Constable

"Un-Man," VI, p. 46.

Entering the Donner's typical prefab house, Naysmith sees:

a stone fireplace, probably built by Donner;
an old marble clock;
brass candlesticks;
a Lunar crystal;
a mahogany desk;
a music console;
books, including Shakespeare -

- and, on the walls:

an antique musket;
animated films;
a Rembrandt rabbi;
a Constable landscape;
engravings.

I thought that we could end the day with Constable.

A History Of Histories

Robert Heinlein compiled a time chart to keep track of his Future History. When John Campbell found out about the chart, he published an early draft of it in Astounding Science Fiction, May 1941.

Poul Anderson, imitating Heinlein, compiled a time chart and wrote a series of stories set within it. That chart was published in Startling Stories, Winter 1955. (See image.) A later version, compiled by Sandra Miesel, appears in book collections of Anderson's first, Psychotechnic, future history.

Campbell coined the term, "Future History," in Astounding, February 1941. Heinlein, Asimov, Blish and Anderson are four Campbell future historians. Blish compiled a Chronology of Cities In Flight for some book editions of his future history.

Chronology And Progress

"Un-Man."

The Un-Men are clones of Stefan Rostomily but there is more going on even than that. Trying to spot an undercover agent, Naysmith considers:

"...the little girl skipping rope in the park across the way. She might not be what she seemed: the biological laboratories could do strange things, and Fourre had built up his own secret shops -" (VI, p. 45)

Hold on there, Fourre! What are you doing now? And, having kicked themselves back with a nuclear war, can the people of this fictional timeline have progressed that far that fast? Sandra Miesel's "Chronology of Future" dates "Un-Man" to 2004. It cannot be much later because Fourre, who was young in 1945, is still alive, aged eighty. Also, this Chronology is based in part on one compiled by Poul Anderson and published in Starling Stories in 1955. Is there any extant information on that Chronology?

American Politics

"Un-Man."

We appreciated the complexities of Hermetian politics in Mirkheim in the Technic History in:

The Constitution Of Hermes
Political Factions On Hermes
Liberation On Hermes

American politics in "Un-Man" in the Psychotechnic History are more straightforward:

the government is Labor and pro-UN;

its growing sociodynamicist faction is even more pro-world federation;

however, conservatives from mildly socialist Republicans to extreme Americanists are powerful enough in Congress to prevent abrogation of the Department of Security;

S-men hunt down foreign agents, including Un-Men, because their chief, Hessling, favors Americanism;

Un-Men in Security conceal the existence of the Brotherhood;

finance minister, Arnold Besser, urges UN President Lopez to investigate the Chinese allegation that Un-Men assassinated Kwang-Ti in Mongolia;

Fourre, head of the UN Inspectorate secret service, organized the coup against the anti-UN Argentinian government;

there are Ameicanists and an American Guard colonel in the group that captures Donner;

and there is an international alliance of nationalists!

Craters

"Un-Man."

Sofie remembers:

"'I remember the tail-end of the Years of Hunger, and then the Years of Madness, and the Socialist Depression - people in rags, starving; you could see their bones - and a riot once, and the marching uniforms, and the great craters -...'" (IV, p. 37)

She remembers the craters? But how will they be removed from the landscape?

In another of Poul Anderson's post-nuclear war scenarios, great "Craters" remain and come to be inhabited. See Existence And Craters. That future also has Centers which are the large apartment buildings under another name.

A Century Of Adventure

Nowadays, I look at the twentieth century as a period of enormous, avoidable disasters. When I was about ten, I would have regarded it as a period of great adventures.

Although I did not know about this character that far back, Poul Anderson's Etienne Fourre fought for his country in World Wars II and III and then for the UN.

The British boys' hero, Biggles, fought in World Wars I and II, then led the Special Air Police for Scotland Yard.

James Bond either was in the Secret Service before World War II or joined the Royal Navy by lying about his age during that War, depending on which of his books you read, then was a hero of the Cold War.

To a juvenile mentality, these are indeed great adventures.

The Daily Life Of The Future

"Un-Man."

In I, we were told that a large apartment building was "...a city in its own right..." (p. 22) In V, we learn what that means. Inside the single great building that is Frisco Unit, an express elevator takes Naysmith:

"...swiftly past the lower levels of shops, offices, service establishments, and places of education and entertainment, up to the residential stories." (p. 38)

On the 107th level, he travels east, then half a mile north, on slideways to his destination where the rubbery floor absorbs the slight shock of leaving the slideway.

We also learn that "postwar resettlements" (VI, p. 44) are called "colonies." Thus, Sofie, "...an engineer on the Pacific Colony project..." (IV, p. 36) lives in "...a small prefab in one of the colonies..." (p. 37)

Brigham City, Utah, not a colony because it existed pre-War, has almost entirely adopted modern layout and architecture. Many from the City commute by airbus to work on the Pacific Colony project and elsewhere.

Biomedical techniques of diet, exercise and chemistry applied from birth prolong youth.

Naysmith, with degrees in epistemology and communications theory, is a cybernetic epistemologist, cybernetic analyst or basic-theoretical consultant which he describes as troubleshooting with ideas. Prior is a semantic analyst for a trading company. Donner's widow, Jeanne, works at home as a mail-consultant semantic linguist.

Many people, although not the Donners, live in free-marriage groups.

The End Of The Road

"Un-Man."

We get used to reading some sf cliches without reflecting on their implications. Here, I summarized some futuristic scenery but omitted one detail:

"...the white streak of an old highway crossed the field..." (I, p. 22)

Why is the highway "old"? Is it no longer in use? The cliche comes in IV, p. 36, when Naysmith goes to a "parking lot," enters his "boat," then:

"The ovoid shell slipped skyward on murmuring jets."

Despite being called a boat, the vehicle is an all too familiar sf aircar. In fact, the opening sentence had told us:

"They were gone, their boat whispering into the sky..." (I, p. 21)

- but we probably do not notice technical details when just beginning to read a new sf narrative. Later, Naysmith:

"...opened all jets and screamed at his habitual speed low above the crumbling highway." (VI, p. 44)

Of course highways are "old" and "crumbling" when private vehicles fly!

Another consequence is that multi-storey buildings have landing "flanges" (V, p.38), as we have seen in the Dominic Flandry series and in other works by Anderson. Such practical details become so familiar that we do not reflect on them. Naysmith's boat needs an autopilot to negotiate the heavy traffic around a large building. Civilization has not only recovered from World War III but surpassed its post-World War II technological level. In fact, it is also well established on the Moon and Mars.

A POV Change And Years

"Un-Man."

When one Un-Man is killed, another member of the Brotherhood is summoned, by a receiver in his head, to take his place. We move from Donner to Naysmith.

Section IV is narrated from Naysmith's point of view and he is with Sofie but suddenly on p. 36 we are being told what Sofie thinks before the narrative pov returns to Naysmith. Once, when I pointed out a similar Hornblower pov switch to my friend Kevin, he replied, "I wouldn't have noticed," but, when I saw a French guy reading Frank Herbert's Dune and remarked that the pov is inconsistent, he responded, "I have read it!"

Sofie confirms for us that the Years of Hunger were followed by the Years of Madness and adds that next came the Socialist Depression. They have been through a lot - like us. For an indefinite period, I cannot meet with Kevin and John so I texted them both to remind them of the days when "Brexit" was the big issue. Their responses: "Certainly do wish we were back in the good old days"; "Yes. One bloomin' disaster after another. Least that one had less death, and better jokes."

Meanwhile, as we pursue our daily lives, our timeline's equivalent of Un-Men go about their business of surveillance, assassination etc.

Earth And Home

Before I get to the point of this post, here is another future history ending, an advertisement:

"Your car is perfectly safe, provided it was built later than 3100 A.D."
-Larry Niven, "Safe at Any Speed" IN Niven, Tales Of Known Space (New York, 1975), pp. 217-220 AT p. 217.

The point: home is where we live wherever that is. Three examples -

On a planet, soon to be called New Earth, in the Greater Magellanic Cloud, John Amalfi says:

"'We're all Earthmen, Karst. Earth is more than just one little planet, buried in another galaxy than this. Earth is much more important than that.
"'Earth isn't a place. It's an idea.'"
-James Blish, Earthman, Come Home IN Blish, Cities In Flight (London, 1981), pp. 235-465 AT CHAPTER NINE: HOME, p. 465.

Dominic Flandry tells the young Nyanzans:

"'When the Long Night comes for Terra, somebody will have to carry on. It might as well be you.'"
-Poul Anderson, "The Game of Glory" IN Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 303-339 AT VIII, p. 339.

Sandra Miesel writes a coda to Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History:

"To Earth there's no returning. She vanished with the childhood of our race. Yet as a poet once said, 'No matter how far we range, the salt and rhythm of her tides will always be in our blood.' One chapter has ended. Humankind's saga flows on."
-Sandra Miesel IN Poul Anderson, The Complete Psychotechnic League, Volume 3 (Riverdale, NY, 2018), p. 216.