Future History Parallels

Analog published installments of James Blish's Cities in Flight future history and also of Poul Anderson's Technic Civilization future history.

"...the Bureaucratic State...allowed the now large numbers of Okie cities to develop in effectual anarchy, a condition very well suited to their proliferation of trade routes throughout the known and unknown galaxy."
-James Blish, The Triumph Of Time IN Blish, Cities In Flight (London, 1981), pp. 467-596 AT p. 470.

Blish does not use the phrase "known space" but it is there in embryo. The Okies sound like Anderson's Polesotechnic League.

Blish's Alois Hrunta defeats the Vegans and declares himself Emperor of Space whereas Anderson's Manuel Argos defeats the Gorzuni and declares himself Emperor of Terra. However, the Bureaucratic State suppresses the Hruntan Empire whereas the Solar Commonwealth had collapsed before the founding of the Terran Empire.

Blish's post-Okie New Earthmen, kept alive for centuries by antiagathics, survive until the unexpectedly early end of this universe whereas some of Anderson's characters, in an independent novel, survive beyond the end of this universe by time dilation.

Gravity

What is the connection between the Bible and gravity? Isaac Newton (see image) interpreted Revelation and formulated gravitation. We are watching Jim Al-Khalili on gravity on TV.

Gravity In Sf
Wells: the Cavorite sphere flies to the Moon.
Blish: Haertel's tree hut flies to Mars.
Blish: Cities fly between stars; a planet between galazies.
Anderson: gyrogravitics terraforms and moves asteroids.

I am sure there are more?

Apocrypha

Science fiction future histories are one kind of fictional history, other examples being JRR Tolkien's Middle Earth History and CS Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia. The Bible contains myths, legends, historical fictions and theologically interpreted histories. Thus, while it is not itself a fictional history, it does cover some of the same territory.

And fictional histories have apocrypha:

(i) earlier versions of stories that have had to be revised to fit into the history;
(ii) stories that share background details but that remain inconsistent with the course of events in the history.

Larry Niven's Known Space History has two examples of (ii) and Anderson's Psychotechnic History has one, which I have discussed somewhere. It is about a guy who gets duplicated. Does anyone remember the title?

On (i), I have been told that, at one point in the Middle Earth History, a character narrating a story apologizes to some people who have read a different version of it. In Poul Anderson's The Earth Book Of Stormgate, the Avalonian editor, Hloch, notes that The Man Who Counts had been published in different places. It had indeed. And the author disliked the title, War Of The Wing Men.

Other Scriptures

Every Terrestrial religion has scriptures. I think that a scripture is a writing regarded as authoritatively true on religious matters by members of a particular religion. Religious authority derives from inspiration. I have read that the non-theistic Buddhist scriptures are regarded as the word of the Buddha. Thus, they express transcendent enlightenment and wisdom, not intellect. The Bible is one scripture and incorporates the Samaritan, Jewish, Marcionite, Catholic and Protestant canons. Also, at least three other scriptures or, if you prefer, alleged scriptures, are in different ways related to it: the Koran, the Granth and the Book of Mormon.

Do alien races in Poul Anderson's Technic History have scriptures? We are not told. However:

the Merseian deity, referred to simply as "the God," seems too remote to enter into any direct relationship with a prophet or group of disciples;

the Ythrian "God the Hunter" definitely does not reveal His will or seek a following - He merely overshadows and stoops on everyone in due course.

Given that, the Sky Book and the Earth Book might be the nearest Avalonian equivalent to a "Bible," common to adherents of either Faith? These two compilations (or Testaments?) are the history of their people, even including an interstellar Exodus.

Different Uses Of The Bible In Fiction III

Poul Anderson, The Dancer From Atlantis (London, 1977).

p. 1: blurb;
p. 2: other Sphere titles by Anderson;
p. 3: title page;
p. 4: publication details;
p. 5: quotation, Revelation, viii, 6-13;
p. 6: quotation, Rig-Veda, vii, 56;
p. 7: Chapter One begins.

We note another Biblical quotation.

In Chapter Four, we learn that the anakro, space-time vehicle, was bound for prehistoric Africa and protoman. That is an appropriate pretext to bring in James Blish whose character, Kit Kennedy, finding a secluded valley in Africa, compares it to Paradise:

"...that garden planted eastward in Eden...And a river went out of Eden to water the garden..."
-James Blish, The Night Shapes (London, 1963), pp. 44-45.

When I had published the previous post, I realised that I had not included Blish. Then I realized that I could link him to The Dancer From Atlantis. Then I found a Biblical quote just inside Dancer.

Far out.

Different Uses Of The Bible In Fiction II

Poul Anderson wrote both fantasy and hard sf whereas CS Lewis wrote both fantasy and soft sf. Lewis' Narnia Chronicles and Perelandra (Interplanetary Trilogy, Vol II) assume the literal truth of the Adam and Eve story. The history of Narnia parallels the Biblical Creation, Resurrection and Judgement. Human beings are received in Narnia as Sons and Daughters of Adam and Eve; the Witch is descended from Adam's second wife, Lilith. The temptation of Eve is replayed in Perelandra/Venus; Vol III replays the Curse of Babel in post-War Britain.

Authors of graphic fantasies can match the Bible for supernatural drama:

in Neil Gaiman's The Sandman, the Biblical Cain resides in Morpheus' realm, the Dreaming, because in Genesis 4.16, he went to the land of Nod;

in Alan Moore's Swamp Thing, the Original Darkness that was before the Creation, conjured by magicians, emerges from the Chaos beyond Hell and advances towards Heaven...

Thus, so far, Poul Anderson's time travellers visit Biblical periods and fantasy authors extrapolate the Biblical narrative. Meanwhile, characters in contemporary fiction can quote the Bible to powerful effect. In Stieg Larsson's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, a girl who has disappeared had kept a list of names followed by what look like phone numbers: Magda - 32016; Sara - 32109 etc. Michael Blomkvist, investigating the disappearance, hangs the list on his wall. When Blomkvist's daughter visits, she advises him to keep up his Biblical studies. Then he realizes that 32016 means Leviticus 20.16 etc. Next he learns that women called Magda, Sara etc have been murdered in ways corresponding to the horrific executions prescribed in these Biblical passages...

And it was rereading Larsson that made me reflect on the diverse literary uses of the Bible, starting with Poul Anderson's Time Patrol.

Different Uses Of The Bible In Fiction

The Bible and Shakespeare are full of quotes. We know of Poul Anderson's involvement with the Bible (see here and here) and Shakespeare (see here).

Manse Everard of the Time Patrol meets Cyrus and also Hiram:

"Everard remembered how the Bible gloated (would gloat) over the wealth of Solomon and whence he got it. 'For the king had at sea a navy of Tharshish with the navy of Hiram: once in three years came the navy of Tharshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks -'"
-Poul Anderson, "Ivory, And Apes, And Peacocks" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006), pp. 229-331 AT p. 240.

I have written "1 Kings 10.22" in the margin. For another literary reference to ivory, apes and peacocks, see here.

Seeking fellow time travellers, Jack Havig visits Jerusalem for Passover in 33 AD. Havig describes crucifixions to Robert Anderson whose relative writes science fiction...

I want to mention the Bible in the works of a few other writers but first I need some breakfast.

Good Goth Night

It is 2:39 AM. I have just returned from a Goth Night at Morecambe Winter Gardens. I want to post about uses of the Bible in fiction but that will have to wait until after a few hours of sleep.

Fantasy can assume the existence of supernatural beings. Any other fiction can feature characters who quote the Bible but in diverse contexts. (Poul Anderson, of course, did both.) Thus, we will find very different things when we look inside Poul Anderson, James Blish, CS Lewis and Stieg Larsson...

Good night.

Villains II

Does Robert Heinlein's Future History have a villain? Some of its stories certainly don't. They are just about daily life in the future. Is the Prophet Nehemiah Scudder the villain of the series? But he remains off-stage. The History is about humanity overcoming its own problems, social insanities and prejudices, over time.

Poul Anderson made this point even more explicitly in his first future history, the Psychotechnic History. Not only did Anderson model his fictional history directly on Heinlein's. He also specifically identified the villain of the series, "...the old and protean enemy...," as mankind! See here. Perhaps there is nothing more to be said about villainry after that?

Villains

Can we divide fiction into the kind that has villains and the kind that does not? Needless to say, Poul Anderson wrote both kinds. In Anderson's Dominic Flandry series, Tachwyr the Dark is Flandry's opposite number but it is Aycharaych, weaving an interstellar web of deception and subversion, that is the main villain.

In Anderson's Time Patrol series, there are installments that have a time criminal villain whereas others instead feature problems generated by Patrol members themselves. The arch-villain that does emerge, Merau Varagan, is not just a time travelling Aycharaych. Their motivations are entirely different.

SM Stirling devises an endless succession of villains. In the Emberverse series, the Lord Protector and his wife are joined by the malicious Tiphaine. Stieg Larsson also excels in the creation of villains. Before we encounter Lisbeth's gangster father, Zala, we must first meet both her rapist guardian and a sadistic serial killer. Larsson's point is that there are Men Who Hate Women, his original title. Stirling's point also seems to be that there are a lot of really bad people out there.