this case, the interpreter is Flandry, not an unidentified narrator.

The Young Flandry Trilogy

Ensign Flandry

A Circus Of Hells

The Rebel Worlds

A reference to "Emperor Georgios" (p. 434) takes us right back to the beginning of Ensign Flandry. Flandry first heard of "Aycharaych, the telepath" (p. 435) in A Circus of Hells. "Crown Prince...Josip succeeded to the throne..." (p. 434) before the beginning of The Rebel Worlds. This new chapter informs us that the kinds of atrocities that we saw committed in Sector Alpha Crucis in The Rebel Worlds became widespread in Josip's reign. These Imperial betrayals drove Olaf Magnusson's father into the arms of the Merseian lord, Brechdan Ironrede, whom we saw in Ensign Flandry. We are receiving a substantial review of past future history plus new information which directly affects the events of The Game Of Empire. This pulls the Flandry period together before we leave it behind us as the Technic History continues into later eras.

Languages

The Game Of Empire, CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

"She spoke with a faint accent suggesting that Anglic had not been the principal language in her home when she was a child; the islanders purposely kept several tongues in daily use." (p. 338)

An excellent idea. Facility in other languages is one of the many things that I lack and regret. When I was at secondary school in the Republic of Ireland in the 1960's, we were force fed French, Latin and Irish for several years when we had no interest in them and were taught so badly that we gained no conversational ability in any of them. Later, I learned some Esperanto and would have gained conversational ability with practice but that never happened. I managed this short exchange with a man whom I saw wearing the green star:

Me: Cu vi parolas Esperanton?

Him: Jes, jes, flue. Kaj vi?

Me: Ne, ne flue.

Something is infinitely more than nothing but is still very little.

I once overheard a woman whose accent seemed to my ear to alternate between French and American. She was French Canadian.

We would probably think better if we were able to think in more than one language.

Olaf Magnusson is fluent in three Merseian languages, including Eriau.

Reflections And Conspiracies

This blog has two parts:

(i) appreciation of Poul Anderson's works, sometimes putting them in the context of other sf writers (we know who they are by now but remember that the start-point is Mary Shelley, not HG Wells);

(ii) reflections on particular passages, sometimes even on a single phrase.

I am aware that the reflections are very much my own, not anyone else's, but that cannot be helped. Poul Anderson's texts present a very great deal of material for everyone to reflect on and many reflections are bound to differ so - create other blogs if appropriate or comment here, whichever.

Yesterday, the horizonless planet led to a reflection on conspiracy theories which are a different subject although an important one. Conspiracy theories are how some people make sense of a complicated world. Hopefully, greater transparency in public consciousness will extirpate such theories. In Poul Anderson's The Game Of Empire, Targovi suspects that there is a conspiracy to promote Olaf Magnusson as a hero who can save the Empire and deal with the Merseians. This being a work of fiction, there is such a conspiracy. It originated with Aycharaych. Magnusson plans to seize the Throne, then to begin the subordination of mankind to the Merseians.

However, our world is controlled by conflict and chaos, not by conspiracies.

Targovi

The Game Of Empire.

CHAPTER TWO introduces Targovi. We learn that:

this character is a Tigery, a species that we met on Starkad in Ensign Flandry;

he is an itinerant merchant (a familiar profession);

he is based on Imhotep but travels to Daedalus;

his overt trade is a cover for Intelligence work (an even more familiar profession);

he is canny enough to ferret out who and what are behind the impending emergency;

he hopes for recognition on Terra, just as journeyman Falkayn had hoped for recognition by Old Nick;

he is a son of Dragoika who was introduced, on Starkad, in Ensign Flandry;

he is a friend of Diana Crowfeather who was introduced, on Imhotep, in CHAPTER ONE;

he says in CHAPTER THIRTEEN that he is "'...no Flandry...'" (p. 331) (This is another example of How Leading Characters Are Perceived By Others.) (We would say, "...no James Bond...")

This is a perfect combination of old and new narrative elements.

Olaf Magnusson was born on Kraken and has married a Nyanzan: yet more future historical continuity.

Culminations

A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows is the culmination of the Captain Flandry series and of Flandry's conflict with Aycharaych. This novel shows the ultimate consequences of Flandry's relationship with Persis d'Io in Ensign Flandry and of the curse that Djana had laid on him at the end of A Circus Of Hells - if we believe the latter. After A Knight..., there is no more Captain Flandry.

In A Stone In Heaven, Flandry is a Vice Admiral. In The Game Of Empire, he is a Fleet Admiral who appears in only three chapters whereas his daughter, her companions and occasionally another significant figure like Olaf Magnusson fill the remaining twenty chapters. In the remaining four instalments of the Technic History, Flandry and even the Terran Empire have themselves become history and each story carries the narrative further into the post-Imperial future. Even the continuity provided by continuing characters has been left behind. We are left with historical process itself as the subject matter of the series.

A Stone In Heaven

In Poul Anderson's Technic History, further candidates for mini-bio treatment are:

the usurper, Hans Molitor;

the pretender, Edwin Cairncross, Grand Duke of Hermes;

the pretender, Admiral Sir Olaf Magnusson;

Magnusson's father, Erik.

We will perhaps reread A Stone In Heaven which features Cairncross. A Stone... is dedicated to John K. Hord whose theory of history Anderson applies in A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows and in A Stone...

In the opening chapter of A Stone..., the Ramnuan, Yewwl, has an oath-sister, "Banner," based in Wainwright Station. The name of the station suggests that it is staffed by human beings but we do not at first suspect, although we will soon be informed, that "Banner" is Miriam Abrams. Nor has the text yet confirmed that Ramnu exists in the Technic History universe.

Other reading: I think that there is a structural problem in Robert Harris' Conclave relating to the seal of Confession.

Tahirians

Starfarers, 23.

Tahirians invite the Envoy crew to make camp on Tahir. The camp is visited by a few Tahirians but is not plagued by journalists, crowds, salespeople etc. Is this because Tahirian society is "'...very controlled...'" (p. 216) or just alien? The latter makes more sense. Why should intelligent beings have nuisance-making journalists etc? After a while, the guests are invited to go on tours. Who has decided this and how? How long does it take to understand even a strange human society let alone an alien one? Tahirians communicate mainly through body language so that conversations between them and human beings are impossible. 

Dominic Flandry learned Eriau. Olaf Magnusson was fluent in three Merseian languages, including Eriau. Arinnian of Stormgate Choth whose human name was Christopher Holm translated texts from Planha into Anglic. Human-alien communication is not necessarily going to be as easy as that and Poul Anderson shows us this with the Tahirians. Each future history conveys more.

Languages

Ensign Flandry.

"Like almost every intelligent species, the Merseians had in their past evolved thousands of languages and cultures..." (CHAPTER ELEVEN, p. 104)

It would be interesting to learn about some of the few exceptions.

In a Doctor Who episode, someone had transported the Doctor to a planet which they identified only by a number. When the Doctor said that he preferred names, he was told: "Skaro." The planet of Daleks and Thals! But, of course, the answer should have been something like: "Its name, in the principal language of its dominant species through most of its history, was 'Skaro.'" Someone travelling through space and time needs to give any name some kind of context.

The passage in Ensign Flandry goes on to explain that the process of domination by one culture and unification of the planet has not gone as far on Merseia as on Terra. For some, Wilwidh laws and customs remain a mere overlay and their native languages come more easily than Eriau. Olaf Magnusson, who will enter the Technic History in a later volume, will be fluent in Eriau and two other Merseian languages. I would like to speak at least one other language fluently. We were taught French atrociously.

Merseians In THE GAME OF EMPIRE

We find Merseians in four places in The Game of Empire:

two passages narrated from Tachwyr's pov;

the Merseian that Targovi kills and beheads as evidence on the island of Zacharia;

the words spoken to Olaf Magnusson by "...the envoy in the hidden place." (CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE, p. 439)

In that last case, we read only the words in an italicized dialogue. There is no description of persons or place. But we see right inside the Roidhunate ideology.

Flandry tells Magnusson that lasting peace is impossible:

"'...unless and until the civilization that dominates [the Merseians] goes under or changes its character completely. The Roidhun could make a personal appearance singing 'Jesus loves me' and I'd still want us to keep our warheads armed.'" (CHAPTER EIGHTEEN, p. 396)

Normally, I disagree with keeping warheads armed but, of course, Poul Anderson writes the Roidunate in such a way that no other response is viable.

Both civilizations go under. 

Real And Fictional Complexity

Read the morning newspaper, then reread the opening page of Sandra Miesel's Chronology of Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization. Of necessity, the news about the concrete real world is many times more complicated than any fictional narrative. However, we must imagine that comparable complexities lie behind Anderson's texts and Miesel's chronology. I hypothesize that, during the Chaos, Rome is nuked and the Catholic Church moves its headquarters to Jerusalem, thus explaining a reference to the Jerusalem Catholic Church as early as "The Saturn Game." Of course, an alternative explanation would be that the RC and JC Churches are alternative denominations existing in the future. Any interpretation that is consistent with the texts is legitimate although we can argue about their relative probabilities/plausibilities.

We do not know what becomes of Israel in the Technic History. It cannot continue to exist as a separate state in the Commonwealth or Empire periods. We do know that there are Jewish colonials on a planet called Dayan in the Empire period...

The Merseians, introduced as standard pulp sf green villains in the Captain Flandry series, become a sympathetic population on Dennitza in the culminating Captain Flandry novel. Agents of Merseia against whom Flandry must contend include:

Tachwyr the Dark, a Merseian;

giant, aquatic A'u;

the Chereionite telepath, Aycharaych;

Olaf Magnusson, a human being from the planet, Kraken;

Dominic Hazeltine, not only human but Flandry's own son!

By contrast, Flandry's fiancee, Kossara Vymezal, had grown up in a household with retainers who were Merseian by species but loyal to the Emperor, not to the Roidhun.

Not as complicated as real history, obvs, but Anderson knew how to complexify.

Historical Links

The Long Night.

In her next interstitial note, Sandra Miesel pulls the narrative together as much as possible. Thus, she refers to Sassania, Nike, Roan Tom, Lochlann and Kraken and adds that these latter two planets took part in rediscovery expeditions. Tom was born in a spaceship with a Lochlanna father and a Hermetian-descended mother although Miesel refers to Lochlann as his birthworld. Kraken was his adopted planet. That alone links him back to Olaf Magnusson in the Imperial period and forward to the Allied Planets which will incorporate Kraken. Tom's mother's Hermetian descent is the only post-Imperial link back to David Falkayn's home planet. 

These comments by Miesel precede "The Sharing of Flesh" which we have just reread in The Technic Civilization Saga, Volume VII.

The Allied Planets

In Poul Anderson's Technic History, Roan Tom, based on Kraken, forges interstellar alliances. Later, Kraken is one of the Allied Planets. So were Tom's alliances the beginning of the Allied Planets? Well, no:

"No one on Kraken had known that pines and gulls and rhizobacteria were altered immigrants, until Donli's crew arrived and identified them."

-Poul Anderson, "The Sharing of Flesh" IN Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, June 2012), pp. 661-708 AT p. 666.

Donli was:

"...a man from Atheia, which was supposed to have retained or regained almost as many amenities as Old Earth knew in its glory..." (p. 665)

Despite this, he:

"...had accepted life in [Evalyth's] gaunt grim country." (ibid.)

- on Kraken.

"...the Atheian data banks were packed with information..." (p. 666)

So Atheia inducted Kraken into the Allied Planets.

Previously in the Technic History:

Maria Crowfeather was from Atheia;

Olaf Magnusson was from Kraken;

Persis d'Io settled on Sassania which was one of Roan Tom's allies.

Falkayn And Magnusson

If fictional history is to be authentic, then it must present characters who sometimes express diametrically opposed perceptions and interpretations of a single set of events. Thus, David Falkayn on Polesotechnic League aid to Merseia:

"'We want to save you, because you are sentient beings. But it'll be expensive, and a lot of the work will have to be done by outfits like mine, which exist to make a profit. So, besides a scientific base, we want a reasonable economic return.

"'Eventually, though, we'll depart. What you do then is your own affair. But you'll still have your civilization. You'll also have a great deal of new equipment and new knowledge. I think you're getting a bargain.'"

-Poul Anderson, "Day of Burning" IN Anderson, David Falkayn: Star Trader (Riverdale, NY, March 2010), pp. 209-272 AT p. 221.

Centuries later, Olaf Magnusson on the same issue:

"'...the Terran rescue mission upset [the Merseian's] whole order of things and found ways to get rich off their tragedy-...'"

-The Game of Empire, CHAPTER EIGHTEEN, p. 397.

Thus, according to Magnusson, the Terrans provoked hostility and aggression from the Merseians! Maybe they should not have helped?

Magnusson also informs Flandry that:

"'...the Starkad incident caused relations to deteriorate entirely.'"

-ibid., p. 398.

Flandry and consecutive readers of Anderson's Technic History know what the Merseians attempted at Starkad - more than enough to cause a deterioration in relations. But we need more of this in future histories - not that I am keeping up with any current series, however.

The Game Of Empire, Contents Of Chapters

The Game of Empire, CHAPTERS

ONE Diana meets Axor in Olga's Landing on Imhotep

TWO Targovi investigates on Daedalus

THREE Targovi recruits Diana and Axor at sea on Imhotep

FOUR Olaf and Vida Magnusson at home on Daedalus

FIVE Targovi etc travel to and arrive on Daedalus

SIX Tachwyr and the Grand Council on Merseia

SEVEN Diana with General Gatto in Aurea

EIGHT Interstellar war and Helen Kittredge

NINE Diana and Axor embark on Waterblossom

TEN On the Highroad River

ELEVEN The Merseian attack on Gorrazan

TWELVE Dominic and Miriam Flandry at home in Archopolis on Terra

Eleven more chapters... Maybe later.

Narrative Action

The Game of Empire.

We want the narrative to linger in some of the exotic locations imagined by Poul Anderson but the action has to move fast if it is to reach its resolution by the end of a not-too-lengthy novel. In CHAPTER SEVENTEEN, Targovi's group arrives on the island of Zacharia. At the end of this chapter, Kukulkan Zachary is urging Diana to pass on her genes... (That is not where the action is going to be, though.)

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN is an "interlude," if we can use that word without disrespect towards overtly more important characters, about Olaf Magnusson and Dominic Flandry meeting on the planet Sphinx. CHAPTER NINETEEN, returning to the main narrative thread on Zacharia, begins:

"The climax was violent." (p. 402)

Thus, events on Zacharia have proceeded directly from arrival to climax. After all the violence, Targovi, Diana and Axor will flee from the island, taking with them the military intelligence that they had come to gather, at the end of CHAPTER TWENTY. In a while, I will do a breakdown of how many chapters are devoted to each setting: Imhotep, Zacharia etc. Terra and Sphinx get one chapter each.

Tomorrow, like last Saturday, will hopefully involve a long day trip, this one longer, to London, setting of at 6:30 AM as against 8:00 AM. Please do not be surprised if there are no posts.