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!

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.

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.

Two Moments Of Realization

For discussion of Andersonian moments of realization, see here.

In "Holmgang"
"Orbital velocity equals escape velocity divided by the square root of two.
"For a moment he lay there, rigid..."
-Poul Anderson, Cold Victory (New York, 1982), p. 160.

I did not know that about orbital velocity and that is the sort of technical detail that I usually read past without noticing it. This is the moment when the hero of this story realizes that he can fight his armed enemy on a small asteroid by flying right around the asteroid and attacking him from behind. Orbital velocity...

The view point character going rigid immediately after thinking about his situation is a sure sign to regular Anderson readers that the solution to the current problem has just been recognized but also that we will not be told what that solution is until we are shown its implementation.

In "Brake"
"Banning groaned. Per Jovem, it was too much to ask of a man!
"And then he stiffened.
"'What is it, sir?' Nielsen looked alarmed.
"'By Jupiter,' said Banning. 'Well, by Jupiter!'
"'What?'
"'Never mind. Come on.'" (p. 263)

This is quite explicit. They have a problem while they are approaching Jupiter. Banning will somehow use Jupiter to solve the problem but he will not tell his crewman, and therefore will not tell the reader either, how he is going to do it. And I do not remember, despite having read this story more than once before. Maybe posting a summary of the story's conclusion will help to fix it in memory.

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.

Manse Everard's Moment Of Realization

I have posted about moments of realization in Poul Anderson's works but have overlooked perhaps the most dramatic.

Time Patrolman Manse Everard's Tyrian guide, Pum, has uncovered a crucial piece of military intelligence and sees that it is important to Everard:

"'My lord gathers his forces, I see,' murmured the boy after a while.
"The Patrolman nodded absently. His mind was in a storm of its own."
-Poul Anderson, "Ivory, And Apes, And Peacocks" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 229-331 AT p. 317.

Everard is as yet oblivious of Pum's perceptiveness. However, after a while:

"'I think,' said Pum, 'my lord intends to do battle, in a strange realm where wizards are his foes.'
"Am I that transparent to him?"
-op. cit., p. 320.

Pum asks to follow him. Everard is astounded. But then:

"It's out of the question, of course.
"IS it? Everard stood thunderstruck."
-op. cit., p. 321.

That standing thunderstruck is the equivalent of all the other times that Anderson heroes have gasped, stiffened, gone rigid etc - realization.

Josserek's Moments Of Realization

Poul Anderson, The Winter Of The World.

Josserek, an Andersonian problem-solver, has several moments of realization:

"But why must we choose?
"It flared: We don't have to." (XIII, p. 128)

"In the morning he awoke to peace, and to knowledge of what he might do." (XVIII, p. 158)

(Josserek improvises a radio transmitter which I think that Falkayn did on Ikrananka?)

"Like a thunderclap, the answer came." (XIX, p. 175)

Josserek apologizes because his mind has wandered although inwardly:

"His mind shouted, louder than the blizzard outside. He thought he saw now how he might go to Donya.
"If she lived." (XX, p. 187)

The blizzard echoes human conflicts but Josserek's mind outshouts it. He might overcome the conflicts.

Van Rijn POV V

See Van Rijn POV IV here. For references, see here.

I have posted about Andersonian moments of realization. See here. Nicholas van Rijn has one. While discussing a common problem with fellow merchants, he comments that they need a scientific approach, then breaks off in mid-sentence:

"Abruptly he dropped his glance and covered a shiver by pouring himself another glassful. He had gotten an idea." (p. 155)

Like all of Anderson's problem-solvers, van Rijn does not disclose his solution immediately. That has to come as the surprise ending of the story. When, after a further hour of fruitless argument, he proposes:

"'...an agreement. A pool, or prize, or reward for whoever solves this problem. For example, ten percent of everybody else's Antarean profits for the next ten years.'" (p. 155)

- Firmage of North American Engineering understandably says:

"'If I know you, you robber, you've come up with an answer.'" (p. 156)

Maybe, but the answerer must handle the expense and risk of the (possible) answer... During the ensuing argument:

"Van Rijn smiled with infinite benevolence." (ibid.)

There is a modicum of humor here. The word "benevolence" is used ironically. Van Rijn always finds a neat match between his business need to make a profit and other people's needs of different kinds but how often does this happen in reality?

Pp. 156-158 present a second conversation between van Rijn and Torres, surprisingly narrated from van Rijn's pov. Or, rather, the pov shifts. The passage opens:

"Rafael Torres had considered himself unshockable by any mere words." (ibid.)

That is Torres' pov. Then we are told what both men say so the pov could be that of an observer. There is more humor. Van Rijn bellows:

"'...we had ideals, I can tell you. We would have boosted through hell's open gates if you paid us enough.'" (p. 157)

His ideal is to do anything for high enough pay! This humorous self-criticism is not accidental. With van Rijn, every word is calculated. With a different audience, he would make entirely the same point in an entirely different way. Later, he entices Chee Lan back into employment by offering high pay and Adzel by appealing to that being's sense of duty and responsibility - but Chee Lan can be relied on to watch Adzel's back.

The conversation with Torres' shifts to van Rijn's pov:

"Van Rijn stood quiet for a while. This was something he had not quite foreseen.
"His gaze wandered forth, out the transparency, to the narrow sea. A yacht was passing by, lovely in white sails and slender hull. Really, he ought to spend more time on his own. Money wasn't that important. Was it? This was not such a bad world, this Earth, even when one was being invaded by age and fat. It was full of blossoms and burgundy, clean winds and lovely women, Mozart melodies and fine books. Doubtless his memories of earlier days in space were colored by nostalgia...." (ibid.)

This paragraph about white sails and blossoms is in a pulp sf story about fighting aliens in outer space. Those who remember reading stories about van Rijn's flamboyant character might not as readily remember these inner reflections, in his very first story, about the loveliness of Earth?

Outlawry And Realization

 

The Broken Sword, XVIII.

Skafloc and Freda live as outlaws:

"Dark and drear was that land, unpeopled by men or Faerie folk..." (p. 120)

"Dank and chill was the cave. Winds whittered in its mouth and surf pounded on the rocks at its foot." (ibid.)

They hunt game and kill trolls but a raven tells Skafloc that the trolls are winning the war. Despair? No, a moment of realization as Skafloc suddenly remembers the gods' gift of a sword. Freda feels him stiffen and tremble: yet another standard Andersonian moment... David Falkayn has at least two such moments (of realization) - and how many other Anderson characters also have them?

That is a fitting note on which to end for this evening. I am too head-tired for any more research and as always feel the call of other reading. Poul Anderson has to compete for attention - and always wins some of it.

Futureward.

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.

Intellect, Intuition And Imagination

In Poul Anderson's Murder In Black Letter, the detective work is done not by the detective, Trygve Yamamura, but by his friend, Robert Kintyre, who:

consciously reasons about possible motives and suspects in a murder case;
but also feels or intuits that he already knows more than he has as yet consciously realized;
has perhaps three moments of sudden realization.

We have already seen that moments of realization are frequent experiences for Anderson's problem-solving characters. Yamamura is a Buddhist and a practitioner of judo who knows about Zen. Thinking about Yamamura and Kintyre, I suddenly made a link with my own three main interests from earlier in life:

philosophy - intellect;
spirituality - intuition;
science fiction - imagination.

Philosophy is analysis of concepts or thought about thought.
Zazen is "neither trying to think nor trying not to think; just sitting with no deliberate thought."
Hard sf = imagination + intellect.

I find that coherent and comprehensive.

Undersea On The Unknown Planet

 

Maurai And Kith.

Using his spacesuit as a diving suit, Jong sees "...coraloids...," (p. 233) not corals, on the sea bottom. The white "seabirds" (p. 215) should be described as ornithoids. We would not want to see recognizable seagulls if the story were filmed. The "...great tiger-striped fish..." (p. 216) should be called a piscoid. It would have to be CGI'ed. 

Jong must retrieve a Kithman's mortal remains so that they can be given a Kith funeral, launched on an "...orbit into the sun." (p. 231) Momentarily, Jong wonders whether his dead friend would prefer to stay under the sea, "...lulled to the end of the world." (p. 233) Yes if he were a sea-dweller but no because he had been a starfarer. What we do with the dead is entirely a matter of local customs and traditions.

"The knowledge exploded in Jong. For a century of seconds he stood alone with it." (p. 234)

This is one of many Andersonian moments of realization. I do not think that I have noted this one before. "...a century of seconds..." must mean a short time that seemed like a long time. In fact, one hundred seconds, over a minute and a half, would be a long time to stand with a realization.

Back in the spaceboat, Jong, looking through a port:

"...watched the sea, molten silver beneath him, dwindle as the sky hardened and the stars trod forth." (p. 239).

Sliver sea, then sky and stars, a succinct summary of the themes of this volume.

When They Sit Up

Some by now familiar features of Poul Anderson's prose texts:

descriptive passages addressing three or more of the senses;

pathetic fallacy, particularly focusing on the wind which can roar, shriek, moan or whisper as appropriate and once whips a villainous character immediately after a vile act;

comprehensive exploration of alternative answers to basic questions about consciousness, time, the future etc;

moments of realization when problem-solving heroes spot solutions but do not yet elucidate us.

In that last example, characters typically tense or stiffen. Twice in "Call Me Joe," they sit up:

"If he wasn't so tired...

"Joe sat up. Sleep drained from him as the realization entered. He wasn't tired, not to speak of. Anglesey was."

-"Call Me Joe," p. 26.

(That passage even uses the word, "realization.")

"'We speculate in a vacuum,' said Cornelius. 'Tomorrow, maybe I can tell you. Now I know nothing.'

"Viken sat up straight...

"'You know a good deal more than you've admitted,' said Viken. 'Don't you?'" (p. 28)

In the second case, Viken realizes that Cornelius has realized something.

Two Moments Of Realization In One Story

Tales Of The Flying Mountains. 

Breakfast post before real world activities.

There is a technical problem in the not-yet-launched interstellar spaceship, Astra.

While his friend is in mid-sentence, the first person narrator, Winston Sanders, starts:

"The drink leaped from my hand and splashed across my lap." (p. 244)

Sanders' first moment of realization: the problem might be not technical but human, indeed criminal.

Second moment:

"An answer hit me, hard as the original solution had done. I sat straight in my chair and barked a delighted oath.

"'What now?' Furlow's calm was the least bit rattled.

"It had cause to be." (pp. 248-249)

The corrupt engineer, Furlow, is boasting that he can get away with his not-yet-admitted crimes but Sanders has suddenly realized how he can nail the guy.

As ever, a problem followed by a neat solution. End of story, followed by Epilogue.

What next? First, finish drinking a second mug of coffee.

The Golden Slave, Chapter V

The Golden Slave, V.

"The shortest way to the atrium was through the roses." (p. 60)

"The plain white stola fell in severe folds..." (ibid.)

"'...there was a Power in that place...'" (p. 61)

What is a capitalized "Power"? Something like a depersonalized god?

Eodan frequently refers to the Bull worshiped by the Cimbri, e.g.:

"'I was driven by the Powers of earth; the Bull was within me that day, Phryne.'" (p. 62)

The Bull was before us in Chapter I:

"It was a heavy image, cast in bronze, with horns that seemed to threaten the stars." (p. 15)

Threatening the stars foreshadows Anderson's interstellar sf. "The Bull" also wakes in Gratillonius when he is King Of Ys. See also Mithras And The Bull and The Myth Of Mithras.

"'...we are all pursued by our private Furies.'" (p. 63)

This is true although the Furies are myths.

Phryne loved a young slave who was sold and sent to Egypt. Although the man is probably still alive, Eodan reflects that:

"His ghost will not let her look on another man." (pp. 63-64)

Here, "ghost" means a memory rather than a departed spirit.

Eodan, now running errands for Cordelia, carries a purse of denarii. She names him after Hercules, the son of Alcmeme. Another of her slaves is "'...a witch from Thrace...'" (p. 68) Eodan had captured Cordelia's husband, Flavius, at the Battle of Arausio.

Eodan says that he cannot help his wife, also enslaved, but:

"Suddenly it burst within him. As if the sun had taken him full in the eyes, he gasped and cried low, 'But I can!'" (p. 72)

One of Anderson's many moments of realization.

Lifting hands to the eastern light and speaking in Cimbrian, he calls day, dark, wind, sea "...and all the Powers of earth to witness his promise." (p. 72)

- an irrevocable promise to rescue Hwicca, his wife, from Flavius' house in Rome.

A Moment Of Realization On Altai

"A Message in Secret."

Flandry and the Shaman confer with two of the dwarfish, white-furred and boneless but otherwise humanoid (?) Ice Folk. The problem is how to get a message off the planet undetected and unsuspected by their enemy, the Kha Khan. Experienced Poul Anderson readers know what to look out for and it arrives on schedule:

"Suddenly, and joyously, [Flandry] laughed." (p. 379)

The sound startles the Ice Dwellers and the Shaman stands in shadow - symbolizing his incomprehension? - whereas Flandry alone, standing with head raised in the moonlight, laughs like a boy.

"'By Heaven,' he shouted, 'we're going to do it!'" (ibid.)

This is another of the many Andersonian moments of realization. The hero suddenly realizes the solution to a problem but the readers must wait to see the solution in action.

Every Detail Matters

I post about details that strike me. They might be linguistic, stylistic, historical, philosophical etc. Themes have emerged like food, multi-sensory descriptions, the pathetic fallacy, moments of realization etc. However, there are many details that I miss through lack of interest or specialist knowledge. I am a philosopher, not a scientist, and also have no particular interest in military history or hardware, unlike Andrea who knows every detail of every European War at least from the Napoleonic period to WWII. (The Russians had better tanks.) I must ask him about the Crusades.

Blog readers who are able to analyze the accounts of military organizations or the background scientific information in the sf novels discussed here are invited to do so. Between us, we should be able to construct an adequate appreciation of the works of Poul Anderson, SM Stirling and at least some of their predecessors and contemporaries. I have not kept abreast of most recent sf but would anyone like to tell us about it?

Rustumite Lowland Species

Poul Anderson, New America, "Passing The Love Of Women."

The Rustumite lowlands have ceretheres, terasaurs and giant versions of spearfowl and other species that are familiar on the colonized plateau called High America. There are place names like Lake Moondance, Ahriman and Ironwood. (Scroll down.)

Dan and Eva discuss a group of friends that are missing. Eva speaks but breaks off as Dan stiffens. She has said something that gives him a clue as to where the friends might have gone - in search of a herd of terasaurs. Moments of realization punctuate Anderson's narrative like his Pathetic Fallacies and descriptive passages appealing to at least three of the senses.

I can guarantee to find something to post about just by rereading a page or two of an Anderson text.

Wind Gone Cold

The Avatar, XXIII.

Joelle and Eric end their relationship:

"He walked out into a wind gone cold at evening." (p. 204)

Of course this wind is not warm but cold... Should I stop quoting passages in which the wind comments on human affairs? A recognizable style could easily be parodied.

Alternatively, an attentive author would be able to write sequels or imitations close in style to the originals:

descriptions of skies, sunsets, seas and landscapes;

appeals to three or more of the senses;

descriptions of stars and galaxies seen from space;

sudden moments of realization, not explained until later;

competent heroes;

sympathetic treatment of their antagonists;

a positive evaluation of freedom and diversity;

the wind...

Realization Under Fire

In "The Three-Cornered Wheel," Poul Anderson combines an action scene with a problem-solving exercise. Falkayn is thinking while defending himself from attack by archers and firing back with his blaster:

"He ought to have hit, with a broad beam at such close range. The bolt struck the barricade and greasy smoke puffed outward. The Larsan dove for cover.
"What made Falkayn's hand jerk was suddenly seeing the answer." (The Van Rijn Method, p. 245)

This is the first of at least two moments of realization in Falkayn's career. This one is marked not by going tense, breaking off in mid-sentence, leaping up or shouting but by missing his shot. It makes sense. Fight scenes and problem-solving are two hallmarks of Anderson's fiction. Falkayn tries to radio the answer while continuing to fight for his life. I have never understood the technicalities of this story but have just sought elucidation by googling "constant-width polygon." (ibid.) The story definitely needs diagrams.