Anderson-Blish Parallels

(i) Both Poul Anderson and James Blish have a shorter future history, a longer future history and other relevant works.

Anderson - shorter: Psychotechnic; longer: Technic.
Blish - shorter: pantropy; longer: Okies.

(ii) For parallels between the culminations of the two shorter future histories, see here.

(iii) In both the Psychotechnic History and the pantropy future history, a spaceship crashes on a planet and the spaceship crew and passengers colonize that planet with one-to-one genetic versions of themselves. Anderson's all women crew must reproduce by parthenogenesis whereas Blish's pantropists contribute germ-cells from which microscopic, aquatic Adapted Men are developed to inhabit fresh water pools.

Anderson's women with the surname Udall become hereditary rulers whereas Blish's la Ventura and Dr Chatvieux become the templates of many generations of leaders called Lavon and thinkers called Shar, respectively.

Contexts

(Neptune: a gas giant planet and an alternative to either Jupiter or Saturn.)

Alternatively, Aesgil might be a gas giant and I-IV its satellites. That seems more likely.

Right now, this blog is focused on a few installments of a single future history series. However, our wider contexts remain:

the complete works of Poul Anderson;
all future history series;
in fact, all science fiction and imaginative literature;
the history, cosmology and philosophical issues that form the background of Anderson's works.

And here is one of those issues. Recently (here), we referred to the evolution of intelligence. Intelligence emerges when consciousness advances from sensation and perception to abstraction. An intelligent animal not only feels hot, and not only perceives sources of heat, but also applies the concepts of "hot" and "heat." I suggest that this advance from perception to abstraction is a qualitative transformation inside material brains and not an interaction between those brains and any specially created immaterial entities. We are part of "One Universe." In fact, we are its self-consciousness.

Remember...

Series characters can reminisce either about earlier episodes or about adventures remembered by them but not by us. A Nomad recalls:

"'The flying city on Aesgil IV, and the war between the birds and the centauroids.'"
-Poul Anderson, The Peregrine (New York, 1979), Chapter XIX, p. 164.

Maybe we can read about this flying city in a previous episode? No, all that we find earlier in the Psychotechnic History is the founders of the Nomads remembering that:

"We had ridden centauroids who conversed with us as they went to the aerial city of their winged enemies -"
-Poul Anderson, "Gypsy" IN Anderson, Starship (New York, 1982), pp. 12-34 AT p. 29.

This is a slightly different description:

an "aerial" city might hover rather than fly;
"winged" antagonist might not be birds.

I am grateful for these two differently worded accounts.

Thus, Aesgil IV was visited at least twice, first by the lost Traveler, then later by a Nomad ship, the Peregrine. Aesgil IV must be the fourth planet of a fictional star called "Aesgil."

We are intrigued by this war between centaurs and sky-dwelling fliers. I thought that there might have been a corresponding Greek myth. Certainly centaurs fought. No matter how much Anderson wrote, some of his characters were going to recall adventures that we have not been able to read about. Nevertheless, we thank the Muses and the author himself for the extent of Anderson's works.

In The Country Of The Blind...

In the country of the blind, the one-eyed (or two-eyed) man is king? No, he is not. According to HG Wells, the blind population thinks that this single man is deluded and offers to cure him be removing the deformities from his face. He is lucky to escape with his sight. Appropriately, since we have just discussed birds, the blind know of "angels" that can be heard but not felt - birds.

On the "Virgin Planet," a single man is king? No, he is not. According to Poul Anderson, the women think that Davis Bertram cannot be a mythical "Man" returning in power because they capture him easily. He can only be a dangerous "Monster" (alien), and must not be allowed to re-enter his spaceship in case he turns its technology against them. His capture by one community means war with others and our old friend, the Pathetic Fallacy, returns in force:

"The main door of the Big House crashed open. Torchlight flared, spilling on the cobbles. Minos became suddenly wan. Iron clanked, and the Greendale Macklin strode forth, tall and angry, her women bristling about her...
"'This means war!'"
-Poul Anderson, Virgin Planet (London, 1966), Chapter VI, p. 45.

Does Minos suddenly become wan in reality or only in the women's perceptions?

Native Intelligence On Atlantis?

In Poul Anderson's Virgin Planet, there are many species of large birds on the planet Atlantis so must one such species become intelligent? Not necessarily. See:

Avian Aliens
Civilization-Clusters
Scientific Speculation And An Artistic Convention

Intelligence is not inevitable. Many species survive without it. There may be planets where no species is naturally selected for intelligence. Alternatively, some active, alert, adaptable animal able to change its behavior in response to environmental alterations might nevertheless be overcome by circumstances and fail to survive before it has become a talking tool-user.

Cobblies

Poul Anderson, Virgin Planet (London, 1966), Chapter VI.

"The lower castes had charms against being psyched by the Critters and the Cobblies and other unseen mountain dwellers." (p. 38)

What are Cobblies? I cannot find this word in a dictionary and have encountered it in only one other work of fiction, City by Clifford Simak. Googling reveals that "cobblies" are also referenced in Existence by David Brin. In City, cobblies are undescribed but frightening intruders from other dimensions, like unsettling sounds heard in an old house. I found a link here to the on-line text of City although past experience indicates that such links do not work for all blog readers.

I now google or otherwise investigate every unfamiliar word or phrase in Poul Anderson's texts. The effort is usually worthwhile.

Montalbano's Moment Of Realization

Two strands of reading converge:

I said here that I was reading Montalbano as well as Poul Anderson;

I frequently post about moments of realization in Anderson's works -

- typically, our hero is speaking, stops in mid-sentence, goes rigid, has just realized the solution to a practical problem but will not reveal the solution to the reader until he has solved the problem at the end of the story.

Now Montalbano goes through precisely the same routine:

"Their night-time search of Borsellino's house and office had been for naught and...
"He froze.
"He had the distinct impression that the entire digestive apparatus in his belly had come to a sudden stop.
"He poured himself half a glass of whisky and downed it in a single gulp. Sweat began pouring out of him. How could he have forgotten so completely about it?"
Andrea Camilleri, A Voice In The Night (London, 2016), TEN, p. 143.

How indeed?

The reference to the detective's digestive apparatus is significant because Salvo Montalbano, like SM Stirling's characters, enjoys good food although I am not about to start adding his Italian menus to our food thread.

Man Or Monster?

The women isolated on the planet called "Atlantis" know of male human beings and also of intelligent non-human beings, referring to them as "Men" and "Monsters," respectively. Now they have captured a Man who must prove to them that he is not a Monster. Is this possible?

(No one would get me to ride on an orsper or, indeed, to go anywhere near one.)

Virgin Planet, Chapter II

Poul Anderson, Virgin Planet (London, 1966), Chapter II, pp. 15-19.

This chapter is rich in future historical background details:

Davis Bertram (surname first, given name second, see here);
the Coordination Service;
a facetious reference to "the Cosmic All" (there is a Cosmic religion);
the planet Nerthus, a thousand light years from Sol, on the edge of the known, recently colonized;
local Cordy headquarters in Stellamont on Nerthus;
city spires and plains beyond;
an "infomaster" (p. 16) instead of an infotrieve;
the (Stellar) Union dominated by Earth;
a dangerous "vortex" near Delta Wolf's Head;
cities, outgrown on Earth, have returned on the frontier;
colonists had disliked Terrestrial civilization (see here);
the local Cordy chief must approve stellagraphic voyages;
there are rules about how to handle primitives.

Thus, Davis Bertram flies towards the "Virgin Planet."

Barbara Whitley

Poul Anderson, Virgin Planet (London, 1966), Chapter I, p. 9.

That cover blurb summarizes the plot. However, we are rereading the opening sentence (see here) to find out how much information it imparts to a first time reader.

"Corporal": a familiar military rank.
"Maiden": a virgin or young woman but why include it with her ranks, titles etc?
"Barbara Whitley": a familiar kind of name.
"...of Freetoon": Free Town?
"...hereditary huntress": a hunting society in which such roles are hereditary?
"wing leader of the crossbow cavalry": explanatory enough.
"novice in the Mysteries": archaic Mystery religion?
"her orsper": something that she is riding.

We will be told that an "orsper" is a "horse-bird," a large domesticated flightless bird. Near the bottom of the page, Barbara is described as an "...arbalester.."

The blurb says that the planet is ruled by women. In fact, it is inhabited only by women. We have yet to be told why.