From 1953 To 2025

Yesterday, there was Armed Forces Day by the sea and an "East Meets West" cultural event with food in Lancaster Library. Today there was a Vintage Festival, a Norman Festival and Gay Pride in different parts of the District. I am getting onto my computer late in the day.

Poul Anderson's Brain Wave was published in 1953. Brian Aldiss wrote an Introduction to the Science Fiction Master Series edition in 1976. We are now in 2025. That gives us a vast historical perspective. What else happened in 1953?

Stalin died.

Queen Elizabeth II was crowned.

Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tensing Norgay reached the summit of Everest.

Casino Royale was published.

I was alive but not yet at school.

SM Stirling born (added later)

That is a short and selective list, of course.

Brian Aldiss' introduction reflects the world in 1976. Because they are relevant to the plot of Anderson's novel, he mentions:

therapy

Eastern religions

new religions

drugs

"Karl Marx's prediction that the State would wither away..." 

-Brian Aldiss, Introduction IN Poul Anderson, Brain Wave (London, 1977), pp. 5-8 AT p. 5.

Aldiss comments that this prediction "...has been revealed in all its foolishness." (ibid.)

This is a common misunderstanding of Marx. His idea was never that States as we know them would wither away. Instead, they had to be overthrown and replaced by a qualitatively different kind of state. Then that state would rapidly make itself redundant and would start to "wither away" almost from its inception. But we do not need to debate that issue further here.

But it is relevant to Brain Wave where, because of a massive increase in human intelligence, familiar States do cease to function/"wither way." Individuals with enhanced intelligence come together to reorganize social activities in everyone's interests as Marx had hoped would/thought could happen as an outcome of struggles first within, but then going beyond, the old order.

In 2025, we still have all the problems.

Scandinavian Culture

Murder Bound, iii.

Neither horse nor pig is kosher. Judith wonders why Christians eat the latter but not the former. Lauring explains:

"'Horse feasts were part of the ancient Nordic religion. So they were banned as pagan.'" (p. 29)

As with the sf references, the text of this mystery novel touches on another matter of interest to Poul Anderson and his readers.

I was told about the Christian horse taboo at a moot by a scholarly neo-Pagan. (Hi, Jez.) It is strange how deeply rooted food taboos are. Even when I ate meat, I regarded horse as unacceptable although we were never taught that it was taboo.

Lauring explains that Scandinavian culture is more than Ibsen or Andersen. Which Andersen?

Tryggve Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen
Not Vidar H. Andersen

I follow a Poul Anderson text wherever it leads. Chapter iii of Murder Bound has led us away from detective fiction into a brief discussion of Scandinavian culture. I do not know where this is taking us because I do not remember the details from previous readings and am blogging as I reread, a page or so at a time, but Anderson's texts are dense enough to warrant such close attention.

This weekend might be busy with other activities:

the Vintage Festival (and see previous references here) (scroll down);

it might be readily imagined that there is considerable political campaigning in Britain at present.

The Alpha Timeline

On p. 269 of Poul Anderson's The Shield Of Time (New York, 1991), a new chapter is headed 1137alpha A.D. (The text uses the Greek letter, "alpha," not the word "alpha" in Roman letters.) The heading alerts us that this chapter is set in an alternative or divergent timeline.

A Time Patrolman, Emil Volstrup, who knows that King Roger should not die in this year is informed that Roger has just been killed in battle. Thus, in the Time Patrol timeline, Roger lives beyond 1137 whereas, in the alpha timeline, Roger dies in 1137. In the Time Patrol timeline, Volstrup heard a report of this battle but also heard, as he expected, that Roger had survived it.

In the alpha timeline, Volstrup reflects:

"Cobblestones, an arcaded building opposite, a Saracen passing by in white cloak and turban, sparrows fluttering up from some scrap of food, none of it seemed real any longer. Why should it? Whatever he saw could at any instant cease ever having been. Everything around him could. He himself." (pp. 269-270)

No, they can't. A world existing until a certain moment and then ceasing to exist at that moment can at least be conceived of without self-contradiction - although it would contradict the empirically based conservation laws. But how can anything exist from time t0 until time t10, then, at t10, cease having existed from t0 until t10? That does not make any sense.

Volstrup should realize that, using tenses in the Temporal language, there WAS a Time Patrol timeline but is NOW an alpha timeline. In the Time Patrol timeline, he (Volstrup) would have heard a report of a battle that Roger survived whereas, in the alpha timeline, he instead hears a report of the same battle but with a different outcome and therefore with different historical consequences. In the Time Patrol timeline, Volstrup and everything around him did not cease to exist when he heard the outcome of the battle. On the contrary, that timeline continued to exist for another million years until the Danellian Era.

So there should not be any talk of Volstrup and his world ceasing to exist, let alone of their ceasing ever to have existed. Good night, folks! Vintage Festival in Morecambe tomorrow.

Where And When

Where and when we read a work is part of our experience of reading it even though it is not part of the reading experience as such. You and I read the same texts in different places or, alternatively, different texts in the same place. We discussed literary associations here.

I was reminded of this because:

yesterday, I reread parts of Poul Anderson's A Stone In Heaven in sight of Morecambe Bay as seen from Morecambe (see images) - probably no one else at the Vintage Festival was thinking about Dominic Flandry;

Tony, who runs the Old Pier Bookshop, reminded me that a girl in the George Lazenby James Bond film, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, claims to be from Morecambe Bay;

recently rereading that Bond novel, I found that the line about Morecambe Bay where the shrimps come from is in the text.

This line of thought has taken us from literary associations to literary geography as opposed to fictional geography - real places in fictional texts as opposed to fictional places.

Today, I will be back on the Bay, taking with me books by Poul Anderson and SM Stirling.

Titles In The Terran Empire

This weekend: the Vintage Festival.

Terrestrial

His Imperial Majesty, the High Emperor

the Grand Admiral the Duke of Asia

the Viscount of Ny Kalmar

the Mayor Palatine of Britain

Lunar

Her Highness, Lady Megan of Luna

the Right Noble Lady Guardian of the Mare Crisium

Martian

The Duke of Mars

the Lady Marr of Syrtis

Extra-Solar

The Earl of Sidrath

I know many people, including my former self, who would have said, "What a lot of nonsense." I may have gained a better understanding of how different kinds of societies work while still preferring an egalitarianism in which such grandiose titles would be bandied about only as a joke. I think that there was an Army in Oz with an ascending hierarchy of Officers but only a single Private? (Turn the world upside down!)

Last Voyages

 

Mirkheim describes two "last" voyages of the old trader team: first, the diplomatic, intelligence-gathering voyage to Babur with a fruitful detour to Mirkheim on the return journey; secondly, the very fruitful intelligence-gathering voyage to Hermes. The team are not together during the Hermetian naval attacks on Seven in Space installations because Falkayn had had to leave Adzel and Chee Lan on Hermes where they join the resistance to the Baburian occupation. Finally, Falkayn's last voyage will be to found the colony on Avalon but that happens later. Adzel and Chee Lan will retire to their home planets but will remain in touch.

Today and tomorrow, we will be at the annual Vintage Festival. Hence, this brief breakfast post this morning.

How Complicated!

(Image of Sicily.)

See here. I argued that, if the Exaltationists succeeded in changing history in 209 BC and if all Patrol agents returning uptime from pre-209 BC entered the future of the Time Patrol timeline, then there would be no one to detect, or to take any action against, the altered timeline. However, I forgot that there were other time travelers, including Patrol agents, on Earth in 209 BC. They at least would survive into the altered timeline. The Patrol agents would then travel pastwards, e.g., to the Academy in the Oligocene or to the Pyrenees Lodge in the Pleistocene, to enlist help. The agents whom they contacted would then travel futurewards with them into the altered timeline and would attempt to rectify it.

In Part Six of The Shield Of Time, "Amazement of the World," Keith Denison, departing 1765 BC, enters the alpha timeline, Wanda Tamberly, departing 18,244 BC, enters the alpha timeline and Emil Volstrup, based in 1137 AD, survives into the alpha timeline because the alpha divergence occurs in that year.

It seems to be impossible to come to the end of the complexities of "time traveling," as Wells called it. Wells' outer narrator hinted at "...curious possibilities of anachronism and of utter confusion..." but did not know the half of it. (Lapsing into unscholarly habits, I do not go upstairs to get The Time Machine to check that reference but am confident that it is substantially accurate. The weather is good here and we will drive to Morecambe for the Vintage Festival. Anachronisms, indeed.)

More Surprises

"Outpost of Empire."

Mayor Uriason blows his stack at three "traitors" who propose to join the outbackers but then, to Ridenour:

"'My performance was merely in character...'

"'I kept my ears open down yonder as well as my mouth...'

"'I played the buffoon in order to be discounted and ignored. Your own best role is probably that of the impractical academician...'" (pp. 84-85)

Ridenour, the investigator, learns a lot. He has just heard Evagail speak knowledgeably about practical ecology and learned that she is not a savage. Now he learns this about Uriason. Several plots thicken.

Today we will attend the Vintage Festival and there will be no more posts until tomoz.

Laters.

POVs In Murder Bound

OK. While writing this post, I am checking the povs (points of view) of successive chapters in Poul Anderson's Murder Bound. I do not know what I will find.

i, Conrad Lauring;
ii, Trygve Yamamura;
iii, Lauring;
iv, Yamamura;
v, Lauring;
vi, Yamamura;
vii, Lauring, then Yamamura;
viii, Yamamura;
ix, Yamamura;
x, Lauring;
xi, Yamamura;
xii, Lauring;
xiii, Lauring;
xiv, Yamamura;
xv, Yamamura;
xvi, Yamamura;
xvii, Lauring;
xviii, Yamamura;
xix, Lauring;
xx, Yamamura;
xxi, Yamamura.

Totals
Lauring 8
Yamamura 12
Both 1

- unless I find any more pov changes within chapters as I reread the chapters although I do not think so. So Yamamura gets more but not as many more as we would expect. As I noted in Conrad Lauring's POV, the omniscient narrator comes on-stage in half a sentence of Chapter iii. Will the text disclose any further subtleties?

You have had me for tonight, folks. Tomorrow and Sunday: Vintage Festival. Next week: various other social activities. Blogging has to fight for air space. What a relief that for some of us work is a thing of the past. It comes to us all if we live long enough.

Vintage

This weekend it is the Vintage by the Sea Festival in Morecambe. See the Festival in 2014 here. I enjoy such large, colourful events and am, in any case, needed to drive my family to them. I always travel with "emergency reading" in case of lulls in the activities. Today, while eating cheese and onion pie with peas and red cabbage followed by fruit crumble with ice cream, I reread enough of Poul Anderson's A Stone In Heaven to generate an autumnal post here. The next item on the agenda is a night's sleep before driving back to Morecambe tomorrow. However, there is usually time to read and post over breakfast. The present reading agenda is:

to continue to reread Poul Anderson's A Stone In Heaven;
to begin to read SM Stirling's The Golden Princess, which has arrived.

At the end of Anderson's Dominic Flandry series, both Flandry and his daughter are still alive whereas, after ten volumes of Stirling's on-going Emberverse series, Mike Havel has died in combat, his son, Rudi Mackenzie, has died in combat and Rudi's daughter, Orlaith, has succeeded to the throne of Montival. What happens next? The blurb hints. Wider alliances and conflicts are developing. The Emberverse becomes a bigger and badder place.

Tonight also Montalbano solved a particularly unsavoury case. What's not to like?

Time And Tide

So far, seven posts today but they must compete for time with other activities, like driving family members to Morecambe for the Vintage by the Sea Festival: old cars; clothes; music; a bar in a bus; food stalls; fairground; good weather; the two surviving Lancaster Bombers flying overhead. See attached image for cars and the renovated Midland Hotel, which Hercule Poirot walks out of on television.

I leave the family near the Promenade, drive to find a car park with some spaces left, walk to visit a good friend who lives on two floors above a second hand bookshop (and who has been mentioned on this blog before), emerge to find family, which is now easy with mobile phones, and eventually return home to meditate, eat and post about the end of Eternity, Captain Flandry and Chunderban Desai.

This has been a Sunday but, in retirement, every day can be like this, more or less.