On Mars

"Un-Man."

Chapter III, set on Mars, imparts a considerable amount of information but here I will address just two points. First, the "Years Of Madness" appear in Poul Anderson's text after they have appeared in one of Sandra Miesel's interstitial passages. Secondly, we learn that a man called Stefan Rostomily has died on Mars. A man called Stefan appeared in "Marius" and Miesel informed us that his surname was Rostomily but we have not yet been told his relationship to the mysterious Un-Men.

I would have preferred if this future history had stayed longer with the story of the UN's struggle against the forces of social chaos. After a few stories, chaos triumphs although not in the longer term.

See also:

On Mars (an earlier post)
The Early Years Of Two Future Histories
Mars In An Early Future History

Abandoned Buildings

"Un-Man."

Our hero, Donner, the Un-Man, having been rendered unconscious, wakes up strapped to a chair in a bare room full of dust and cobwebs with cracked plaster and a broken window too dirty to show whether there is light outside. He deduces that he and his captors, who are present, are in one of the abandoned parts of Chicago that some agricultural organization will eventually buy from the government, miles of ruined buildings inhabited only by rats. Donner reflects on "...the weary creak of a joist..." (p. 25) etc.

What is the imaginative appeal of abandoned buildings? Nature reclaims the works of man. The buildings themselves remind us of the human past. They were once lived or worked in. We either know or can imagine their histories.

For fictional purposes: Are empty buildings haunted? Do time travelers pass through them? Might a momentarily glimpsed time traveler be mistaken for a ghost? How does a time traveler perceive a building as he travels futureward through it?

"'The dim suggestion of the laboratory seemed presently to fall away from me, and I saw the sun hopping swiftly across the sky...'"
-HG Wells, The Time Machine (London, 1973), 4, p. 24.

"...the noise and vibration came to a ringing halt.
"Sunlight streamed in through the porthole.
"'No house?' asked Hull.
"'A century is a long time,' said Saunders."
-Poul Anderson, "Flight to Forever" IN Anderson, Past Times (New York, 1984), pp. 207-286 AT CHAPTER ONE, p. 211.

See also The History Of A House that Jack Havig time travels through.

Post-World War III Urbanization

Poul Anderson, "Un-Man" IN Anderson, The Complete Psychotechnic League, Volume 1 (Riverdale, NY, 2017), pp. 21-100.

Although "Un-Man" plunges directly into action-adventure fiction, it cannot help telling us something about the daily life of the future. An apartment building two miles long and three hundred stories high, "...a city in its own right..." (p. 22), standing in its own park, overlooks the corn fields of Midwest Agricultural which stretch beyond the "...far horizon..." (p. 21)

An entirely different world from the devastation of the opening story, "Marius," but is it credible just a few decades after nuclear bombardment?

Endings

We have discussed future histories and Latin in the works of Poul Anderson so which future history ends with a three-word phrase in Latin? No, it is not one of Anderson's. In fact, what is the appropriate way to end a future history?

"The laughter was somewhat of a victory."
-Poul Anderson, "Starfog" IN Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, 2012), pp. 709-794 AT p. 794.

"...an aggressive order of religiously devoted men and women who will try out and establish and impose a new pattern of living upon our race.
"THE END."
-HG Wells, The Shape Of Things To Come (London, 1974), p. 493.

"For we shall make after all a fair conclusion to this brief music that is man."
-Olaf Stapledon, Last And First Men IN Stapledon, Last And First Men/Last Men In London (Harmondsworth, Middlesex, 1972), pp. 5-327 AT p. 327.

"'...the blind recollection of past light.'"
-Stapledon, Last Men In London IN op. cit., pp. 329-605 AT p. 605.

"...this brief effort of animalcules striving to win for their race some increase of lucidity before the ultimate darkness."
-Olaf Stapledon, Star Maker (Harmondsworth, Middlesex, 1972), p. 262.

"'...here's one monkey that's going to keep on climbing, and looking around him to see what he can see, as long as the tree holds out.'"
-Robert Heinlein, Methuselah's Children (London, 1966), p. 191.

"'...always Good Eating.'"
-Robert Heinlein, Orphans Of The Sky (London, 1965), p. 111.

"Creation began."
-James Blish, The Triumph Of Time IN Blish, Cities In Flight (London, 1981), pp. 467-596 AT p. 596.

"We who have already superseded you record these scenes now in your honour, as you once honoured man. REQUIESCAS IN PACE."
-Brian Aldiss, Galaxies Like Grains Of Sand (London, 1979), p. 188.

So which of these do we prefer?

Outward And Inward

"Space exploration opened a new external frontier while the Psychotechnic Institute that grew out of Professor Valti's theories probed an old internal one."
-Sandra Miesel, interstitial passage IN Poul Anderson, The Complete Pschotechnic League, Volume 1, p. 19.

"...the long and savage past of the race...the adolescence of a species...
"So men fought each other instead of wrestling with themselves. The bravest sought to evade the currents of hatred by turning outward to the nearest planets in the solar system..."
-Brian Aldiss, Galaxies Like Grains Of Sand (London, 1979), ONE, p. 21.

Whereas the Psychotechnic History opens by showing a positive approach to the outer and inner frontiers, in Aldiss's future history, by contrast, inner psychological conflicts are avoided first in outer political conflicts, then in outward space exploration. (See also When Does The Future Begin?)

"Since the flaws in human society were the products of flaws in each of its members, fundamental improvement had to begin with the individual."
-Miesel IN Anderson, p.101.

This is what the Transcendental Meditators claim. For a long time, I argued the same way. Changing people changes their relationships and thus society. Now I think that the combination of meditation with political action is the optimal approach.

Three Histories Summarized

In his Afterword to Volume 1 of the Psychotechnic History, Poul Anderson very briefly summarizes three future histories.

Olaf Stapledon's
"Olaf Stapledon had chronicled the entire future of our species, and then of the universe, but those books of his had no characters to speak of and were on a geological rather than historical scale."
-Poul Anderson, Afterword IN Anderson, The Complete Psychotechnic League, Volume 1, pp. 229-231 AT p. 229.

In fact, Stapledon's first volume chronicles eighteen human species on three planets.

Robert Heinlein's
"Heinlein wrote vivid tales of events happening to individuals, but civilization itself became a protagonist too, ever changing as the hopefulness of the first interplanetary era was lost in corruption followed by dictatorship, regained after a revolution, shunted aside in later turmoil, eventually restored as mankind approached racial maturity.
"Like most readers, I was fascinated." (ibid.)

That is a comparatively detailed summary. The individuals are people in all walks of life like a family holidaying on the Moon or a couple who not only live and work but also feel at home there. Anderson emphasizes that mankind progresses toward maturity, not just toward interstellar travel, although that does come also right at the end of this future history which is also the Future History.

The Psychotechnic History
"...to tell the story of humanity from the near future on through its expansion into the galaxy." (ibid.)

Here the culmination is "...the galaxy." More of this future history does occur outside the Solar System but racial maturity is also approached.

One Past But Many Futures

Two Histories of England both include the Norman Conquest but might explain and interpret the Conquest very differently. Of two future histories, by Olaf Stapledon and HG Wells respectively, the first includes Martian invasions of Earth whereas the second does not. Both Wells and Poul Anderson have their versions of a Martian invasion of Earth but not as part of their future histories. Thus, the future is even more diverse than the past. Indeed, we speak of "futures" and even of "Futures" as an academic discipline. Futurologists consult historians, economists, sf writers etc.

However, the past has the advantage of reality. There is always more that the chronicles have not told us. Even if Poul Anderson had devoted his entire career to writing different kinds of narratives set inside a single future history, he could not possibly have matched the sheer number of histories and biographies set on Earth Real. Millions of real people really did live and die in World War II. We can only imagine that even larger numbers lived and died during the Chaos, the Troubles and the Long Night. But we must imagine this if we are to appreciate Anderson's Technic History properly.

Future "Years"

In Heinlein's Future History Time Chart:

The "Crazy Years"
Strike of '66
The "False Dawn" 1960-70
First rocket to the Moon, 1978

In James Blish's Chronology of Cities In Flight:

2522 Beginning of the Empty Years.

In one of Sandra Miesel's interstitial passages in Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History:

"The Years of Hunger gave way to the Years of Madness -"

A future historian can suggest an entire period just by coining a phrase including the word "Years..."

Publication Dates

As Given In The Psychotechnic League (New York, 1981)
"Marius," Astounding, June 1957;
"Un-Man," Astounding, January 1953;
"The Sensitive Man," Fantastic Universe, November 1953;
"The Big Rain," Astounding, October 1954.

As Given In The Complete Psychotechnic League (Riverdale, NY, 2017)
"Marius," Astounding, March 1957;
"Un-Man," Astounding, January 1953;
"The Sensitive Man," Fantastic Universe, January 1954;
"The Big Rain," Astounding, October 1954.

Somewhere earlier on the blog, I quoted a date as given in the 1981 collection, not knowing, of course, that a different date would be given in a 2017 collection. Such details come to light as a result of months and years of blogging. Next on the agenda is to reread "Un-Man": action-adventure fiction but, as always with Anderson, some serious points as well.

Morning Under Betelgeuse

"His slave roused him in the dawn. Mist, tinged with blood by the red sun, drifted through the high windows of his suite. Someone was blowing a horn somewhere, a wild call in the vague mysterious light, and he heard the growl of engines warming up.
"Sometimes,' he muttered sourly, 'I feel like going to the emperor and telling him where to put our beloved empire."
-Poul Anderson, "Honourable Enemies" IN Anderson, Agent Of The Terran Empire (London, 1977), pp. 57-81 AT II, p.65.

"Dawn here was an alien thing, too. Mist tinged blood-red drifted in dankness through the open windows of his bedroom. It smelled like wet iron. Someone was blowing a horn somewhere, doubtless with intentions of spreading cheer; but to him, local music sounded like a cat in a washing machine. Engines growled. He closed his palms around the warmth of a coffee cup and shivered.
"But somebody has to prop up civilization, at least through my own lifetime, he told himself. Consider the alternative."
-Poul Anderson, "Honorable Enemies" IN Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 277-302 AT 283.

I recently quoted the later version here so here is the comparison but we can't do this with every altered text. I am sorry to lose the wild call in the mysterious light and get a cat in a washing machine instead.