A Wandering POV And A Missing Child

Poul Anderson, New America, "The Queen of Air and Darkness."

Eric Sherrinford and Barbro Cullen converse. At the bottom of p. 167, we are given her point of view (pov) when she remembers her husband. On p. 169, we get his pov when he regards her. Thus, the pov wanders in a single conversation.

They investigate a missing child, her son. Stieg Larsson's Mikael Blomkvist investigates a missing teenager, his employer's niece. In Anderson's story, I would have preferred if we had not seen the stolen child with his kidnapper before reading the conversation between his mother and the detective. In Larsson's novel, I have some criticisms of the police investigation (see here) although I might modify the first criticism (only slightly) on re-rereading the novel.

As always, I am finding much more in this Anderson story by critically rereading it and blogging about it.

In Sherrinford's Appartment

Poul Anderson, New America, "The Queen of Air and Darkness."

We appreciate good views. For the view from Nicholas van Rijn's office, see here.

The view from Eric Sherrinford's office on a hill above Christmas Landing on Roland:

the city dropping away;
Venture Bay;
ships going to or from the Sunward Islands or further;
the sunset-glimmering Boreal Ocean;
both moons;
Sirius which is near Sol although the latter is invisible without a telescope.

That last datum tells us that Roland is further away from Sol than Rustum.

Surprised by Sherrinford's deductions, his prospective client Barbro Cullen asks:

"'How in cosmos do you know that?'" (p. 167)

We have learned that invocations of "Cosmos," usually capitalized, transcend timelines.

A Wise Warning

Poul Anderson, New America, "The Queen of Air and Darkness."

The Queen of Air and Darkness warns her subjects:

"'If you stole a babe from the camp full of engines...then they were folk out of the far south who may not endure it as meekly as yeomen.'" (p. 164)

Technologically powerful human beings will not meekly accept fairies, or fairy-like beings, stealing their children? Very true. So is the scene set for a battle between science and the supernatural as in James Blish's The Day After Judgment where the Strategic Air Command attacks the demon fortress of Dis now raised to the Earth's surface in Death Valley, "...even as it was in the beginning, in the Valley of Death"?

Well no, because the supernatural in the Anderson story is faked by alien telepathy. But we do not know that yet. Try to reread a text as if you had never read it before. Check whether the author appropriately and adequately introduces and explains everything that needs to be introduced and explained. There is a lot going on in "The Queen of Air and Darkness."

What Spies Need

Reading spy fiction (I needn't list the authors again) gives us some idea of what spies need, particularly in war-time:

misdirection (if the enemy looks for you, make him look in the wrong place);

plausible cover (the ability to walk and talk unsuspected in the enemy capital);

a technical department providing forged documents and useful gadgets;

communications;

escape route;

combat skills (not all real-life spies have these but our favorite fictional secret agents do);

motivation;

intuition;

luck (Audentes fortuna iuvat).

Another Planet

Poul Anderson, New America, "The Queen Of Air And Darkness."

In New America, "To Promote The General Welfare" and "The Queen of Air and Darkness" are separated by a Publisher's Note which begins:

"Here ends the story of High America." (p. 158)

Without this note, how quickly would we have realized that "The Queen..." is set on another planet? Immediately, I think. Its opening section describes a different environment. Although a sunset glow lingers, there is no day during the northern winter but nevertheless local species thrive:

flamboyant firethorn trees;
blue steelflowers;
hill-covering rainplant;
dale-growing white kiss-me-never;
iridescent winged flitteries;
a bugling, horned crownbuck;
hellbats.

Above are two moons, which do not sound like the Rustumite two, an aurora covering half the sky and the first stars. A long-haired teenage boy and girl, wearing only garlands, sit on a barrow. He plays a flute while she sings. Named Mistherd and Shadow-of-a-Dream, respectively, they are "Outlings" (p. 162), no longer part of human society, and are shortly joined by a short, claw-footed, feathered, winged, tailed "pook" called Ayoch who carries a stolen human child.

OK. We are not in Kansas. Or on Rustum. 

The Long Road And The Long Trail

A single volume to be entitled The Rustum History could collect:

the four stories about the colonization of the planet Rustum previously collected as Orbit Unlimited;

the four stories about Dan Coffin on Rustum collected in New America;

the Publisher's Note on p. 158 of New America (see here);

"The Queen of Air and Darkness," which is in several collections including New America;

the note on p. 260 of New America (see the above link).

The remaining two items in New America should be collected elsewhere.

The second note begins:

"And so end these chronicles of the folk who took the long road to the stars."

Of course these are not all of Poul Anderson's chronicles of folk traveling to the stars but they are the only ones that fit into this particular future history. Commissioner Svoboda is elderly on Earth in the opening story, some of his great-great-grandchildren are a few years old on Rustum in the last Dan Coffin story and "The Queen of Air and Darkness" is set considerably later when laser communication has been established between several colonized planets.

In the concluding novel about Nicholas van Rijn in Anderson's Technic History, van Rijn says:

"'You take the Long Trail with me!... A universe where all roads lead to roaming. Life never fails us. We fail it, unless we reach out.'"
-Poul Anderson, Mirkheim IN Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2011), pp. 1-291 AT XXI, p. 287.

These characters are all one in Poul Anderson's imagination. The long road is the Long Trail although they are in different histories. Van Rijn's characteristic malapropism or pun, "roaming" for "Rome," recalls Roman civilization which is dealt with in Anderson's historical works and also maybe anticipates the Terran Empire, modeled on the Roman Empire, that will succeed the Solar Commonwealth of van Rijn's period.

One installment of Anderson's Psychotechnic History begins with a quotation from Starward!, a work that chronicles early slower-than-light interstellar colonization. Here again is the long road. The first ship, the Pioneer, will take a hundred and twenty-three years to reach Alpha Centauri...

Spring

Poul Anderson, New America, "To Promote The General Welfare."

After 9:00 PM, I try to switch to non-blogging reading but often find connections. A reference to "a hint of spring" in Stieg Larsson's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo reminded me that I had forgotten to post about a very appropriate Pathetic Fallacy in the concluding passage of Poul Anderson's last Dan Coffin story:

"...a rumble from the river, whose hardness had begun to break into floes under a first faint flowing of spring." (p. 157)

Anderson had described young people skating on the frozen Emperor River earlier in the story so that he would then be able to describe the sound of the ice beginning to melt at the very end of the story. Dan Coffin, great-grandfather and widower, has initiated a new spring for his planet, Rustum.

Another narrative detail was that the Rustumite citizens would watch the Constitutional Convention on television, then argue about it in taverns. The remote colony has become a new civilization.

Real People And A Setting Sun

In historical fiction, we sometimes read about real people in fictional situations:

in Ian Fleming's From Russia, With Love, Serov telephones G, the fictional Head of SMERSH;

Poul Anderson's Manse Everard meets Hiram of Tyre.

In alternative history fiction, we sometimes read about real people in fictional histories. See Prince Rupert, Disraeli and Prince William (here).

I mention this because at least two more historical figures show up in unexpected circumstances in SM Stirling's Theater Of Spies. I say no more now. No images or Wiki links.

Paolo Roberto is not the only public figure to have played himself in a film. Sometimes the hero of one set of narratives is a villain in another.

Looking back at Prince William, reminded me of:

"...the halls of sunken Ys."
-SM Stirling, The Protector's War (New York, 2006), CHAPTER EIGHT, p. 236.

- and:

"...the sun was already setting. It made a path of blood and fire across the water, stretching clouds like hot gold and molten copper along the horizon."
-op. cit., p. 237.

Pure Poul Anderson...

And pure SM Stirling, of course!

New America: Conclusion

Poul Anderson, New America, "To Promote the General Welfare."

The Rustum Constitutional Convention is held in Wolfe Hall where Dan Coffin remembers dancing with Mary Lochaber.

Theron Svoboda combines the first name of Theron Wolfe and the surname of the Svobodas. Wolfe and two Svobodas, father and son, featured prominently in earlier installments. Coffin's eldest granddaughter has married one Leo Svoboda.

Morris O'Malley, who addresses the Convention, is the grandson of Jack O'Malley who salvaged equipment with the teenage Dan Coffin. Morris quotes the Bible:

"'Lead us not into temptation.'" (p. 149)

Coffin argues:

"'...the introduction of foreign philosophies, minds strange to our own -...
"'God damn it, that's exactly what we need!'" (p. 155)

This is the familiar Andersonian positive evaluation of human diversity. Coffin convinces Constitutionalist colonials to coexist with Confucianists. We want to read about the advent of the Confucianists but Anderson was not able to continue his many series indefinitely.

Demagogues

Poul Anderson's Dan Coffin dismisses "demagogues preaching revolution." See recent post, " The Future Of Rustum." (Here.) I defend some "demagogues." In my experience, those who might be described as demagogues are of two kinds: racists or anti-racists; would-be dictators or opponents of dictatorship.

Currently, xenophobia marches through Europe, sometimes unopposed. Recently, an elderly Jewish man was attacked in London. There was an immediate street response. Local clergy (Catholic priest, rabbi and imam), City Councillors, the Member of Parliament and political campaigners addressed a crowd who rejected antisemitism and celebrated diversity.

Some of the speakers at that rally would have looked and sounded like demagogues preaching hate, especially to a non-English speaker, but their message was the exact opposite. Some loud angry public speakers preach hate. Other loud angry public speakers oppose hate. The latter make a positive contribution to society and should not be dismissed as if they were Tweedledum fighting Tweedledee. (Alice reference. Alice can be relevant and topical.)