A Series That Goes Somewhere

David Falkayn:

is apprenticed to Martin Schuster in "The Three-Cornered Wheel";

is a journeyman factor in van Rijn's company in "A Sun Invisible";

is a Master Merchant of the Polesotechnic League invited by van Rijn to lead the first trader team in "The Trouble Twisters";

leads the trader team in "The Trouble Twisters" and "Day of Burning";

defeats an external enemy of Technic Civilization" in Satan's World;

discovers Mirkheim and founds Supermetals in "Lodestar";

defeats an internal enemy of Technic Civilization in Mirkheim;

has founded the colony on Avalon before the beginning of "Wingless";

is the grandfather of Nat in "Wingless" and an ancestor of Tabitha in The People Of The Wind;

is remembered as the Founder of Avalon in The People of The Wind and The Earth Book Of Stormgate.

From apprentice to Founder is an impressive fictional biography and history.

The trader team:

works for van Rijn in "The Trouble Twisters" and "Day of Burning";
works with van Rijn in Satan's World;
works against van Rijn in "Lodestar";
is reconvened by van Rijn to investigate a threat to Technic Civilization in Mirkheim.

Thus, the trader team stories never become a repetitive linear series.

Van Rijn In Volume II

Poul Anderson, The Technic Civilization Saga, Volume II, David Falkayn: Star Trader
"Territory" (a van Rijn novella)
"The Trouble Twisters" (a trader team novella; van Rijn cameo)
"Day of Burning" (a trader team novella; no van Rijn)
"The Master Key" (a van Rijn novella)
Satan's World (a van Rijn and trader team novel)
"A Little Knowledge" (a Polesotecnic League short story; van Rijn reference)
"Lodestar" (a van Rijn and trader team novella)

Next up for rereading is that van Rijn cameo.

"All the traffic will bear."

Concluding "Territory": Trade And Peace

"Territory," see here.

Van Rijn devises a complicated plan that happifies all.

He tells Joyce that he is not impossible, merely improbable. Where does either Falkayn or Flandry say this?

I am not about to do this but it would be possible to go back through the story from beginning to end quoting Joyce's changing perceptions of van Rijn from detestable oaf to very interesting person. I like to let blog readers do some of the work.

They Meant Well

"Territory," see here.

Carnivores are territorial. The T'Kelan Ancients have sublimated their territoriality in their monopoly of specialized knowledge. Unintentionally, the Esperancians have challenged that monopoly. Joyce protests:

"'But we never meant to displace them!'" (p. 58)

In social interactions, it is consequences, not intentions, that count. Anyone who has given offense unintentionally must acknowledge that he has given offense and apologize, not merely insist that the offense was unintentional, therefore does not matter. The phrase, "The road to hell..." turns out to have an interesting history.

Like the Bible or Shakespeare, Poul Anderson's texts seem to have an interesting meaning or moral in almost every line - not literally in every line but it is impossible to read through even a short story without finding many points to post about. Total immersion in an Anderson text is blogging heaven.

Intelligent Carnivores

Poul Anderson
Ythrians
t'Kelans

Larry Niven
kzinti
two species in the Draco Tavern series

HG Wells' Martians do not eat flesh but extract and inject blood.

Common Characteristics
combativeness
territoriality

The Ythrians can also be compared with other intelligent fliers like Anderson's Diomedeans.

Intelligent beings should be able to communicate through mathematics but would they be able to agree about morality?

War Propaganda

"Territory," see here.

Although the t'Kelans do not organize for war, they are forced into Volkerwanderungs, displacing other populations in the process. For Joyce's and his own survival, van Rijn must motivate some t'Kelans to fight others and he lies in order to do this:

"'...all's fair in love and propaganda,' he said." (p. 53)

It is not. I would want to accuse an enemy of atrocities only if he was in fact guilty of them. However, van Rijn's need is urgent and he is in fact working toward a settlement that will be good for all concerned - including himself.

Fighting Back Against The Universe

"Territory," see here.

Surprisingly, the Esperancians' pacifism is not based on any sense of oneness with nature. On the contrary:

"Joyce shivered. 'This is a cruel cosmos. That's what we believe in on Esperance - fighting back against the universe, all beings together.'" (p. 37)

Pacifists usually avoid talk of "fighting." We have encountered this view of nature as an enemy before. See here. Van Rijn, like Dominic Flandry's mentor, Max Abrams, points out that not all beings are built for togetherness.

In the Buddha dharma (the Buddha's teaching), the three marks of existence (see here) are:

impermanence (anicca);
unsatisfactoriness or suffering (dukkha);
no soul (anatta) -

- but the solution is understanding and acceptance of the three marks - which need not entail fatalistic rejection of the benefits of technology.

Impermanence + no soul = the Buddhist "emptiness" teaching. However, contrary to what I sometimes hear in our meditation group, I think that compassion is an attribute of human beings, not of existence.

A Moment Of Realization On T'Kela

"Territory," see here.

Joyce has told van Rijn about t'Kela. He finishes eating the sandwich that she has made for him, broods silently for a long time, then, smiting the control board so that it rings:

"'By damn!' he bellowed. 'It fits together!'
"'What?' Joyce sat straight.
"'But I still can't see how to use it,' he said.
"'What do you mean?'
"'Shut up, Freelady.' He returned to his thoughts. The slow hours passed." (p. 35)

Van Rijn is driving while thinking. Regular readers are only too familiar with our heroes' moments of realization. In this case, we have been given one clue. Joyce theorizes that the t'Kelans do not fight wars because they cannot economically support armies. Van Rijn replies that human beings never allowed not being able to afford it to prevent them from waging a war. Why should the t'Kelans be different?

"'Maybe here is a key that goes tick-a-lock and solves our problem if we know how to stick it in?'" (pp. 33-34)

Since this is a van Rijn story, there is no "maybe" about it. But what is the answer?

Otherwise Forgotten Arts

"Territory," see here.

(Black from Backpool. I mean...)

The t'Kelan "Ancients":

are scribes;
keep records;
practice medicine;
work metal;
make gunpowder;
sell fireworks;
keep cannon;
predict solar flares;
are regarded as magicians;
are reserved and intellectual;
lose some of their number to the nomads;
but also adopt those t'Kelans who tire of nomadism;
thus, get some genetic variation.

I would want to be an Ancient, studying history and science, and would welcome contact with the sky-folk especially when they offered ecological assistance.

A T'Kelan Pride

"Territory," see here.

T'Kelans have three females to one male. Their most basic social unit is the pride of up to twenty individuals:

the oldest male;
his wives;
their sub-adult offspring;
some widows of the leader's father;
children and widows work in the camp;
all males and females without infants share hunting;
only males fight other t'Kelans;
fights are constant but there are neither wars nor vendettas;
no larger group can survive in an area that can be covered on foot.

In the most advanced, Kusulonga, culture:

ten or twenty prides are a clan, descended from a common male ancestor;
clans form a Horde with an annual meeting for trade, arbitration and marriages initiating new prides;
the Ancients, survivors of the lost civilization, maintain their mountain city and otherwise forgotten arts.

I must stop. Political necessity: a trip to Blackpool.