History And Yarns

Assuming for the sake of argument that "The Acolytes" does belong in the Psychotechnic History, we find that:

in "The Snows of Ganymede," Callisto and Ganymede are going to be terraformed;

in "Brake," Europa is going to be terraformed;

in "The Acolytes," Wilson Pete's father, an engineer, has:

"'...been assigned to a project on Sol VIII.'" (p. 6)

- i.e., on Neptune.

Thus, human activity expands out through the Solar System.

By the same token:

in "The Big Rain," Venus is being terraformed;

in "Cold Victory," Venus has been terraformed;

in "The Acolytes," Stellamont, the only city on Nerthus, is a few buildings on a broad plain;

in The Peregrine, Stellamont has grown much bigger and has even acquired a native section. See here.

History happens.

Wilson Pete is ten. His uncle, Thorleifsson Gunnar, has a blue, bald Javartenanian servant, Tobur, who tells Pete fine stories. Tobur has been with Gunnar since leaving Javartenan yet has been on many planets that Gunnar never mentions:

"...and he wouldn't lie to a fellow." (p. 11)

We return to the ambiguity of the yarn.

The Cosmos Future History

Poul Anderson, "The Acolytes" IN Anderson, The Complete Psychotechnic League, Volume 3 (Riverdale, NY, July 2018), pp. 3-19. 

I have reread a short way into "The Acolytes" and will make some general observations.

First, "Gypsy," "Star Ship" and "The Acolytes" have two common features:

characters' names have the surname first and the personal name second, e.g., "Wilson Pete";

characters swear by Cosmos.

Secondly, there has not yet been any reference back to the pre-FTL period of the Psychotechnic History with the Institute, the Solar Union etc.

Did Sandra Miesel have these three and a few later stories in mind when she wrote in a fanzine article decades ago that there was an obscure Poul Anderson future history series in which the characters swear by Cosmos?

"Gypsy" is about an early FTL colonization spaceship that had been bound for Alpha Centauri but instead became lost in space whereas the remaining two stories mentioned here are set in much later periods. "Star Ship" refers to Galactic civilization and, in "The Acolytes," one explorer has:

"...been all over the Galaxy..." (p. 3)

So far, the stories either do not pull together into a single series or at most are set in widely separated periods of a common timeline.

Frontier

"Given the chronic material and spiritual malaise afflicting the Solar System, is it any wonder that the stars came to have the same frontier significance that the New World once had for the weary peoples of the Old."

-Sandra Miesel IN Poul Anderson, The Complete Psychotechnic League, Volume 3 (Riverdale, NY, July 2018), p. 2.

(The quoted italicized sentence is printed without a question mark.)

To cross an ocean to another continent on the same planet is not to cross light years to stars that might or might not have habitable planets. Even a planet with oxygen in its atmosphere and liquid water on its surface is likely to bear more pitfalls and deathtraps than North America. So I would support exploratory missions but also attempts to address that malaise in the Solar System.

There was a profound malaise before the Second Dark Ages but we have been told that a saner civilization emerged later. In "The Acolytes," young Wilson Pete has just come from the Solar System to the frontier planet of Nerthus so will any of the background details give us some hints as to how sane Solar civilization has become? 

On Nerthus, Pete is with his Uncle Gunnar who had explored all over the Galaxy before settling on Nerthus. Thus, "The Acolytes," like "Star Ship," seems to be set later in future history than the Chronology suggests.

Friendship And Comradeship

"Star Ship."

Anse and Janazik shared a close friendship based on doing many things together:

warring over Khazak

fighting

laughing

singing

saving each other's lives

sweating

suffering 

being afraid

Not just warring and fighting although, on Khazak, those have been primary activities.

Khazaki comradeship is deeper than Terrestrial. Between the sexes, comrades are mates. Between males, they are blood-brothers. Comrades stand by each other.

Janazik thinks:

"...a man must stand by his comrades." (p. 305)

The word, "man," is here used in a wider sense than "human."

Conclusion: friendship and comradeship provide an adequate basis for activities that will be dynamic but also peaceful when Galactic civilization incorporates Khazak.

Violence And Predation

"Star Ship."

The Khazaki are:

"...naturally violent and predatory." (p. 284)

- and have built:

"...an early Iron Age civilization of city-states..." (ibid.)

If every individual was exclusively and permanently violent and predatory towards every other individual, then there would be no cooperation leading to language, let alone to civilization. Some minimum of cooperation within social units like families and tribes is necessary for rationality. However, we gather that, on a basis of minimal cooperation, much of it probably coerced, the Khazaki remain violent and predatory between groups and also between leaders or potential leaders of groups. This story describes a usurpation.

Khazak is a:

"...planet of warriors..." (p. 298)

Janazik, a Khazaki warrior, thinks that the age in which he lives has a:

"...gory magnificence..." (ibid.)

Gore yes, magnificence no, in my opinion.

Are the Khazaki doomed to remain at their primitive social level indefinitely or even to fall back below it? Janazik knows that he is helping the Terrestrials stranded on Khazak to rejoin Galactic civilization which will bring peace.

"...old Khazak..." (ibid.) will be no more.

Coming Of Age

Blog posts are sparse when life gets busy.

"Star Ship" is a coming of age story both for a man and for a planet. Janazik, sighing wistfully, realizes that, when Anse settles down with Ellen, this will be:

"...the end of the old unregenerate days." (p. 290)

Khazaki males and females feel comradeship but not the kind of love that Terrestrial do.

Anse realizes that he will have to give up his old comradeship with Janazik.

When Khazak is incorporated into Galactic civilization, it will lose not its innocence but its violence!

Finally, Janazik pretends that it was he, not Anse, that had killed Ellen's brother, Carse. This means that Anse and Janazik will not only lose their old comradeship but also never see each other again.

Endings and beginnings.

"Star Ship" belongs not in the early interstellar period with "Gypsy" but in the later period with The Peregrine.

Implausible Technology?

"Star Ship."

The first rocketship built on Khazak is reusable. It can take off from inside a citadel and land outside it. Why could our scientists not do that? Is that what Musk is working towards?

The stranded Terrestrials, who had brought no technology with them, have taught the Iron Age Khazaki how to construct blaster cannons which spout flame and melt armor in their:

"...lightning-like discharges..." (p. 294)

Does that mean "electrical"? Is it possible to teach Iron Agers how to do anything like that?

The crux of this story is a three-sided problem between Masefield Carson, Masefield Ellen and Dougald Anson but we will reread the climax tomorrow. Anson, a potential series character, has fought and adventured in different parts of Khazak.

Anse And Janavik

"Star Ship."

Andersonian action: a page and a half present a detailed account of a sword battle between guards and loyalists. It is probably two full pages in the smaller format previous edition. However, here and now, most books are boxed for a house move so any such comparisons are on hold, indefinitely.

"Anse and Janavik fought side by side, human brawn and Khazaki swiftness, and the corpses were heaped where they went." (p. 288)

That does sound like ERB's John Carter and Tars Tarkas: a man and his non-human friend on the latter's planet; swords; heaped corpses.

Do we need any other details? Blood and rain mingle between cobblestones. (There would not have been rain on Barsoom. Mars is, of course, a dry planet where canals conduct water from the poles.)

I once saw a comic strip adaptation of John Carter with two green Martians addressing each other as "Tars" and "Tarkas." My first thought was that that was wrong because Tars Tarkas is a single person. Then I remembered how a green Martian acquires a second name. They also laugh at the sight of bloodshed and want to die fighting. The Khazaki are not as warlike as green Martians.

All Hell Loose

"Star Ship."

As Anse and Janazik lead warriors through dark streets toward the castle, they hear a trumpet, shouts and clattering swords:

"'One of our bands has come across a patrol,' said Janazik unnecessarily. 'Now all hell will be loose in Krakenau. Come on!'" (p. 287)

What would it be like if all hell really were loose? Turn to Black Easter by James Blish. An arms merchant who is an aesthete of destruction hires the most powerful black magician to release a large number of demons with no restrictions for an entire night just to find out what they will do. The results are World War III, much destruction and demons who refuse to be re-confined because one of their triumvirate announces that the conjuration has unleashed Armageddon which their side has won. In the sequel - how can there be one? -, the demon fortress of Dis, raised to Earth's surface in Death Valley, destroys the Strategic Air Command but then there is a pause in hostilities. The now greatest Powers must consider what happens next.

Blish could easily have filled a volume with demons running amok through the world but, being a careful writer, he considered the implications of what he had written so far. 

For me, that phrase, "all hell will be loose," brings up all that.

The five principles of this blog are:

reread Poul Anderson;

film Anderson - but do it right;

read Blish too;

remember Wells;

compare certain other sf writers whom we can list.

History And Organizations

"There are moments when the flood tide of history threatens to overwhelm individuals and organizations, rendering them almost powerless."

-Joseph Choonara, "Confronting Britain's far-right problem" IN International Socialism, 184, Autumn 2024, pp. 3-22 AT p. 3.

Choonara proceeds to discuss a recent moment when, by contrast, the tide was turned but let's stay with his opening sentence which unintentionally encapsulates Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History:

contemporary society, as of the time of writing of the opening instalment, "Marius," is overwhelmed by World War III;

the Psychotechnic Institute is overwhelmed by the Humanist Revolution;

the Humanists are soon overwhelmed by a counterrevolution which, however, does not restore the Institute;

the Solar Union and the Order of Planetary Engineers are overwhelmed by the Second Dark Ages;

the Stellar Union and its Coordination Service are overwhelmed by the Third Dark Ages;

despite all that has gone before, psychotechnicians mentally control cosmic energy in a far future Galactic civilization.