There Was A Man Called... II

"There was a man called Orm the Strong..."
-Poul Anderson, The Broken Sword (London, 1977), I, p. 15.

"There was a man called Eyvind the Red..."
-Poul Anderson, Hrolf Kraki's Saga (New York, 1973), I, p. 3.

"A man called Geirolf dwelt on the Great Fjord in Raumsdal."
-Poul Anderson, "The Tale of Hauk" IN Anderson, The Armies Of Elfland (New York, 1992), pp. 77-104 AT p. 77.

"There was a man called Kalava..."
-Poul Anderson, Genesis (New York, 2001), PART TWO, II, p. 109.

But what is a man called Kalava doing in a remote post-human future? Read on and all will be revealed. I am sure that Poul Anderson could have written an entire novel about post-organic intellingences but he has a good reason for reverting to a human narrative.

There Was A Man Called...

My copy of Poul Anderson's The Broken Sword is not to be found on the shelf at present. This happens from time to time. However, I want to quote its opening line, which I can do by linking to an earlier post, Literary Styles. This post also quotes the similar opening line of Anderson's Hrolf Kraki's Saga. The opening of The Broken Sword is also quoted in a work by SM Stirling. See Seidh II.

Similar opening lines:

"A man called Geirolf dwelt on the Great Fjord in Raumsdal. His father was Bui Hardhand, who owned a farm inland near the Dofra Fell."
-Poul Anderson, "The Tale of Hauk" IN Anderson, Fantasy (New York, 1981), pp. 21-47 AT p. 21.

"There was a man called Kalava, a sea captain of Sirsu."
-Poul Anderson, Genesis (New York, 2001), Part Two, II, p. 109.

But where is Sirsu? The difference is that Genesis is set in the future and Part Two is set hundreds of millions of years in the future. However, extinct humanity has been re-created and is living at a pre-technological level. Anderson reflects this by reverting to an earlier style of narration - although the confused reader does not understand what is happening yet.

Posthuman Earth

Genesis, PART TWO.

"'Human Earth is preserved in memory. What is posthuman Earth but a planet approaching the postbiological phase?'" (I, p. 107)

Here is confirmation that, by now, Terrestrial humanity is extinct. But have some human beings gone elsewhere? Chapter II opens:

"There was a man called Kalava..." (p. 109)

This might have meant an extra-terrestrial colony but doesn't but, of course, we have discussed it before. The reintroduction of humanity was the last thing that we expected so that is what Anderson, through Gaia, does and this is the second half of what makes Genesis a Frankensteinian novel.

The question in PART ONE is: are human beings right to let post-organic intelligences supersede them?

The question in PART TWO is: is a post-organic intelligence right to re-create humanity?