Three Senses In Tartessos

OK. Here are three senses one after the other:

"A leafless forest of mast and spar and rigging lifted against the bright stars and crescent moon, and that light and the lanterns atop the wall reflected from the rippling waters. A creak and groan of timber sounded through the night, wind in the tracework of rigging, call of a watchman, the sound of waves slapping like wet hands at the planking of hulls. There was a thick smell of the sea, of brackish water and tar, bilges and cargoes."
-SM Stirling, On The Oceans Of Night (New York, 2000), Chapter Four, p. 74.

The sounds are meticulously listed. Waves like wet hands! What were the cargoes?

On The Oceans Of Eternity

(All reality and fiction travels across the Oceans of Eternity.)

I refer again to the mystery of the disappearing posts. To be more precise, posts do not disappear from the blog but post titles disappear from the blog archive. The earliest title listed for October 2016 is dated 17 October (see here). However, a search for On The Oceans Of Eternity reveals earlier posts for that month. See here.

The present plan is to continue reading and discussing On The Oceans Of Eternity. To do this, it is helpful to be able to refer to earlier posts that mention this novel.

Every work of fiction, even the most realistic, is set in a parallel universe or alternative timeline to the extent that its characters and events do not exist in our timeline. On the other hand, even the most fantastic fiction "fantastically reflects" the real world in which it was created. Poul Anderson and SM Stirling make us feel that their alternative timelines are as real as ours.

Contrasts

All fiction reflects reality but in different ways. We enjoy works of fiction set in heroic pasts and fantastic futures. On this blog, we have discussed, e.g.:

Poul Anderson's heroic fantasies and future histories;
SM Stirling's Nantucket Trilogy set in the past of an alternative timeline;
the Smallville TV series set in a superhero universe;
James Bond novels which reflect their period but through the lens of "...high-flown and romanticized caricatures..." (see here).

Because the focus of the blog remains Poul Anderson, the other works are usually discussed by comparing or contrasting them with appropriate stories or novels by Anderson. This is easy to do because Anderson's range is so vast.

By contrast, another kind of drama reflects reality more directly. Ken Loach directs films that sound like documentaries. The dialogue seems to have been tape recorded rather than enacted from a script. This is neither heroic past nor fantastic future but our present. Having just seen I, Daniel Blake, I mention Loach and his films purely for contrast and will return to more familiar themes in the next post.

Diversity

Arinnian defends the defensive war recently waged by Avalon:

"'...our society or culture or what you want to name it, has a life and a right of its own.
"'...if communities didn't resist encroachments, they'd soon be swallowed by the biggest and greediest. Wouldn't they? In the end, dead sameness. No challenges, no inspirations from somebody else's way. What service is it to life if we let that happen?
"'And, you know, enmities needn't be eternal.'" (Rise Of The Terran Empire, p. 661)

Three Observations
(i) We can organize the production and distribution of wealth in such a way that everyone has access to far more than they need and thus that "greed" ceases to motivate anyone. (But that is not the situation at the time of the border dispute between Terra and Ythri.)

(ii) In how many works does Poul Anderson rightly dramatize the point that sameness is bad and therefore diversity is good?

(iii) He mentions Lepanto but there are many other historical examples of former enemies becoming allies and friends. See here.

The Distant Future Of The Technic History

Governor Saracoglu wonders whether the biracial culture being created on Avalon might foreshadow the distant future:

"'...the source of their resistance - like an alloy or a two-phase material, many times stronger than either part that went into it. We've a galaxy, a cosmos to fill..." (Rise Of The Terran Empire, p. 657)

They have a galaxy to fill and a cosmos to spread into, never to fill.

Potential Bi- Or Multiracial Cultures
Ythrians and human beings on Avalon.
Human beings and Merseians on Dennitza.
Two races on Talwin.
Human beings and the two Starkadian species on Imhotep.
Human beings, Cynthians and Donarrians on Daedalus.
Human beings and Didonians in the Virgilian System.

We need a culminating novel set in a mutliracial galactic culture in the remote future.

In Gray

Regular readers might remember that "Gray" is the name of the main city on Avalon. The city is named after Captain Gray of the Olga, the Grand Survey ship which, during a flight of several years - like that of the Enterprise -, discovered many planets, including Ythri and an uninhabited globe that was provisionally named "Gray" before David Falkayn's granddaughter renamed it "Avalon" when Falkayn led the colonization.

When the Founder's descendant, Tabitha Falkayn, visits Philippe Rochefort in hospital, the color of her hair and skin tell Rochefort that she has been under "...a stronger sun than shone over Gray." (Rise Of The Terran Empire, p. 644)

Why is the comparison made with Gray? Because the hospital "...building had been hastily erected on the outskirts of Gray." (p. 646)

When Tabitha leaves the building, a double space between paragraphs marks the change of point of view from Rochefort to Tabitha. As ever, Poul Anderson makes the Avalonian setting seem real with many concrete details and with appeals to at least three of the senses:

"Where she stood, a hillside sloped downward, decked with smaragdine susin, starred with chasuble bush and Buddha's cup, to the strewn and begardened city, the huge curve of uprising shoreline, the glitter on Falkayn Bay. Small cottony clouds sauntered before the wind, which murmured and smelled of livewell.
"She inhaled that coolness. After Equatoria, it was intoxicating." (p. 647)

So she has been on Equatoria, where the Terrans were defeated. What better name for an equatorial continent? And imagine looking at scenery where a major feature bears your own surname. The mention of the wind is appropriate because Tabitha, as a member of a choth, is one of this novel's title characters, the "People of the Wind." In fact, she stops to don her gravbelt as she leaves the hospital. We have learned many details of Avalonian life and want to know more but unfortunately this novel is about to end.

Hospital

I have been visiting a hospital regularly for over a week and have just reread Poul Anderson's account of Philippe Rochefort's hospitalization on Avalon:

"...they had no entertainment except reading and bitching. A majority preferred the latter." (Rise Of The Terran Empire, p. 644)

Mild humor, welcome after the harrowing account of the horrendous effects of the Avalonian environment on its Terran invaders.

"Before long, Rochefort asked for earcups in order that he might be able to use the books lent him. He wore them pretty much around the clock." (ibid.)

Right on, Phil. Exactly what I would do. Tabitha visits but only to "ex-" him. He will get over it and begins to hope for transfer to a hospital on Esperance, where he remembers a particular girl. This is our last sight of Rochefort. He has served several purposes in the narrative but the War, in which he played a major part, is drawing to an end. In a future history, any character might recur but then again might not. The People Of The Wind is the culmination of the Avalon sub-series. The following volume will introduce a very recurrent character, and sub-series hero, Dominic Flandry.

Religious Expectations

(Ashton Memorial, Lancaster, a sort of local Taj Mahal, thus relevant to this post.)

See Religions and Expectations. Poul Anderson describes a society in religious ferment where new beliefs can arise, coalesce and solidify into dogmas. Jaan the Shoemaker believes not that he is the incarnation or reincarnation of a god but that his consciousness has merged with that of an Ancient. In this science fictional, future historical context, Anderson has reproduced past historical turning points.

"...the total impact of the evidence has led to widespread acceptance of the view that it was the Greek-speaking Gentile converts who transformed Jesus, the Jewish Messiah of Palestine, into an incarnate divine being. Since such a development was inconceivable, it is said, in the context of Jewish monotheism, only the syncretistic pagan environment can account for its origin."
-Frances Young, Chapter 5, "Two Roots or a Tangled Mass?" IN John Hick, Ed, The Myth Of God Incarnate (London, 1977), pp. 87-119 AT p. 98.

(Addendum: But Young goes on to show Jewish antecedents of incarnational theology.)

Theologies develop:

(i) Jesus was able to be the Messiah promised to the Jews because he was in patrilineal descent from Abraham.

(ii) He was not in patrilineal descent from Abraham but was the Son of God because the divine Spirit had impregnated his mother.

(iii) He was not only the Son Of God but also God the Son because, although this was not known before, God is three Persons and Jesus was the Incarnation of the Second Person.

(iv) He was the Incarnation not of a divine Person but of a lesser, although powerful, supernatural being.

Paul started with (i), then, under the pressure of controversy with Samaritan Gnostics, adopted (iv) but did not preach (ii) or (ii). The Trinity doctrine is not in the New Testament but is inferred from John's deification of the Son and personification of the Spirit. Also of interest are three entirely different accounts of Jesus' last words before his death.

Addendum: I have tried to clarify the developing doctrines about Christ here.

Further Reflections

In the previous post:

our Ashton Memorial is visible in the background of the day image - so here are some closer shots;

I listed a few film titles and should have added that we want to see Poul Anderson titles added to this list.

Instead of a travesty of The Time Machine, we want a faithful dramatization of "Time Patrol." However, I think that any screen adaptation of a novel should be a serial, to fit everything in.

Reading about New Testament origins enhances appreciation of Poul Anderson's The Day Of Their Return:

a country/planet under foreign occupation;

diverse social groups with various grievances;

an ancient tradition;

an apocalyptic atmosphere;

a focusing of hope on extraplanetary intervention;

the possibility of a charismatic individual sparking a revolt.

Anderson adds the idea of cynical manipulation based on mental powers and superior technology.

Yesterday

Why so few posts yesterday, Poul Anderson fans?

Hours Yesterday
1 on gym bike
0.5 swimming
2 visiting Ketlan in the Infirmary, afternoon
0.5 meditation
1 visiting Ketlan, evening
2 Duke's Playhouse film quiz
1.5 travel time

That is a day's work. There was time for eating and reading but not of Poul Anderson. For the Duke's Playhouse night and day, see the images.

The film quiz included a few items relevant to recent posts:

one James Bond film, Doctor No;
four time travel films -

Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 AD;
Terminator;
Planet Of The Apes;
The Time Machine.

The Daleks are Doctor Who's continuing villains. We recently suggested combining the Time Machine and Doctor Who with Poul Anderson's Time Patrol. See here.

Tomorrow may involve visiting another very unwell friend, the Italian Fascist, then Ketlan again. The current reading schedule, maybe, is:

finish reading The Myth Of God Incarnate;
finish rereading The People Of The Wind;
finish reading SM Stirling's On The Oceans Of Eternity.

Theology, future history and alternative history expand the mind.