Reality And Systems

The Peregrine, CHAPTER XVI.

Trevelyan thinks:

"Every time you thought you had reality expressed in a system you stumbled against a new facet. The sane man must always be distrustful of his own beliefs." (p. 142)

Maybe the Coordinator is learning from his interactions with human Nomads and alien Alori?

The image for this post is a summary of the Hegelian System of Philosophy which I learned backwards for my philosophy degree. There are many smaller triads that do not appear in this diagram. As I remember it, the third term or synthesis of one triad was (something like) the King or Monarch but Hegel discussed this term before the others out of respect for the monarchy. (Maybe my copy of Stace's The Philosophy Of Hegel is somewhere upstairs?) (Later: It is in our cellar.) I hoped that Hegelian dialectic would help to refute Marxism but now I realize that dialectical materialism is not reductionist and, in my opinion, does not require refutation.

I was influenced by J. Krishnamurti who said, "Truth is a pathless land." See here.

A Krishnamurti parable: A man picks up a fragment of the truth. The Devil's friend says, "Quick! Do something to distract him!" The Devil replies, "It doesn't matter. He is only going to organize and systematize it." (That is my retelling. One of Krishnamurti's presentations of the parable is in his Dissolution Speech. See the link.)

That is a round number of posts and maybe we should leave it there for now? That might be it for this month.

Krishnamurti

By coincidence, the name "Krishnamurti" occurs both in Poul Anderson's "Faun" and in his "In The Shadow." These are different characters.

I attended talks by Jiddu Krishnamurti and wrote a thesis on his teaching. Despite his rejection of all spiritual traditions and formal meditation practices, I now think that zazen, "just sitting" meditation, is the way to practice what he said, for example in the attached quotation.

The Poignant Chapter

The Boat Of A Million Years, VI, Encounter.

Svoboda has gone to Kiev to be betrothed to the man who will be her fourth husband. She has outlived three and must move from countryside to city to find a fourth. We begin to realize her nature. She is rescued from a street assault by Cadoc/Hanno and Rufus. Rufus has meanwhile lost his right hand in a fight. Immortals' teeth grow back but not hands. We realize that we are reading a serial or series that could have been published as such. Hanno, now Cadoc, and Rufus have become continuing characters and we cannot be shown everything that happens to them over the centuries. Cadoc and Svoboda spend time together, neither realizing that the other is immortal! - although she lets slip something that should have alerted him. We expect that they will meet again.

Chapter VII begins on a facing page and is set only twenty-two years later. Cadoc and Rufus are about to visit a courtesan who we might guess is Aliyat. Maybe the action is speeding up? 

My time is now divided between blogging and reading a book about Jiddu Krishnamurti, which might mean fewer posts for a while. Theosophists believed that the World Teacher who had spoken through Krishna and Jesus also spoke through Krishnamurti, which is relevant to some recent posts.

What people are capable of doing and believing is extraordinary.

Mediums And Vehicles

The Day Of Their Return.

Jaan tells the multitude:

"'They shall return. I, in whom lives the mind of Caruith, pledge this, if we will make our world worthy to receive them.'" (9, p. 151)

In Spiritualist terminology, Jaan claims to be the medium of a spirit guide. In Theosophist terminology, he claims to be the Vehicle of the World Teacher. No surprises there: Madame Blavatsky, founder of Theosophy, had been a medium.

Blavatsky's Theosophist successors prepared Jiddu Krishnamurti (see image) to be the next Vehicle, like Krishna and Jesus before him. On one occasion, when Krishnamurti was addressing a large open-air meeting, it was reported that his voice and face changed as he said, "And I come..." This was interpreted as the first manifestation of the Coming. However, on a later occasion, he dissolved the Order of the Star, the support organization that had been built around him, proclaiming that "...truth is a pathless land..."

His later non-Theosophical teaching is, in my opinion, indistinguishable from Zen except that he discouraged the important practice of "just sitting" meditation.

The Freedom Of Blogging

The name, "Krishnamurti," appears twice in a Poul Anderson collection so I post about Jiddu Krishnamurti.

The name, "Mr Spock," appears in a Stieg Larsson novel so I post about Star Trek and its links, if any, to Poul Anderson.

I reread Anderson's Rustum and Directorate future histories so next I reread other Anderson short stories about space travel.

In other words, I do what I want when I want.

There are a few more points to be made about "In The Shadow" before moving on to "Pride" which is also set in the outer Solar System and is a prequel to Tau Zero.

The Voice That Spoke As Never Man Spake

John 7:46.

"...the Voice that spoke as never man spake, has sounded again in our lower ways..."

-Annie Besant, quoted in Mary Lutyens, Krishnamurti, The Years Of Awakening (London, 1975), 26, p. 224.

 

The Preacher speaks:

 

"'Blasphemers and idolaters! All of you! The religion of Muad'Dib is not Muad'Dib. He spurns it as he spurns you! Sand will cover this place. Sand will cover you.'"

-Frank Herbert, Children Of Dune (New York, 1977), p. 41.

 

One of his hearers:

 

"'Is that Muad'Dib come back to us?'" (ibid.)

 

Jaan speaks:

 

"'They shall return. I, in whom lives the mind of Caruith, pledge this, if we will make our world ready to receive them...

"'Like one who spoke upon Mother Terra, long after Caruith but long before Jaan, I bring you not peace but a sword.'"

-The Day Of Their Return, 9, p. 151. 

Coming Home

Mirkheim, XV.

Newly arrived back on his home planet, Hermes, David Falkayn experiences late afternoon light in a forest where:

"Ornithoids flitted among bare twigs and buzzbugs danced in the sunbeams like dustmotes." (p. 210)

His response:

"A sudden powerful sense of - not homecoming - longing gripped Falkayn. Was this his country yet, or had he roamed from it for overly many years?" (pp. 210-211)

Before this novel, we have only seen Falkayn roaming and we would not have read this description of Hermes if Poul Anderson had, as originally expected, ended the trader team sub-series with "Lodestar."

Falkayn's concern that the Hermetian forest might no longer be "his country" reminded me of a passage in Mary Lutyens' biography of Jiddu Krishnamurti. Google enables us to link to that very passage:

"'Adyar is not the same. The beauty of moonlit nights, the palm leaf shadows and the stillness of the evenings, but something has gone out of Adyar.' It was he who had gone out of Adyar."

-see here.

Texas Rangers

The Boat Of A Million Years, XIV, 3.

"...the Texas Rangers rode with vengeance in their hearts." (p. 286)

Poul Anderson incorporates every possible historical detail. So the Texas Rangers have to be mentioned. Suddenly I realize that:

I do not know what the Texas Rangers were (or are?);

all I know about them is that the Lone Ranger had been one - and he is fiction.

Fortunately, we now have Wikipedia. See Texas Ranger Division. So now I know that the Rangers have a complicated history, still exist and are the local state equivalent of the FBI. 

OK. That is something else that I have learned. Tomorrow I will decide whether to dig into other historical details in this chapter. Meanwhile, I will try to finish the fascinatingly revelatory book about Jiddu Krishnamurti. Good night again. 

Picking Up The Threads

Reading is intertwined with the rest of life and with other reading. I have been away from our house, and therefore from this lap top, because of building work in the house.

I must pick up the threads of Poul Anderson's extremely rich novel, The Boat Of A Million Years. I had reached the point where Hanno proposed to lobby politicians for peace. Concurrently, I was reading a book about Jiddu Krishnamurti, friend of Aldous Huxley. The latter had proposed a peace plan pre-1939. Therefore, I drew a parallel between Hanno and Huxley. I am glad that Huxley tried even if only to prove that such a plan was not going to be accepted at that time! This was my slant on Hanno's reference to lobbying for peace and almost certainly would not have been any other reader's slant. We each bring to bear our own perspectives and other reading but Anderson's works at one point or another raise every such important issue for our consideration. 

When I have meditated and recovered from a long drawn out on-line communication with HM Revenue & Customs, I might reread and post a bit more this evening. There is still much to be reread in Boat.

To Announce Or Not

The Fleet Of Stars, 20.

"'In view of the tensions, instabilities, and falsehoods that have become so prevalent, the judgment was that an announcement at this stage would be premature and might well have unfortunate consequences.'" (p. 249)

We will learn that the cybercosm is not only withholding information but also preparing a historical deception. Thus, its moral authority on the matter of public announcements will be entirely discredited. But, before reaching that stage, what are the rights and wrongs of public announcements? When Krishnamurti and some of his friends first heard that "Gandhiji has been shot dead!," the first question that one of them asked was: "Was it a Muslim or a Hindu that shot him?" The riots would have been even more extensive and violent if it had been a Muslim so, if it had been a Muslim, would it have been right to withhold that information? We can think of many situations where the truth would be a problem.

Introducing The Eight

The Boat Of A Million Years.

I have reread, out of order, Chapters XIX and 1-VII and have some recollection of Chapters VIII-XVIII which I will reread. If anything that I now say about later chapters turns out to be mistaken, then I will correct it later. As far as I am aware and can remember, seven of the eight eventual "Survivors" each have an introductory chapter entirely unto themselves, the only exception being Svoboda whose introductory chapter guest stars Hanno although neither of them makes the connection yet. 

So far, we have met four of the eight: Hanno, Tu Shan, Aliyat and Svoboda - also Nornagest, Starkadh and Rufus but these three are not Survivors.

I thought that this post was going to be longer but that summarizes the state of play and frees me to do other things like paying workmen and reading about the enigmatic Krishnamurti.

Seek the Tao.

Endings

The Boat Of A Million Years, XVIII, 14-16.

There is an underlying implicit drama in sub-chapter 14. When they met centuries ago, Aliyat tried to get Hanno killed. Now he is rescuing her. So how will they interact? However, as it happens, she is too physically incapacitated for there to be much conversation on this occasion.

Hanno will phase out his various current aliases. They will die or move away etc. He has several well-funded bolt-holes around the world into which he and his companions can disappear. I think that this sufficiently answers the question of how he evades the surveillance arranged by Senator Moriarty. Maybe there are going to be two or even three Moriarty Presidencies? Maybe that is going to be the end of the United States as Hanno apocalyptically imagines? 

The ending of this chapter resembles the ending of a novel:

"...she had guided him in trying to imagine what might happen..." (16, p. 454)

That could have been an open ending or could lead into a sequel. In fact, it leads into Chapter XIX beginning on the facing page with Hanno on Jupiter... Imagine what might happen...

Where next? We cannot reread Chapter XIX, having reread it before Chapters I-XVIII. But there is another long late novel featuring STL interstellar travel. We might take another look at Starfarers.

For the rest of this evening, I might try to get back to a book about my super-guru, Krishnamurti.

Backtrack

Harvest The Fire, CHAPTER 3.

Let's backtrack. In Production Of Anti-Matter, we summarized a conversation between Venator and Lirion but missed one part. 

Lirion says that, without more energy from anti-matter, the Lunarians at Proserpina will be imprisoned in sameness. Venator asks whether they have:

"'...no inner resources.'" (p. 69)

Lirion scoffs. Machine intelligence admires its own:

"'Abstractions, mental constructs...'" (ibid.)

- but that is not:

"'...for living creatures...'" (ibid.)

Like passivity versus violence, this is another false dichotomy. Organic intelligence encompasses pure mathematics and its application to the empirical universe and everything else: emotions, social interactions, artistic creativity, spirituality, whatever else we might think of. Stop splitting up the truth and fighting over the parts!

A parable told by Jiddu Krishnamurti:

The Devil's friend saw a man picking up a small piece of the truth. The Devil said, "It doesn't matter. He is only going to organize and systematize it."

"The Faun"

"The Faun."

In this story:

one extra-solar planet;

two human characters;

two alien animals;

more exposition than action;

the unexpected name, Krishnamurti (see also here).

We have probably said all that we are going to say about this short story in earlier posts and will shortly redirect our attention elsewhere.

The War

Should we write "the war" or "the War"? We usually know which war we mean. Very often, "the war/War" means the Second World War unless stated otherwise. To take an example from a book that I am currently reading:

"In the autumn of 1947 Krishna, fully recovered, left Ojai on his first trip abroad since before the war."

-Radha Rajagopal Sloss, Life In The Shadow With J. Krishnamurti (London, 1991), PART THREE, 20, p. 215.

("Krishna" is not the Hindu god but someone named after him.) Obviously, in 1947, "the war" can only mean World War II but it continued to mean that for decades afterwards.

Flora, the immortal escaped slave says:

"'Po' young Marse Brett, he done get killed in de waw.'"

-The Boat Of A Million Years, XIII, p. 272.

We accept this reference to "de waw." Then we reflect that Flora must be speaking before the American Civil War. Edmonds wonders and asks:

"'What war?'

"'De Rebolution, it was. Yay, eben us slaves heard 'bout dat.'" (p. 273)

That makes her about a hundred - which the Edmonds do not believe. A more plausible explanation is that:

"'She's overwrought.'" (ibid.)

 - and:

"'...kind of crazy.'" (ibid.)

Well, it is obvious that "de waw" has different meanings in different contexts. I remember a good-humoured exchange between some students and a barman:

First student: "Ah, but I was referring to the Second World War, Jim!"

Barman: "So was I, you cheeky devil!"

Second student: "I assumed you meant American Civil!"

If only we lived that long.

Religions Real Or Fictional

Starfarers.

Hanny Dayan debunked Cosmosophy. 

(I have just been reading about Theosophy and how Krishnamurti transcended it.)

"'[Mamphela Mokoena's] parents are ministers in the Samaritan Church.'" (6, p. 44)

(A Christian organization named after a branch of Judaism?)

Alvin Brent's mother was in the New Christian Church.

(That can mean anything, as we know.)

Zeyd is an adherent of the Ahmaddiyah Movement.

(This is real. Here.)

"Sundaram sat on the ground, on a bank of sacred Ganges..." (8, p. 69)

I identify with Sundaram.

Theology In Space

Experiences in space and on other planets will challenge received world views. Jiddu Krishnamurti told this parable:

When two cosmonauts who had traveled further into space than anyone else had an audience with the Russian President, he asked them whether, when they had been that far away from Earth, they had seen a large, long-bearded, white-robed, male figure seated on a golden throne and when they answered, "Yes," he said, "I was afraid that you would say that but don't tell anyone." Going on an international goodwill tour, the cosmonauts had an audience with the Pope who asked them the same question and when they answered, "No," said, "I was afraid that you would say that but don't tell anyone."

This is also the point of Poul Anderson's story about the Sun standing still in the sky (title?): life will continue as before even in the face of a miracle. "The show must go on."

However, some sf characters are changed by their experiences. Christians have challenging experiences on other planets in:

a short story by Harry Harrison;

a series by Philip Jose Farmer;

A Case Of Conscience by James Blish;

Perelandra by CS Lewis;

"The Problem of Pain" by Poul Anderson.

 

A Case Of Conscience is Volume III of the After Such Knowledge Trilogy.

Perelandra is Volume II of the Ransom Trilogy.

"The Problem of Pain" is the third installment in the History of Technic Civilization.

 

As I always advise, (re-)read them all.

 

Whereas Blish and Anderson remained agnostic, Lewis explained his conversion from philosophical realism to philosophical idealism to theism to Christianity in Surprised By Joy. I am rereading this work in order to clarify the point at which I disagree philosophically with Lewis.

 

Lewis projects what Blish described as an Anglican-cum-Babylonian theology onto the Solar System whereas Anderson's "The Problem of Pain" presents a genuinely alien theology.