Curdled Silver II

"Sargasso of Lost Starships."

The colonized planet, Ansa, is fifty light years from Sol. The Imperial ship, Ganymede, departs from Ansa in the opposite direction toward:

"...Sagittari, Galactic center and the Black Nebula." (p. 381)

Sagittari = Sagittarius? Presumably the Black Nebula is much closer than galactic center?

Exactly one page of the text (pp. 381-382) is Andersonian description of the cosmos as seen from space followed by the viewpoint charater's reflection on the cosmic insignificance of man. This passage has seven familiar features.

(i) Sol is "...lost in the thronging glory of stars." (p. 381)

(ii) "The Milky Way foamed in curdled sliver around that enormous night, a shining girdle jeweled with the constellations." (ibid.)

This is the second time that we have found the Milky Way described as "curdled silver." See Curdled Silver, which also refers to Sagittarius. In the "Sargasso..." passage, the "curdled silver" is also "a shining girdle" and "jeweled with the constellations": three descriptions.

(iii) In "Sargasso...," after the Milky Way, Anderson next describes other galaxies. These have been mentioned a few times and maybe I should be listing the references to them as well? See here.

"Far and away wheeled the mysterious green and blue-white of the other galaxies, sparks of a guttering fire with a reeling immensity between." (ibid.)

(iv) "Looking toward the bows, one saw the great star-clusters of Sagittari, the thronging host of suns burning and thundering at the heart of the Galaxy." (ibid.)

Humanity migrates in that direction in Anderson's Psychotechnic History. See Sagittarius.

(v) Next, Donovan begins to reflect and thus touches on three more familiar themes. First:

"And what have we done? thought Basil Donovan. What is man and all his proud achievements?" (ibid.)

"What is man...?" is a Biblical quotation. See also A Note...

(vi) Donovan continues:

"Our home star is a dwarf on the lonely fringe of the Galaxy, out where the stars thin away toward the great emptiness." (ibid.)

Thus, he contradicts the earlier implication that mankind operates on a "Galactic" scale and also connects with the familiar theme of  "the edge of one spiral arm."

(vii) Finally, his continuing reflection reminds me of some short passages that I quoted here from Anderson's "Flight to Forever":

"We've ranged maybe two hundred light years from it and it's thirty thousand to the Center! Night and mysteries and nameless immensities around us, our day of glory the merest flicker on the edge of nowhere, then oblivion forever - and we won't be forgotten, because we'll never have been noticed." (ibid.)

Two hundred light years is supposed to be the radius of the Empire in Flandry's time but see:

"The Astronomy Of The Technic Civilization Saga" by Johan Ortiz, here.

Worshiping Celestial Bodies

In Larry Niven's and Jerry Pournelle's The Mote In God's Eye, the Coal Sack nebula appears to some extra-solar human colonists as a hooded head and shoulders with a red giant star as the single eye, thus as God's Face. They interpret a scientifically explicable brightening of the Eye as God's awakening.

In Poul Anderson's World Without Stars, inhabitants of a planet in intergalactic space worship our galaxy as God.

In Anderson's "Hunters of the Sky Cave," the Ardazirho believe that a nebula:

The Sky Cave
Unborn Planets

- is the abode of the dead.

In Anderson's "Sargasso of Lost Planets," inhabitants of most planets near the Black Nebula either worship the Nebula or believe that it is the home of the gods. The inhabitants of the nearest planet, Heim, sacrifice foods, furs and tools which they claim the gods take.

Culmination

The Technic Civilization Saga, Volume III, Rise Of The Terran Empire, concludes and supremely culminates with The People Of The Wind, which:

provided the background material for Hloch's Earth Book texts that had begun with an introduction to the second story in Volume I and had concluded at the mid-point of Volume III;

describes the Terran War on Avalon and features Christpher Holm, both of them mentioned by Hloch;

interweaves the histories of the colonized planet, Avalon ("Wingless"; "Rescue on Avalon"), and of the Terran Empire ("The Star Plunderer"; "Sargasso of Lost Starships");

presents the long term consequences of David Falkayn's greatest achievement, the joint human-Ythrian colonization of Avalon;

is the first of eight novels about the Terran Empire, the remaining seven being collected together with twelve shorter works, in Volumes IV-VII.

Originally, The People Of The Wind would have been read before The Earth Book Of Stormgate. However, in The Technic Civilization Saga, the entire contents of the Earth Book, together with other earlier works, are read before The People Of The Wind which, when read, finally explains Hloch's references to the Terran War and to:

"...Arinnian of Stormgate, whose human name is Christopher Holm and who has rendered several Ythrian works into Anglic..."
-Poul Anderson, The Earth Book Of Stormgate (New York, 1979), p. 291.

A Haunted Nebula?

In Poul Anderson's "Sargasso of Lost Starships," as in his Psychotechnic History, characters refer to "Galactic sectors" as if their field of action were the whole "Galaxy," not, as in the rest of the Technic History, a small part of one galactic arm.

We are not used to ghost stories on an interstellar scale:

the superstitious say that the Black Nebula is haunted;

there are stories of ships disappearing in the Nebula, of ghostly things seen and whispers heard in ships passing nearby and of men going mad;

there was inexplicable physical trouble with engines, lights etc;

Donovan recommended abandonment of the base on the planet Heim at the edge of the Nebula;

he suggests that Nebular radiation affects particles and nervous systems.

Research into reported apparitions at Muncaster Castle includes investigation as to whether zinc in the ground affects nervous systems. (I think.)

Discrepancies

When discussing Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization, we cite various authorities:

Poul Anderson;
Sandra Miesel;
Hloch of the Stormgate Choth;
Donvar Ayeghen;
Michael Karageorge.

Sandra Miesel comments on "Sargasso of Lost Starships":

"'Sargasso of Lost Starships' is an account filled with discrepancies, nevertheless it shows the early Empire defeudalizing Ansa to good effect."
-Sandra Miesel, "Afterword: The Price of Buying Time" IN Poul Anderson, A Stone In Heaven (New York, 1979), pp. 237-251 AT pp. 240-241.

Thus, the Imperial annexation of Ansa is historical even if the journey to the Black Nebula is fictional. This comment by Miesel synthesizes the messages of two recent posts:

Fiction Within Fiction?
Historical Continuity

Historical Continuity

Manuel Argos says:

"'...everyone but Sol must be disarmed, and the only way to enforce such a peace is for Sol to be the unquestioned ruler.'"
-"The Star Plunderer," p. 356.

Basil Donovan says:

"'We led you and it was to defeat... We've been stripped of our titles. We're just plain citizens of the Empire now like you, and the new rulers are Terran. Why do you still think of us as your leaders?'"
-Poul Anderson, "Sargasso of Lost Starships" IN Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2011), pp. 363-436 at I, p. 368-369.

Despite the previous post, these passages display historical consistency and continuity. Argos says that his Empire will conquer. Later, Donovan speaks as one of the conquered. A complex series presents different points of view. Poul Anderson's Technic History succeeds admirably. The Terran Empire is resisted unsuccessfully in "Sargasso of Lost Starships" but successfully in The People Of The Wind and "Outpost of Empire" and is defended brilliantly by Dominic Flandry throughout his career. Flandry's son betrays the Empire but his daughter follows in her father's footsteps, then, after a long gap, we are shown the aftermath of the Empire and two of its successor civilizations.

The Technic History: can't get enough of it.

Translation Of Metafiction

Hank Davis:

compiled The Technic Civilization Saga, Baen Books' seven-volume omnibus collection of Poul Anderson's major future history series, the History of Technic Civilization;

introduced each volume;

wrote a fictional introduction to one story, "Sargasso of Lost Starships."

The fictional introduction begins:

"Many scholarly works of varying lengths have been written on both the history and the literature of the early years of the Terran Empire, and the majority completely ignore the piece which follows. The few who do mention it mostly do so only in passing, describing it as 'obvious fiction,' or even scorn it as a hoax. The eminent Donvar Ayeghen once hastily changed the subject when the present document was brought up in an interview."
-Michael Karageorge, INTRODUCTION IN Poul Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2011), pp. 363-365 AT p. 363.

Karageorge wrote at a time when Anglic had become an ancient language. Translating (very freely) from Karageorge's post-Anglic into modern English gives us something like this:

"Many volumes have collected parts of Poul Anderson's Technic History but the following piece has never been collected since its original magazine publication. The story is perhaps inconsistent with the rest of the Technic History. Donvar Ayeghen is the fictional author of the introduction to the previous installment of the series, "The Star Plunderer," so let's have a joke at his expense here!"

Fiction Within Fiction?

Poul Anderson, "Sargasso of Lost Starships" IN Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2011), pp. 363-436.

I am not about to discuss this at length now because it is getting late but this story might have a curious status. On the one hand, it is set within Poul Anderson's Technic Histiry timeline:

it opens on the planet, Ansa;
it refers to green-skinned Shalmuans;
as we read further, it will inform us about the interstellar empire that Manuel Argos had proclaimed in "The Star Plunderer."

However, as Michael Karageorge points out in the introduction, the story:

reads like Imperialist propaganda;
describes beings with extraordinary psychic powers that do not exist anywhere else in the known galaxy.

So is this an example of science fiction within a science fictional narrative? We read about the future Terran Empire while the Terrans read about the fabulous Black Nebula? I will give these questions more thought when rereading the story.

Historical Review

I want to pause to review the awesome fictional history that we have recently followed on the blog. It is always possible to focus on fresh details of the Technic History.

David Falkayn was a Master Merchant of the Polesotechnic League and both a protege and a grandson-in-law of the living legend, Nicholas van Rijn.

David and Coya Falkayn led the joint human-Ythrian colonization of the Hesperian Islands on the planet Avalon in the Domain of Ythri.

Their son, Nicholas, traveled from Chartertown on First Island to the Ythrian island of Trauvay/Wingland, there to join the research and development team for the colonization of the Coronan continent.

During the allocation of territories on Corona, the Stormgate Choth received the Andromeda Range which they called the Weathermother and John Birnam saved the life of Ayan, Wyvan of Stormgate.

A.A. Craig, who had previously written a narrative account of Nicholas van Rijn, interviewed Birnam in his old age and fictionalized the story of Birnam's rescue of Ayan as "Rescue on Avalon."

After the Terran War on Avalon, Hloch of Stormgate Choth compiled The Earth Book Of Stormgate, a history of the human-Ythrian interactions that had led to the founding of Stormgate.

The Earth Book included previously untold stories of van Rijn and Falkayn and concluded with "Rescue on Avalon."

In The Technic Civilization Saga, Hloch's Afterword to the Earth Book is immediately followed by Donvar Ayeghen's Introduction to the fifth chapter of the Memoirs of Rear Admiral John Henry Reeves, Imperial Solar Navy.

Reeves describes how Manuel Argos led a slave revolt and proclaimed the Empire of Sol.

The Terran Empire, as it comes to be called, exists in the next seventeen installments of the Technic History.

After that, just four post-Imperial installments complete the History.

In "The Star Plunderer," Argos refers to "'...the decadent Commonwealth government...'" (p. 342) but cannot mention the Polesotechnic League, the Home Companies or the Seven in Space because Anderson created these details later. Reeves speaks as if the characters' actions were on the scale of "'...the Galaxy!'" (p. 357) whereas later-written texts more realistically confine them to the edge of one spiral arm.

Transonic

"The Star Plunderer."

By oratory, Manuel wins the freed slaves to an attack on Gorzun. He inspires them by naming the captured ship "'...- the Revenge.'" (p. 355)

Background technical details differ when a story was not originally written to fit into a future history. The Revenge comes off "...secondary drive..." (p. 357) and is hailed "...over the transonic communicator..." (ibid.) but Manuel speaks the language and has the codebook.

Gorzun, like Barsoom, has "...hurtling moons..." (p. 358) but three of them. Because of ERB, we associate hurtling moons with a barbaric planet.

The Revenge bombards Gorzun. There is now nothing to prevent Manuel from advancing and rising to the Imperial Throne. He and Kathryn will start a dynasty.

"'She will be the mother of kings,' said Manuel..." (p. 362)