Moments Of Realization

Exhaustive though this blog may be, it falls well short of an Encyclopedia. Every time I find a "moment of realization" in an Anderson story or novel, I draw attention to it but there is no way that I am going to catalogue them all.

"The Dutch...fought themselves free of Spain and free of the ocean itself; when the French or Germans came, they made the enemy sea their ally -
"The bottle fell from his grasp."
-NESFA Vol 2, pp. 71-72.

In other words, this asterite, not at sea but in space, has just realized how he can fight the North Americans - but we will find out what he is going to do when we see him doing it. And I do not remember although I have read the story at least twice.

A surprise ending is a moment of realization for the reader. This story, "Industrial Revolution," begins with a reminiscent dialogue involving a "Missy Blades." (p. 48) The body of the story is an extended flashback during which Mike Blades interacts with two women, his secretary and an enemy North American. So which of them will become his wife and widow? Only the surprise ending will tell us.

"Cold Victory" in the Psychotechnic History begins with a dialogue, then presents an extended flashback featuring two brothers on opposite sides in a civil war, then ends by showing us that we had been misled as to which of the brothers was involved in the opening dialogue. Thus, another moment of realization for us.

Targovi's Moment Of Realization

The Game Of Empire, CHAPTER TWENTY.

It had to happen. Targovi and his team, Axor and Diana, have a problem. They are fugitives on the island of Zacharia and it can only be a matter of time before they are apprehended. So what does Targovi do? He has an Andersonian moment of realization. Thus, he ponders the problem, then suddenly, dramatically realizes the solution but does not articulate it yet. We will learn what the solution is when it is implemented.

"Still the Tigery prowled. 'I am thinking, I am thinking -' Abruptly he halted. He drove the knife into a bole so that the metal sang. 'Javak! Yes, it was on my horizon - But we must needs hurry, and not give the foe time to imagine we are crazy enough to take that way.'" (p. 427)

Some action or gesture like driving the knife into the tree is necessary at the moment of realization. Needless to say, they will escape from Zacharia. The only question is how.

A Moment Of Realization On Vanessa

"A Sun Invisible."

I itemized Falkayn's detective work:

Science Fiction And Detective Fiction

How Falkayn Did It

- but seem to have missed his Andersonian moment of realization. He lists the clues regarding the location of the enemy sun:

the Neuheimer and Vanessan constellations are recognizably similar;
the two systems were parts of an interstellar empire built at sub-light speeds;
the Neuheimer sun, Antoran, must be large, bright and energetic;
it has six planets in its liquid-water zone with eccentric orbits.

"Unheard of. You'd almost think that -
"Falkayn sat bolt upright. His pipe dropped from his jaws to his lap. 'Holy...hyper...Judas,' he gasped.
"Thereafter he thought most furiously. He did not come back to himself until the coals from his pipe set fire to his trousers." (IV, p. 295)

If that is not a typical Andersonian moment of realization, then I don't know what it is.

Yamamura's Moment Of Realization

Perish By The Sword, 14.

I should have known that this was going to happen. Every regular blog reader should know what I mean.

"'But Mike's enemy let himself into the apartment with a key. Who had such a key, except Janice? It got lost, she claims -' Yamamura's argument was cut off as if by an ax. Pereira saw him, not stiffen, but relax totally, so that dark slitted eyes filmed over and the long body almost slid from the chair.
"'What is it?' exclaimed Pereira.
"Yamamura didn't reply. Pereira watched him for an entire minute, then rose to pace the room in unease. The world in the window began to seem pale and remote.
"Finally Yamamura's mouth firmed. He sat up and reached for his pipe. 'Excuse me,' he said in a flat voice. 'I was thinking.'
"'I should hope so,' Pereira responded. 'It seemed as if you had invented a new kind of epilepsy.'" (p. 133)

I have quoted this passage in full because it is a particularly prolonged Andersonian "moment of realization." See here. Yamamura has effectively solved the case. All that remains is to work out the implications and to inform the reader of the outcome. Usually, Andersonian heroes solve practical problems, e.g., of survival in space, not murder mysteries, but the moment of realization is always recognizable.

I am still at sea. Did Janice lie about losing the key? Did her (jealous?) husband steal it? Yamamura's next question to Pereira has to be significant:

"'What do you know about Roy Linden?'" (ibid.)

I have not focused on Linden before because my purpose is to analyze interesting phrases and passages, not to summarize the plot. Blog readers are encouraged to read the novel. However, we have received significant information about Linden and it now looks as though he is important.

Mike Blades' Moment Of Realization

Tales Of The Flying Mountains.

We do not remember the names of the characters in Poul Anderson's many works, particularly not in all of his short stories. However, I should remember Mike Blades' surname because we lived on Blades St for forty-five years before moving here to Lincoln Rd.

Mike Blades does not complete a thought and drops a bottle - which his secretary catches in asteroidal low gravity. This is a sure sign that Blades has just had an Andersonian moment of realization and one that I do not remember having read about before. However, searching the blog for "Moment of Realization," we find that it is the first one that comes up! Painting myself into a corner, I have more than once posted about some detail in a work by Anderson without realizing that I had posted about it before. However, while rereading, much comes across as new, as if read for the first time.

Another blog theme is: "Reread!"

The Unexpected And A Moment Of Realization

Starfarers, 29.

Cleland and Kilbirnie explore a metallic planet where, although they have every reason to expect tectonic equilibrium:

"Quake! Shouldn't be! And just here, just now!" (p. 275)

- a crevasse opens and Kilbirnie falls into it. Space explorers are threatened by the unexpected. See:

The Unexpected And The Cosmic Setting

Minamoto And Laure

 

It would take Cleland an hour to return to the spaceboat on the robot vehicle in order to fetch a cable to rescue Kilbirnie. However, a balloon carrying scientific instruments is attached to the vehicle by a cable:

"He ran toward the robot. The glacier groaned underfoot. The balloon swung on high against darkness at the end of its tether.

"'Yes!' For a second Cleland's vision blurred, tears of joy." (p. 276)

Thus, Cleland, after an Andersonian moment of realization, cannibalizes the balloon cable.

 

A moment of realization overcomes the unexpected.

Two Moments Of Realization For Mikael Blomkvist

A Poul Anderson fan (at least, this Poul Anderson fan) learns about literary devices like moments of realization, multi-sensory descriptive passages and pathetic fallacies embedded in texts almost as unobtrusively as the grammar and punctuation by reading Anderson, then is struck by these features when they appear in the works of other authors.

Here is an eminently Andersonian moment in Stieg Larsson's second Millennium novel. Lisbeth Salander is a suspect in the murder of a couple named Dag and Mia but Mikael Blomkvist wonders:

"'How she would have known of their existence, I haven't a -'
"Blomkvist suddenly stopped."
-Stieg Larsson, The Girl Who Played With Fire (London, 2010), CHAPTER 16, p. 270.

Blomkvist has suddenly remembered that Lisbeth is a world-class hacker, that she has hacked his computer before, that he has corresponded electronically with Dag...

Of course, Larsson was not emulating Anderson. Any author can write moments of realization. But Anderson did it so often that he has sensitized me to this particular narrative move when it happens anywhere else.

A few pages later:

"You just won't give up, will you? Blomkvist thought. He was just about to tell Niklasson to piss off when he sat bolt upright in bed. He had just had two great ideas."
-op. cit., p. 276.

Not only another moment of realization but also an italicized thought!

Reader Suspense And Donnan's Moment Of Realization

Poul Anderson, After Doomsday.

"'I'll buck for sticking around myself,' Donnan agreed, 'though I got a kind of different reason. You see - Hullo, there's the end of our stroll.'"
-CHAPTER THREE, p. 35.

"Sticking around" means staying within the local civilization-cluster, which covers a lot of sky, but we are not told his reason for a while. He wants to "'...produce a sensation...'" so that:

"'...eventually the other human ships will hear the yarn and understand.'"
-CHAPTER FIVE, p. 61.

"Despite his wide experience, Ramri could still get number systems confused."
-CHAPTER SIX, p. 65.

Because of their different numbers of fingers, different races have number systems with different bases like six, ten or twelve. This will be part of the clue as to who murdered Earth. In fact, here is the earlier part of the clue, a conversion table found inside a missile patrolling Earth:

"ABCDEF
"MNOPQ MR
"BA:PM
"ABIJ:MOQMP
"JEHC:NMQPPO"
-CHAPTER FOUR, p. 48.

Two sets of alien symbols have been represented by Roman letters. Recognizable Kandemirian numerals have been represented by A through L whereas a different set of symbols has been rendered by M through R. If the M-R symbols are numbers to base 6, then they might give us:

R=0
M=1
N=2
O=3
P=4
Q=5
MR=6 (rendered as the equivalent of "10" to base 6)

The six-fingered Monwaingi count in sixes whereas the ten-fingered Vorlakka "...used a decimal system like Earth's." (p. 65) So what is the base number of Kandemirian mathematics?

"That's why I've gone so gutless, [Donnan] thought. Now there's nothing in space or time except my own piddling self.
"The hell there isn't!
"The knowledge burst within him. He sat straight with an oath."
-CHAPTER SEVEN, p. 80.

What knowledge? This is yet another Andersonian moment of realization, initiating yet more reader suspense as we wait to learn what has burst within Donnan.

Van Rijn's Time

OK. The blog is currently focused on the Polesotechnic League in the time of Nicholas van Rijn although not on van Rijn himself or even on his Falkayn-led trader team. The focus is random. I was reading through van Rijn stories, looking for points of view, was surprised to find so much of van Rijn's own pov in "Margin of Profit," then got involved with Emil Dalmady in "Esau."

There are four short stories in this category. I count "Esau" because it is mainly about Dalmady. Instead of continuing to buy bluejack from Solar, the Baburites have installed computer-controlled robots on Suleiman to collect bluejack directly. The computer will have merely rudimentary awareness unlike the fully intelligent computer that Martian Minerals Inc. has about that time put on Wayland. The Baburites' action is legitimate competition whereas Dalmady's resetting of their computer might count as piracy?

Dalmady has an Andersonian moment of realization. First:

"...the old, old legend crashed into his awareness." (The Van Rijn Method, p. 544)

What old legend? The title might be a giveaway. And the original title was "Birthright."

Then:

"Dalmady sprang to his feet with a whoop." (p. 545)

He trembles, feels chills along his nerves and explains:

"'I have an idea.'" (ibid.)

Quiz question: in which stories do van Rijn and Falkayn each have a moment of realization?

Dalmady reflects that, if he loses Suleiman, he might get a job somewhere cleaning latrines. (p. 537) Anderson acknowledges in Mirkheim that, although there are great opportunities in van Rijn's time, many individuals will be unlucky or unsuccessful. (Rise Of The Terran Empire, pp. 139-140 and see here.) However, I argue that technology can facilitate the building of a society in which educational and economic resources are deployed to ensure that every individual has the opportunity to develop fully and freely. This is one of the fundamental issues that arises in some of Poul Anderson's works.

Tea, Dragons And Problems

In "How To Be Ethnic In One Easy Lesson," Adzel conducts a tea ceremony, as did another large alien here. "How To Be Ethnic..." also displays some of the humor that was occasioned in "Day of Burning" by Adzel's bulk. In the narrow confines of his shack, his swinging tail nearly clobbers Jim a couple of times. Earlier, Jim had reflected:

"...take that fellow and set him on a campus, in his equivalent of the lotus position, droning 'Om mane padme hum' in a rich basso profundo, and see if you don't draw a crowd." (The Van Rijn Method, p. 188)

Humor is also occasioned by tri-personal interactions:

Betty Riefenstahl had hoped that Adzel could help them to relax whereas Jim had thought that they could help each other to relax;
Jim fumes during the silence of the tea ceremony.

Poul Anderson's heroes are problem-solvers. In this story, they have three problems:

How can Jim organize a Chinese contribution to the Festival of Man without losing necessary study time?
How can Betty's father, conductor of the San Francisco Opera, mount an appropriately Terrestrial musical event?
How can Adzel, with his massive body - "...about a ton of warmblooded mass..." (p. 187) - to feed, survive on Earth on his League scholarship?

When Adzel consults a book on Chinese art, Jim notices that the dragon could almost be Adzel. When Freeman Riefenstahl sees Adzel in the telephone screen, he thinks that he is seeing Fafner... Jim and Betty have a moment of realization:

"All at once Betty and I met each other's eyes and let out a yell." (p. 194)

This might be the only shared moment of realization in Anderson's works?

The Milky Way And A Moment Of Realization

"Flight to Forever."

On p. 265, the Milky Way foams in a rush of cold silver but this has already been noted here. However, what I had missed on previous readings of this page was a moment of realization telepathically shared by Saunders and the Dreamer. We are not immediately told what they have realized, of course.

When Hunda of Haamigar, general of the Imperial armies, bemoans the lack of decent weapons, it suddenly occurs both to Saunders and to the Dreamer that time travel can be adapted for military use. The arrival of the time projector shortly before the Anvardi attack on Sol has become the turnaround point between the decline of the Galactic Empire and the founding of the projected Second Empire but will nevertheless remain a mere interval in Saunders' "flight to forever" to which I must return tomorrow.

Collecting Clues

"Hunters of the Sky Cave."

At the Crystal Moon, Aycharaych describes violet orchids as black. Flandry deduces that the Chereionite is color-blind in the blue wavelengths but sees further into the red, therefore that his home sun is cooler and redder than Sol. (II, p. 162)

The Ardazirho are covered in red fur (VII, p. 200) but describe themselves as "'...the Black People...'" (XII, p. 244) Their kilts have squares of rose next to scarlet or of crimson between two yellows. (VII, p. 200) Temulak describes Flandry and the Vixenite colonials as "'...gray people...'" (XI, p. 233)

Svantovik refers to "'...the Sky Cave...'" (XII, p. 245) and swears by "'Great unborn planets!'" (XII, p. 247) Ardazir's sun is not in Imperial catalogues because it is hidden behind "...the Hatch...," (IX, p. 221), a small dark nebula visible from Vixen, and there has not as yet been any exploration in that direction. From its far side, the Hatch is discovered to be "'...faintly luminous: a proto-sun.' " (XV, p. 268) On hearing this:

"Flandry stiffened. 'What's the matter?' snapped Walton.
"Nothing, sir. Or maybe something. I don't know." (ibid.)

Flandry is experiencing a moment of realization as he remembers Svantovik's moment of realization when the latter exclaimed, "'Great unborn planets!'" (See above.) Elaborating slightly, Flandry says that he has a hunch, that some of the Ardazirho use the expression, "the Sky Cave," that it describes a dark hole which is the entrance to hell in some of their religions and that the higher-ranking Svantozik, who knows more than the others, swore by "'Great unborn planets.'" 

Later, when Svantovik, now captured by Flandry, looks at the Hatch, which he calls the Sky Cave, from its far side, he sees:

"'The Great Dark. The Gate of the Dead, as those who believe in religion call it....' His tone, meant to be sardonic, wavered." (XVI, p. 279)

The Sky Cave is black. Svantovik does not see its dim red luminosity, visible to Flandry. The Ardazirho are red-blind, seeing further into the violet than human beings, the opposite of Aycharaych. They see human beings as gray and themselves as black. The mismatched red and yellow squares on their kilts are equally dark to them.

Exploiting Ardazirho awe of the Gate of the Dead, Aycharaych the telepath directs the Packmasters from within the Sky Cave. (XVII, p. 283)

POVs And A Realization

The Byworlder.

Chapter I is narrated entirely from the point of view (pov) of Skip and ends when he has an Andersonian moment of realization. A spacecraft from Sigma Draconis is orbiting in the Solar System. Puzzled by the continued failure of scientists and politicians to establish communication with the Sigman, as the single extra-solar alien in the spacecraft is called, Skip speculates about the Sigman's motivations, then suddenly stops speaking:

"'If -'" (p. 14)

His mouth falls open, he drops his fork and yells - all the signs of an Andersonian moment. We know that we will have to wait to learn what his realization is, especially since this is the end of a chapter and the following chapter introduces a new character in a new setting.

I have read The Byworlder at least twice before but cannot remember what Skip's realization is. Is it that the Sigman's motivations might be not scientific but artistic - what with Skip being an artistic kind of guy?

The opening passage of Chapter II begins with the pov of Yvonne Canter:

"...Yvonne Canter reflected." (p. 15)

"That's what they think, Yvonne told herself." (ibid.)

- but inexplicably changes pov:

"Almeida doubted Yvonne had had any bed partner in life except her husband..." (p. 17)

A double space between paragraphs immediately before:

"Almeida studied her." (p. 16)

- should have been used to mark the change of povs.

A double space on p. 17 does mark the return to Yvonne's pov and also a change of scene because she is now in space approaching the Sigman's vessel.

Nicol's Momemt Of Realization

Harvest The Fire, CHAPTER 10.

Nicol's musings take form:

"There was no moment of revelation, yet there was a moment when he realized that something irreversible had taken place." (p. 146)

No moment of revelation but a moment when he realized! But, over the page, we find a genuine Andersonian moment of realization. Nicol wonders why he was provoked into stabbing and killing Seyant:

"Well, but there was the knife in my hand; and there Falaire was, and he also her lover, or so she had led me to think -

"Nicol froze. He stood motionless..." (p. 150)

 

The Lunarians had asked him to swear on the knife. Swearing on an object sounds un-Lunarian. Seyant kept provoking him. Nicol was not in his right mind...

 

The Lunarians have faked Seyant's death by stabbing to get a handle on Nicol. 

Walker's Moment Of Realization And Alston's Speech

I have quoted several moments of realization in Poul Anderson's works. In Island In The Sea Of Time (New York, 1998), SM Stirling combines such a moment with apt characterization of this novel's villain. William Walker, having noticed oddities in the enemy's deployments, interrogates a woman prisoner by holding a bloody sword to her throat. When he suddenly understands what the enemy is doing, he is furious and is:

"...suddenly conscious of the woman flopping and gurgling on the ground before him with her throat gashed open..." (pp. 559-560)

This is Walker's equivalent of an Anderson character stiffening and breaking off in mid-sentence.

Walker's antagonist, Alston rallies her troops. When she tells them that they fight for hearths, families, ancestral ashes and, in their terminology, "'...the Wisdoms of your faith...'" (p. 568), she sounds like Horatius but refers to "...the author of The Persians..." (ibid.) -Aeschylus?

"On, sons of Greece! Set free / Your fatherland, set free your children, wives, / Places of your ancestral gods and tombs of your ancestors! / Forward for all"

Alston also says:

"'...this sacred isle, this almost-heaven, this village set about with the palisade of the sea against misfortune and the storms of war...'" (ibid.) (See here)

See also a Nicholas van Rijn speech adapting the same passage from Shakespeare here.

Aryuk, prompted by Wanda Tamberly, quotes Hamlet in The Shield Of Time, p. 244.

Janne Floris, posing as a goddess, quotes "...olden wisdom..." from the King James Bible in Time Patrol, p. 613.

Thus, two modern North American sf writers acknowledge debts to older literary traditions.

An Attack Machine And A Moment Of Realization

For Love And Glory, LII.

The controlling intelligence of the Forerunner base on the outer planet of the giant star knows that:

an alien spaceship has destroyed its guardian ship;

a second alien ship has landed;

the crew of the latter are walking around between the artifacts.

The intelligence responds by taking several hours to design and build "'...an attack machine.'" (p. 291) It and one of the explorers destroy each other.

The two survivors discuss the problem of their Susaian captors. Then:

"...later when they floated side by side, amidst music and stars, it came to her that she kept one small power. Very small, but she was not absolutely helpless.
"Nor was he, after she told him." (p. 293)

Our old friend, the moment of realization, raises its head right at the end of Chapter LII (of LIV).

"And Yet So Far"

Like "Que Donn'rez Vous?" in Tales Of The Flying Mountain and like both "Holmgang" and "Brake" in the Psychotechnic History (for both these stories, see here), Poul Anderson's Orbit Unlimited, part three, "And Yet So Far," is a story with a technical problem and therefore a technical solution.

In "And Yet So Far," a wrecked spaceship orbiting in a zone of lethal radiation carries equipment indispensable for the Rustum colony. When Fleet Captain Kivi has said that the level of radiation precludes the retrieval of the equipment and therefore that the colonists who do not want to continue in these changed circumstances "'...can return home with the fleet...'" (p. 86), we read:

"But that will be all of us! Svoboda cried. The few who are stubborn enough to remain will be too few to survive under any conditions. You have just sentenced the Rustum colony to death, and thereby everything the colony believed in. It's all been for nothing.
"'I'm sorry,' said the Finn." (ibid.)

That Svoboda's four sentences are italicized means that he inwardly thought them. However, the facts that he "cried" them and that Kivi replied mean that he outwardly uttered them. So I think that the punctuation is wrong.

It occurred to me just in time that the technical solution would be heralded by a moment of realization and, sure enough:

"The gross matter of a man's body could pace in circles, worrying, till an unweighable thought stopped him in his tracks. If only a thought could stop a spaceship in its orbit with the same ease. But an idea was not a magnetic field.
"Or was it?
"Svoboda leapt from his chair. He banged his left arm against the headrest." (p. 87)

We recognize all the signs of a moment of realization but nevertheless will have to read on to learn how an idea can be a magnetic field.

Flandry's Crucial Moment Of Realization

Ensign Flandry, CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

I am laid up with a cold so we might be in for a day of blogging.

"'"It ain't the work, it's them damn decisions,"' he quoted absently." (p. 149)

Where does Flandry quote this from? When I googled the phrase, all that came up was the text of Ensign Flandry.

"'How in the name of Copros can Starkad matter so much?'" (p. 151)

What is Copros? I can't find this one either.

Next comes a moment of realization that, despite its importance, I do not seem to have posted about before:

"'How in the name of Copros can Starkad matter so much? One lonesome planet!'
"And the idea came to him.
"He grew so rigid, he stared so wildly out into the universe, that Persis was frightened. 'Nicky, what's wrong?' He didn't hear. With a convulsive motion, he grabbed a fresh sheet of paper and started scrawling. Finished, he stared at the result. Sweat stood on his brow." (ibid.)

After some further checking:

"...at last he nodded. 'That's it,' he said in a cold small voice. 'Has to be.'" (ibid.)

He has interpreted the figures that Brechdan had kept secret. A rogue planet will strike Saxo. By that time, the Merseians will have maneuvered the Terran Fleet into mobilizing around the star so that both will be destroyed - except that now that will not happen because Flandry can prevent it, provided that he survives pursuit by both Roidhunate and Empire.

This experience changes him:

"[Persis] enjoyed the rest of the voyage, even after she had identified the change in him, the thing which had gone and would never quite come back. Youth." (p. 152)

An Ardazirho Moment Of Realization

"Hunters of the Sky Cave," XII.

"'As a matter of fact -' Svantozik broke off. He sat for a moment, staring at emptiness.
"'Great unborn planets!' he whispered.
"'What?' Flandry didn't look up.
"'No matter,' said Svantozik hastily." (p. 247)

Observations
(i) A very familiar Andersonian moment of realization.

(ii) However, this time the realization occurs not to our omnicompetent, problem-solving hero but to his enemy.

(iii) Flandry very carefully does not betray any reaction by looking up.

(iv) Flandry has allowed himself to be captured precisely in order to check out the enemy and he is learning from his interrogator. Svantozik's oath will prove to be significant.

Read or reread on.

(Dig those descending men in that cover image.)

Moments Of Realization In 13,211 BC And 11 AE

"...I'll hop elsewhere as well as elsewhen, way away to the seashore or out on the steppe or -
"Or.
"She gasped."
-Poul Anderson, The Shield Of Time (New York, 1991), p. 238.

This is a moment of realization. Wanda can travel into the recent past. Thus, she can subtly help her friends without breaking the Time Patrol law against changing the course of events. It is already known that the invaders will not settle but will continue to migrate south. Thus, Wanda can cause that continued migration without having to change anything. She has just realized how she will be able do this. But her scheme will not be explained to the readers until we see her doing it.

"A suspicion moved below the surface of his mind. No. Not here."
-SM Stirling, On The Oceans Of Eternity (New York, 2000), Chapter Five, p. 98.

Yes, here. Giernas is beginning to realize that a Native American village observed through binoculars is quiet and still because its inhabitants have been killed by smallpox. We gradually realize what is happening as Giernas leaves his companions at a safe distance, enters the village accompanied only by his dog, finds only dead bodies, then methodically burns everything, including his own clothes. Where has the smallpox come from?

These are two moments of realization. As it happens, each of these pov characters is a time traveler to prehistoric North America but how different the narratives are and many such narratives can potentially be generated from the same premises of time travel and alternative timelines.