tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63284786050028750852023-11-16T02:39:04.197-08:00James Blish AppreciationPaul Shackleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04180596532266581425noreply@blogger.comBlogger212125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6328478605002875085.post-9444295306322137122019-01-03T02:22:00.003-08:002020-02-14T06:03:29.563-08:004004 Or 4104<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT5e1H2qv0SlZ1c4XYm-F0oth30G_UCqDbgIqxrqqDKVqJlqJHtEqUAFnsivw_0YpeMVgcA75KkfOWzfizyOdkeWbs-klnI3Va1ABVay0fDTq3nhC_IMY6QkZEV2PDPHxYnPoou9oTa1I/s1600/Cities-in-Flight-James-Blish.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="709" data-original-width="1007" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT5e1H2qv0SlZ1c4XYm-F0oth30G_UCqDbgIqxrqqDKVqJlqJHtEqUAFnsivw_0YpeMVgcA75KkfOWzfizyOdkeWbs-klnI3Va1ABVay0fDTq3nhC_IMY6QkZEV2PDPHxYnPoou9oTa1I/s400/Cities-in-Flight-James-Blish.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
In successive versions of the Chronology of Cities in Flight:<br />
<br />
John Amalfi died in a hunting accident in 4004;<br />
<br />
the universe ended in 4004;<br />
<br />
the universe ended in 4104.<br />
<br />
That last event and date remained in the text but the Chronology was left out of the omnibus edition.<br />
<br />
The hunting accident, appearing in the Chronology but not in any text, was just meant as a reminder that even people with antiagathics will eventually die by accident or violence. When Blish did come to write an ending, he had his characters living until the end of the universe which, however, was brought unexpectedly close to the present for narrative purposes.paulshackley2017@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17704115766930975286noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6328478605002875085.post-37004861903288714242018-10-25T06:48:00.003-07:002018-10-25T06:58:28.548-07:00Two Boxed Sets?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1RFp5LgBd23y3P0qozBlEJGdafQTunIJU8y3RrlUOpYwga1zcS1JThP1cvZ2OrnO_NFNSSeCx06B0avDoWGzUp7GDMIyn_umg1b-9sG8hnUhB5YqVk262v6pLYZeitfQLPAgW2KEx3mo/s1600/galacticcluster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="290" data-original-width="174" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1RFp5LgBd23y3P0qozBlEJGdafQTunIJU8y3RrlUOpYwga1zcS1JThP1cvZ2OrnO_NFNSSeCx06B0avDoWGzUp7GDMIyn_umg1b-9sG8hnUhB5YqVk262v6pLYZeitfQLPAgW2KEx3mo/s400/galacticcluster.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<u>Three Future Histories</u><br />
<i>Cities In Flight</i><br />
<i>The Seedling Stars</i><br />
<a href="https://jamesblishappreciation.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-haertel-history.html">The Haertel History</a><br />
<br />
<u>Three Trilogies</u><br />
Heart Stars<br />
Quincunx<br />
<a href="https://jamesblishappreciation.blogspot.com/2012/04/james-blishs-after-such-knowledge.html"><i>After Such Knowledge</i></a><br />
<br />
You might have to read or reread previous posts to see what I am getting at here.<br />
<i> </i><br />
The future histories culminate respectively in:<br />
<br />
Volume IV, <i>The Triumph Of Time</i>;<br />
Book Four, "Watershed";<br />
<a href="http://jamesblishappreciation.blogspot.com/2018/10/this-earth-of-hours.html">"This Earth of Hours."</a><br />
<br />
<i>Citiess In Flight</i>, Volume III, is <i>Earthman, Come Home</i>, a title that could be applicable in different ways to both "Watershed" and "This Earth of Hours."paulshackley2017@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17704115766930975286noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6328478605002875085.post-45660153365795727042018-10-02T01:12:00.000-07:002018-10-02T01:12:00.278-07:00And After Such Knowledge<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQohKCk6IoPXa0T6qaeEnWLf8U_-ygwpVgFOYK4k473BF07_UFMphHhQzl2ueNDNBRgGBf0NemqrrlNCAyi109eCvmQsORO_4UjcOwaf7imt-64UtcNw1-4XYlOSjbH8QLxIz80Kcu2kc/s1600/aftersuchknowledge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="290" data-original-width="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQohKCk6IoPXa0T6qaeEnWLf8U_-ygwpVgFOYK4k473BF07_UFMphHhQzl2ueNDNBRgGBf0NemqrrlNCAyi109eCvmQsORO_4UjcOwaf7imt-64UtcNw1-4XYlOSjbH8QLxIz80Kcu2kc/s1600/aftersuchknowledge.jpg" /></a></div>
I should have said<i> six</i> volumes <a href="http://jamesblishappreciation.blogspot.com/2018/10/this-earth-of-hours.html">here</a>. <i>After Such Knowledge</i>, which has been collected in a single volume (see image),<i> </i>begins with the discovery of scientific method by Roger Bacon in <i>Doctor Mirabilis </i>and climaxes with an unexpected outcome of the supernatural conflict of Armageddon in <i>The Day After Judgment</i>.<br />
<br />
Schematically,<i> Black Easter</i> and its sequel, <i>The Day After Judgment</i>, considered as a single work, comprise Volume II of the <i>After Such Knowledge</i> Trilogy with <i>A Case Of Conscience </i>as Volume III. In this order, the three volumes correspond to past, present and future, respectively, and also form a Hegelian triad of historical fiction, fantasy and science fiction, sf synthesizing the realism of historical fiction with the counter-factuality of fantasy.<br />
<br />
However, Volume II, written last, is surely a dramatic climax, realizing the apocalyptic apprehensions of Volumes I and III?paulshackley2017@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17704115766930975286noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6328478605002875085.post-8692059443886381412018-10-02T00:21:00.000-07:002018-10-25T07:02:25.252-07:00"This Earth Of Hours"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvhzqvixYulzfwhJ6kl76I4jWpvvlbTkRFTs0r952oTddYWj9XCp1N4m8j2k-0aY28PGWMBRXZPv2EPK47DHD4FcSrEr3iMjEbIpa1AvZPXkMfrzARULOruyVJbqnYGtcL6ToXHKc5gl4/s1600/galacticcluster3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="302" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvhzqvixYulzfwhJ6kl76I4jWpvvlbTkRFTs0r952oTddYWj9XCp1N4m8j2k-0aY28PGWMBRXZPv2EPK47DHD4FcSrEr3iMjEbIpa1AvZPXkMfrzARULOruyVJbqnYGtcL6ToXHKc5gl4/s400/galacticcluster3.jpg" width="241" /></a></div>
James Blish's "This Earth of Hours," ending with the beginning of an interstellar conflict between the telepathic, unitive civilizations of Population I stars and the brained, warring civilizations of Population II stars, should not be just another short story in a collection. Coming, as it does, after:<br />
<br />
"Nor Iron Bars," which introduces telepathy;<br />
<br />
before that, "Common Time," which introduces interstellar travel, initially with the Haertel overdrive;<br />
<br />
before that, <i>Welcome To Mars</i>, about Haertel on Mars, and "No Jokes on Mars," about later events on Mars -<br />
<br />
- "This Earth of Hours" is a culmination no less than Book Four of <i>The Seedling Stars</i> or Volume IV of <i>Cities In Flight</i> and should be published at the end of a volume containing the five relevant works in the appropriate order with the divergent branches of the Haertel Scholium in separate volumes.<br />
<br />
Thus, five volumes (correction: six; see <a href="https://jamesblishappreciation.blogspot.com/2018/10/and-after-such-knowledge.html">here</a>) would each begin with an important discovery or discoveries, then progress towards a climax galactic, intergalactic or even cosmic in scope. paulshackley2017@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17704115766930975286noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6328478605002875085.post-50776627158665954992018-10-01T15:11:00.000-07:002019-11-09T14:00:18.401-08:00"How Beautiful With Banners"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi78y48BF20TMy1GETYKsVcKz9CpiJQc74TKO4xUJ4-A7XNyRZnkjTcIYyKtdKG4GBJZ2RnWOYd7XXG4gEjY_hzrd1bFRDMQHvYiY_CUguB7ADBAY6R8920jfH2dgVO8zdqDeBk8miJNgc/s1600/anywhenmycopy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="272" data-original-width="185" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi78y48BF20TMy1GETYKsVcKz9CpiJQc74TKO4xUJ4-A7XNyRZnkjTcIYyKtdKG4GBJZ2RnWOYd7XXG4gEjY_hzrd1bFRDMQHvYiY_CUguB7ADBAY6R8920jfH2dgVO8zdqDeBk8miJNgc/s400/anywhenmycopy.jpg" width="272" /></a></div>
Whereas James Blish's "Nor Iron Bars" is a direct, linear sequel to his "Common Time," his "How Beautiful With Banners" is a conceptual sequel to that same story because symbolism that had been unconscious, although later recognized as such, in "Common Time" was consciously written into "Banners."<br />
<br />
In "Common Time," Garrard, alone in a Haertel overdrive spaceship, endures "psuedo-death," then communicates incomprehensibly with incomprehensible Centaurians:<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-family: "arial";">Ransom
en route to Mars experiences space as filled with a life-giving
radiance whereas Haertel on the same journey knows that cosmic
radiation is lethal. Later, Ransom experiences “trans-sensuous life”
while approaching Venus in an angelically propelled coffin whereas
Haertel’s successor, Garrard, endures psychophysical “psuedo-death”
while enclosed in the rigid, monotonous environment of an interstellar
spaceship.<sup>14, 15</sup></span></span></i><br />
-copied from <a href="https://jamesblishappreciation.blogspot.com/2012/04/cs-lewis-and-james-blish.html">here</a>.<br />
<br />
In "Banners," Ulla Hillstrom is alone in her transparent film wrap on Titan when a Titanian "flying cloak" organism fuses with this artificial large protein molecule, then abandons Ulla to her inevitable death when it rises to join another flying cloak. Ulla has unknowingly introduced heterosexuality to Titan, thereby starting a sixty million year evolution the end of which no human being will see. Thus, this single story surpasses any of Blish's series in the length of time that it encompasses. </div>
paulshackley2017@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17704115766930975286noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6328478605002875085.post-47308220360419357002018-10-01T09:39:00.002-07:002018-10-01T15:30:02.588-07:00The Callean<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWiymscE3azSaYRo1Wc5DNyFDVHNlbci3zH6BeJL3LnXlwhQ47hMtc9vXp0T2w3oTySx4BXxbGuH2TY-vkRRgrSk1KF9nrnK41ofIe1MYe3OAf8GAAWh23t-uttgOnJ3arP-YmE68REMk/s1600/venturesf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWiymscE3azSaYRo1Wc5DNyFDVHNlbci3zH6BeJL3LnXlwhQ47hMtc9vXp0T2w3oTySx4BXxbGuH2TY-vkRRgrSk1KF9nrnK41ofIe1MYe3OAf8GAAWh23t-uttgOnJ3arP-YmE68REMk/s1600/venturesf.jpg" /></a></div>
I have remarked, e.g., <a href="https://poulandersonappreciation.blogspot.com/2014/11/meeting-alien.html">here</a>, on the ability of Poul Anderson's characters to deal in a matter-of-fact way with non-humanoid aliens of any size or shape. No doubt they would be equally well equipped to cope with James Blish's Callean in "This Earth of Hours":<br />
<br />
too big to enter a spaceship compartment so that the Terrestrial representative must go out to meet him;<br />
<br />
apparently, a mixture of several different phyla;<br />
<br />
a 25-foot long segmented tube, as wide as a barrel;<br />
<br />
no head, just a front end raised ten feet above the ground;<br />
<br />
two large faceted eyes and three simple eyes, the latter usually closed;<br />
<br />
six squid-like tentacles;<br />
<br />
able to move quickly in a straight line across the planet; <br />
<br />
telepathically linked so that the entire planetary population has a single identity ("I" means not "this organism" but all of them and one can be killed without retaliation);<br />
<br />
forms unaccustomed human speech by emitting from many spiracles single tones that inter-modulate as words with intonations.<br />
<br />
(Similarly, in <i>The Seedling Stars</i>, the telepathic microscopic aquatic organisms address men by vibrating their cilia to produce inter-modulating sound waves.) paulshackley2017@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17704115766930975286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6328478605002875085.post-23142889963185599242018-09-30T00:43:00.000-07:002018-09-30T01:14:39.152-07:00Six Narratives<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiurvfyc970WuyfJE7FEDELYGecSjzEhyxxNE9yS4WLVhcDZCTJKkfl5fMFS1d_tkos3yckuf-Y8PdsSC9_TKsIDd_alpXn3DlMO_V9b_qvpxgcxTmQ5T29E4wPlLvafQqGq12FuNvZwZ0/s1600/acaseofconscience.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="299" data-original-width="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiurvfyc970WuyfJE7FEDELYGecSjzEhyxxNE9yS4WLVhcDZCTJKkfl5fMFS1d_tkos3yckuf-Y8PdsSC9_TKsIDd_alpXn3DlMO_V9b_qvpxgcxTmQ5T29E4wPlLvafQqGq12FuNvZwZ0/s1600/acaseofconscience.jpg" /></a></div>
James Blish's future historical and other related writings present six long narratives:<br />
<br />
from the discovery of anti-agathics and antigravity to the creation of new universes;<br />
<br />
from the development of pantropy to Adapted Men throughout the galaxy;<br />
<br />
from Haertel's tree hut to first contact with the telepathic Central Empire;<br />
<br />
from first contact with the Angels to long term dealings with the Heart Stars;<br />
<br />
from Martels' radio telescope and Wald's invention of the Dirac transmitter to an expanding intergalactic civilization and mystical immortality;<br />
<br />
from Roger Bacon in the thirteenth century to contact with Lithia in the mid-twenty-first century.<br />
<br />
Bacon and Einstein are in many timelines, Haertel in four, the Dirac transmitter in two and Lithia in two.paulshackley2017@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17704115766930975286noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6328478605002875085.post-79227523595752589642018-09-29T05:36:00.003-07:002021-04-11T10:22:12.658-07:00Haertel And Wald<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt0WOW3aZpnp6JWs6J4O0JRYCfOb-BQr0j4t95SgQoPzCeEnyXz5mlhgcGpiSG8l1HefkDKp56nF8EmWSoqllvJTj21A2n_DKsP6fi1svn06scCrZqERzR2o2FmDazETR455Jm14hZNhs/s1600/thequincunxoftimeforeign.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="276" data-original-width="182" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt0WOW3aZpnp6JWs6J4O0JRYCfOb-BQr0j4t95SgQoPzCeEnyXz5mlhgcGpiSG8l1HefkDKp56nF8EmWSoqllvJTj21A2n_DKsP6fi1svn06scCrZqERzR2o2FmDazETR455Jm14hZNhs/s400/thequincunxoftimeforeign.jpg" width="263" /></a></div>
Adolph Haertel, discoverer of anti-gravity and inventor of the Haertel overdrive, appears in <i>Welcome to Mars</i>, which has a short sequel, "No Jokes on Mars," and in "Common Time," which is the opening story of the G<i>alactic Cluster </i>trilogy, and Haertel is mentioned:<br />
<br />
in <i>The Star Dwellers</i> and its direct sequel,<i> Mission To The</i> <i>Heart Stars</i>, although not in its alternative sequel, "A Dusk of Idols";<br />
<br />
in <i>A Case Of Conscience</i>, which is Volume III of the <i>After</i> <i>Such Knowledge </i>Trilogy;<br />
<br />
in <i>The Quincunx Of Time</i>, which forms a loose trilogy with "A Style in Treason" and <i>Midsummer Century</i>.<br />
<br />
Thor Wald, inventor of the Dirac transmitter and of a mathematical metalanguage, appears in <i>The Quincunx Of</i> <i>Time</i> and is mentioned in <i>Midsummer Century</i>.<br />
<br />
In several timelines, Haertel succeeds Einstein. In one of those timelines, Wald, with access to many future scientific paradigms through the Dirac beep, shows that the structure of science makes it impossible to decide between the paradigms because it is one of the paradigms. However, I though that all the paradigms existed within the structure of science which is not a particular theory but a way of testing any theory?<br />
<br />
Martian dune-cats appear in <i>Welcome To Mars</i> and in "No Jokes on Mars" and were referenced in a note to an early draft of "How Beautiful With Banners" although that story is set on Titan. Thus, these three works might have formed an even looser trilogy or at least a triad. Ideas proliferate. In the Haertel Scholium, Blish was not bound by a linear history but series intended as linear future histories develop their own internal inconsistencies in any case.paulshackley2017@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17704115766930975286noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6328478605002875085.post-79949251057773523492018-09-29T01:15:00.000-07:002018-09-29T01:15:15.066-07:00Wise As Serpents And...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9eBUUWOmvrir-ql-CUdGzCqhxgzLco2nvQkZYJwhufJ2Zd8lmTZHC_Dc1_M1rHJJVzc4ANYFT_UQg1-7sQBBWnzAcBRMWoGxS79cbmO9BleBnMUaMqVf2RhXJB8QlEqQNj4XUldNi3KI/s1600/eaglewater.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="447" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9eBUUWOmvrir-ql-CUdGzCqhxgzLco2nvQkZYJwhufJ2Zd8lmTZHC_Dc1_M1rHJJVzc4ANYFT_UQg1-7sQBBWnzAcBRMWoGxS79cbmO9BleBnMUaMqVf2RhXJB8QlEqQNj4XUldNi3KI/s400/eaglewater.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
James Blish, <i>Midsummer Century</i>, <b>9</b>.<br />
<br />
"Proud, territorily jealous, and implacably cruel - to which had been added, simply by bringing it forward, the serpent wisdom of their remotest ancestors." (p. 73)<br />
<br />
<u>Comments</u><br />
"...territorily..." is a misprint in the text.<br />
<br />
Blish describes his intelligent "Birds" but the description also fits Poul Anderson's winged, carnivorous Ythrians. However, Ythrians share a planet with human beings whereas the Birds cannot share Earth with humanity. See <a href="https://jamesblishappreciation.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-war-against-birds.html">The War Against The Birds</a>.<br />
<br />
Are serpents really wise?paulshackley2017@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17704115766930975286noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6328478605002875085.post-17656872411869162682018-09-28T12:27:00.001-07:002018-09-28T12:27:32.117-07:00Reversing The Effect?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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James Blish, <i>Midsummer Century</i>, <b>4</b>.<br />
<br />
Martels wants to get:<br />
<br />
"...back to his home century; and only in human techniques were there any hints of possible help in this direction. That malfunctioning perisher of a radio telescope had sent him up here, and that had been a human artifact; surely by now, there must be some simpler way of reversing the effect." (p. 27)<br />
<br />
Surely nothing of the sort! Martels lost consciousness in 1985 and regained consciousness in 25,000 A.D. That implies merely that he had been unconscious for about 23,105 years. That process is not reversible, i.e., when someone wakes in the morning, he cannot be reversed to a moment after he had gone to sleep the previous night.<br />
<br />
Even if Martels' intuition that he had not existed in an unconscious state for 23,105 years but had jumped across the temporal gap is valid, he as a physicist should not assume that it is possible to jump back. He has to reckon with entropy, causality and the arrow of time. When the question of returning Martels to 1985 <i>is</i> addressed, the discussion is unsatisfactory. See <a href="https://jamesblishappreciation.blogspot.com/2013/04/time-travel-logic-strikes-again.html">here</a>.paulshackley2017@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17704115766930975286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6328478605002875085.post-21489070744062759092018-09-28T05:10:00.000-07:002018-09-28T05:22:49.157-07:00Fleeting And Wayward<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyESl_15Hp_CniH_y49TBrKQrsSB5t4I5RUifc0aPJcDzzS2s8xesxn1CtThxyUEX_6c2RQE_EoFZeevftYFreVQNsckmz4pWf2zeTRaxPDilPsIilHxLBj771tNzeGcD3Ei0KfQ6MKBY/s1600/thebestofjamesblish.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="296" data-original-width="170" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyESl_15Hp_CniH_y49TBrKQrsSB5t4I5RUifc0aPJcDzzS2s8xesxn1CtThxyUEX_6c2RQE_EoFZeevftYFreVQNsckmz4pWf2zeTRaxPDilPsIilHxLBj771tNzeGcD3Ei0KfQ6MKBY/s400/thebestofjamesblish.jpg" width="229" /></a></div>
An sf rationale of telepathy has to explain why ESP is so hard to detect.<br />
<br />
<u>Two Rationales</u> <br />
<br />
(i) In James Blish's "Nor Iron Bars," parasychology is, possibly, characteristic of the microcosm as electromagnetism is of the macrocosm:<br />
<br />
"If so, any telepathic effects that turned up in the macrocosm would be traces only, a leakage or residuum, fleeting and wayward, beyond all hope of control..."<br />
-James Blish, "Nor Iron Bars" IN Blish, <i>Galactic Cluster</i> (London, 1963), pp. 61-92 AT p. 74.<br />
<br />
In the sequel:<br />
<br />
"Psi forces in general were characteristic only of the subspace in which the primary particles of the atom had their being; their occasional manifestations in the macrocosm were statistical accidents, as weak and indirigible as spontaneous radioactive decay."<br />
-James Blish, "This Earth of Hours" IN Blish, <i>The Best Of</i> <i>James Blish </i>(New York, 1979), pp. 257-280 AT p. 277.<br />
<br />
But it turns out that species which think with ganglia instead of with brains are telepathic even across interstellar distances. This would also explain the telepathy of the aquatic micro-organisms in <i>The</i> <i>Seedling Stars</i>.<br />
<br />
(ii) In <i>Midsummer Century</i>, Martels speculates that telepathy began as "...a sort of <a href="https://www.thefreedictionary.com/riding+light">riding light</a>..." (<b>8</b>, p. 61) for the detection of like minds and intentions:<br />
<br />
"Such an ability would naturally be selected <i>out </i>in sentient creatures, since from the evolutionary point of view, intelligence would serve the same functions far better. That would leave behind only the maddening vestiges - a sort of<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermiform"> vermiform</a> appendix of the mind - which had so persistently disappointed the most sincere occultists from Newton onward." (<i>ibid</i>.)<br />
<br />
However, birds' formation flying, migration and homing instinct show that they are telepathic and a future civilization has possibly bred telepathy back into humanity. <br />
<br />
<u>Words Used</u><br />
traces<br />
leakage<br />
residuum<br />
fleeting<br />
wayward<br />
beyond control<br />
statistical accidents<br />
weak<br />
indirigible<br />
vestiges<br />
<br />
Martels has a <a href="https://www.linguee.com/german-english/translation/drang+nach+s%C3%BCden.html"><i>Drang nach Sueden</i></a>. (<b>8</b>, p. 62) paulshackley2017@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17704115766930975286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6328478605002875085.post-42629568183938868292018-09-28T00:16:00.001-07:002018-09-28T00:16:14.875-07:00Sooner And Later<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7cLhOBGemDmwAeg18I8aJxI1wa4-G-fa0RK11HcIn9DOkrYTpXnjF0X3oqCKZoMbTRIWVIVWf3DcQJyOwBg3E3mDRdQH9laGe_iPcxlYN9W5z_FD6Qe2-Nchl-tgU_609tvB7ECT5tzI/s1600/welcometomarsmycopy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="285" data-original-width="177" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7cLhOBGemDmwAeg18I8aJxI1wa4-G-fa0RK11HcIn9DOkrYTpXnjF0X3oqCKZoMbTRIWVIVWf3DcQJyOwBg3E3mDRdQH9laGe_iPcxlYN9W5z_FD6Qe2-Nchl-tgU_609tvB7ECT5tzI/s400/welcometomarsmycopy.jpg" width="248" /></a></div>
Although James Blish's Haertel Scholium is not a linear history, it has a definite earliest and latest moment: the beginning and end of <i>Midsummer Century</i>, set in 1985 and 25,000 A.D., respectively. Everything else happens between these dates although not in a single timeline.<br />
<br />
<i>Welcome To Mars</i>, about the earliest journeys to Mars,<i> </i>is set in the late twentieth century. In 25,000 A.D., John Martels reflects that:<br />
<br />
"...the curtain of rising mist which marked the beginning of the icecap might as well be the layer of ice-crystals which delimited the atmosphere of Mars." (<b>9</b>, pp. 69-70)<br />
<br />
Thus, Martels faintly echoes Adolph Haertel who did penetrate the Martian atmosphere. There is a stronger link between Martels and Haertel. First, Haertel:<br />
<br />
"...was reminded at once of what had happened in his boyhood when he had picked up a wounded robin chick, and had afterwards discovered that his hand was covered with mites, an incident which had divested him of all sentimentality towards birds forever."<br />
-James Blish, <i>Welcome To Mars</i> (London, 1978), 3, p. 36.<br />
<br />
Then Martels remembers:<br />
<br />
"He had found a fallen robin chick...he had picked it up, but it had died in his hands - and when he had put it down again, his hands were crawling with tiny black mites, like thousands of moving specks of black pepper." (<b>4</b>, pp. 26-27)<br />
<br />
This reads like an auctorial experience. In CS Lewis' <i>Perelandra</i>, Elwin Ransom nearly drowns. In his spiritual autobiography, <i>Surprised By Joy</i>, Lewis describes how he nearly drowned. The descriptions are identical. This <i>is</i> an auctorial experience.paulshackley2017@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17704115766930975286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6328478605002875085.post-38173498579162536662018-09-27T13:11:00.001-07:002018-09-27T13:11:40.840-07:00Facing A Wall<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9UD1hed6v_7BSKPovEpGtSXlHqRA39D9yEuOuBqk8c1DF-U5ot49RAxlQiAWEkYSvNLt8UuM_PAmedgITF1wz-oqoBsZRwXvCLLj6QP3F0T65wH27ym6ZAGCJa7U7EbXvhFint9An_pE/s1600/midsummercenturyyellow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="276" data-original-width="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9UD1hed6v_7BSKPovEpGtSXlHqRA39D9yEuOuBqk8c1DF-U5ot49RAxlQiAWEkYSvNLt8UuM_PAmedgITF1wz-oqoBsZRwXvCLLj6QP3F0T65wH27ym6ZAGCJa7U7EbXvhFint9An_pE/s1600/midsummercenturyyellow.jpg" /></a></div>
James Blish, <i>Midsummer Century</i>, <b>3</b>-<b>4</b>.<br />
<br />
John Martels, time-projected from 1985 to 25,000 A.D., shares the living brain of Qvant, a former Supreme Autarch, preserved in a case in a museum surrounded by perpetual jungle.<br />
<br />
"Always, except when the rare petitioner came into the museum, they stared at that same damn wall..." (<b>3</b>, p. 16)<br />
<br />
They do not sleep. Dreaming has ceased to be necessary. A pump supplies oxygen and blood sugar, carries away <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactic_acid">lactic acid</a> and prevents fatigue. Qvant is apparently immune to boredom but not Martels. Months become years.<br />
<br />
Since I practice zazen, in which we sit with eyes open facing a wall, I should be able to make some comparison with Zen. There are at least two differences:<br />
<br />
we do not stare at the wall but notice thoughts arising and passing;<br />
we do not sit long enough to become (very) bored.<br />
<br />
Blish mentions Zen:<br />
<br />
"[Qvant] seemed to be almost permanently in a kind of Zen state, conscious of mastery and at the same time contemptuous of it." (<b>3</b>, p. 20)<br />
<br />
But Martels is not in this state. Blish has got his viewpoint character into a fix. How will he get him out of it?paulshackley2017@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17704115766930975286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6328478605002875085.post-49037344928597716222018-09-27T05:56:00.001-07:002018-09-27T06:34:00.045-07:00Gathering The Haertel Scholium<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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(i) We begin with six novels (although two are short):<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Welcome To Mars</i><br />
<i>The Star Dwellers</i><br />
<i>Mission To The Heart Stars</i><br />
<i>A Case Of Conscience</i><br />
<i>The Quincunx Of Time</i><br />
<i>Midsummer Century</i><br />
<br />
- and with six shorter works spread across two collections:<br />
<br />
<u>in <i>Galactic Cluster</i></u><br />
"Common Time"<br />
"Nor Iron Bars"<br />
"This Earth of Hours"<br />
<br />
<u>in<i> Anywhen</i></u><br />
"No Jokes on Mars"<br />
"A Dusk of Idols"<br />
"A Style in Treason"<br />
<br />
(ii) <i>A Case Of Conscience</i> belongs with the <i>After Such</i> <i>Knowledge</i> Trilogy.<br />
<br />
(iii) Of the remaining works, six form two pairs:<br />
<br />
<i>Welcome To Mars</i> and the <i>Galactic Cluster</i> trilogy are linked by the character of Adolph Haertel;<br />
<br />
<i>The Star Dwellers</i> and <i>Mission To The Heart Stars</i> are linked by Jack Loftus and his colleagues;<br />
<br />
<i>Midsummer Century</i> refers to Thor Wald and the Dirac beep which were introduced in <i>The Quincunx</i> <i>Of Time</i>.<br />
<br />
(iv) Finally:<br />
<br />
"No Jokes on Mars" connects with <i>Welcome To Mars</i>;<br />
"A Dusk of Idols" connects with <i>The Star Dwellers</i>;<br />
<i>The Quincunx Of Time</i> refers to both "A Style in Treason" and <i>Midsummer Century</i>.<br />
<br />
Thus, the Haertel Scholium could be six volumes or one omnibus volume with <i>A Case Of Conscience</i> collected separately as part of <i>After Such Knowledge</i>.<br />
<br />
(<i>The Quincunx Of Time</i> is a novelization of "Beep," which is also in <i>Galactic Cluster</i>.) paulshackley2017@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17704115766930975286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6328478605002875085.post-4827061144113439372018-09-26T23:42:00.002-07:002018-09-26T23:59:07.763-07:00Continuous Creation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisWaBqtU-BzIx4WHbjd_x0RjAU0k22C_IMAeQVKPTep_jbnFTqhtgugdGP_snAQkpnWQskfxGqKd_nWH46zHy4EeWoV8-D_2PYmMbksIxyFra1cbE-8B_HJU0MOeab9Xq6bYctbFHZzlg/s1600/spockmustdie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="298" data-original-width="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisWaBqtU-BzIx4WHbjd_x0RjAU0k22C_IMAeQVKPTep_jbnFTqhtgugdGP_snAQkpnWQskfxGqKd_nWH46zHy4EeWoV8-D_2PYmMbksIxyFra1cbE-8B_HJU0MOeab9Xq6bYctbFHZzlg/s1600/spockmustdie.jpg" /></a></div>
James Blish mentions continuous creation in:<br />
<br />
<i>Cities In Flight</i> (see<a href="https://poulandersonappreciation.blogspot.com/search?q=continuous+creation"> here</a> and <a href="https://jamesblishappreciation.blogspot.com/search?q=continuous+creation">here</a>) (scroll down);<br />
the <i>Star Trek</i> universe;<br />
the Haertel Scholium.<br />
<br />
In <i>Spock Must Die</i>!, a warp-drive adjunct draws energy from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilbert_space">Hilbert space</a>, the source of hydrogen atoms, and thus taps continuous creation. Scott says that he would as soon tap into God:<br />
<br />
"'I'll ha'e nothin' tae do with thot.'"<br />
-James Blish, <i>Spock Must Die!</i> (New York, 1970), Chapter Thirteen, p. 104.<br />
<br />
In <i>Midsummer Century</i>, energy is drawn from the Void, the origin of inner space, but that is not continuous creation which is described as "'...nonsense.'" (<b>3</b>, p. 22)paulshackley2017@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17704115766930975286noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6328478605002875085.post-78053027374818274162018-09-26T14:47:00.001-07:002018-09-26T14:47:14.111-07:001985<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguMRroGkivZFsjb4ZhjYlFycEP5UIhR808L29r2OoduZFmvH5FYQsvnL2RTnQBk0mD1WPEKnnxlEqHr1rJrrQZb1TUuGupS2w58AZbZxrk9YI7NHYZoBjpjiYLijGQ0ekK2fNPqa86PiQ/s1600/midsummercenturyforeign.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="472" data-original-width="318" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguMRroGkivZFsjb4ZhjYlFycEP5UIhR808L29r2OoduZFmvH5FYQsvnL2RTnQBk0mD1WPEKnnxlEqHr1rJrrQZb1TUuGupS2w58AZbZxrk9YI7NHYZoBjpjiYLijGQ0ekK2fNPqa86PiQ/s320/midsummercenturyforeign.jpg" width="215" /></a></div>
James Blish said in conversation that his <i>Midsummer Century</i> begins in the "here and now." See <a href="http://jamesblishappreciation.blogspot.com/2018/09/old-and-new.html">Old And New.</a> In one sense it does because the opening chapter accurately describes British and American society at the time of writing. However, the dates do not quite match:<br />
<br />
Blish's introductory "NOTE" is dated 1971;<br />
the work is copyright James Blish, 1972;<br />
it was first published in England in 1973;<br />
my Arrow edition was published in 1975;<br />
Martels says that he was born in 1955 (p. 13);<br />
he is aged 30 on the opening page;<br />
therefore, Martels is time-projected from 1985.<br />
<br />
This makes the opening chapter near-future or "day after tomorrow" sf, like CS Lewis' <i>That Hideous Strength</i>, published in 1945 and set "after the War." That gives the fictional new Sockette State University time to construct their radically new radio telescope with its unintended and unprecedented reach that projects Martels' consciousness to 25,000 A.D. The rest is future history. paulshackley2017@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17704115766930975286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6328478605002875085.post-16605211578141212622018-09-26T13:03:00.003-07:002018-09-27T01:50:38.505-07:00Arriving In The Future<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4LpPcMyteiUgtNJLigmqoetl9S25INToTY-UJNz877i8hDdwGjaYqTdDofhwsGUhvTtlPno9EuMcmgEchjS_uMfNcT-1fg2T1r2mGeJtZwIi_86MDoHHEL69t3QPAeTfMJPdmykKAi64/s1600/midsummer-century-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="634" data-original-width="903" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4LpPcMyteiUgtNJLigmqoetl9S25INToTY-UJNz877i8hDdwGjaYqTdDofhwsGUhvTtlPno9EuMcmgEchjS_uMfNcT-1fg2T1r2mGeJtZwIi_86MDoHHEL69t3QPAeTfMJPdmykKAi64/s400/midsummer-century-2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
HG Wells' Time Traveler arrives physically in the perpetual summer of 802,701 A.D. and, while then, visits a disused and abandoned museum. James Blish's John Martels arrives mentally in a disused and abandoned museum in the perpetual summer of 50,000 A.D. Thus, reading Blish's <i>Midsummer Century</i> might remind us of Wells' <i>The Time</i> <i>Machine </i>even if we do not analyze why.<br />
<br />
<i>Midsummer Century </i>is a companion volume to Blish's <i>The Quincunx Of</i> <i>Time </i>which, like <i>The Time</i> <i>Machine</i>, presents the questionable metaphysic of immaterial consciousnesses moving along static, four-dimensional world-lines, which I discuss <a href="https://poulandersonappreciation.blogspot.com/2012/04/time-travel-and-poul-anderson.html">here</a> and <a href="http://logicoftimetravel.blogspot.com/2012/04/space-and-time.html">here</a>. Blish is more consistent with this premise than Wells. Martels' consciousness, apparently leaving his dead body in 1985, enters a living brain artificially preserved in the museum.<br />
<br />
As in Olaf Stapledon's two Last Men novels and in John Wyndham's "Pillar to Post" (see <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seeds_of_Time">here</a>), time travel is mental, not physical.paulshackley2017@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17704115766930975286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6328478605002875085.post-13222515803208332902018-09-25T10:53:00.001-07:002018-09-26T01:06:06.093-07:00Old And New<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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In early sf, a narrative always began in its author's and readers' here and now even if it immediately jumped to another planet or time. In H.G. Wells' anticipations:<br />
<br />
the Time Traveler travels to 802,701 A.D. and beyond;<br />
<br />
the Sleeper sleeps into the twenty second century;<br />
<br />
Raven dreams a book of the future, <a href="http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0301391h.html"><i>The Shape Of Things To Come</i></a>;<br />
<br />
even "A Story of the Days to Come" (see <a href="https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/w/wells/hg/w45da/chapter1.html">here</a>) begins with a Mr. Morris in Victoria's reign before hastening down the generations until it reaches his descendant, Mwres;<br />
<br />
a companion story both to <i><a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/12163/pg12163-images.htm">The Sleeper Wakes</a> </i>and to "A Story of the Days to Come" is "A Dream of Armageddon." See<a href="http://www.online-literature.com/wellshg/6/"> here</a>.<br />
<br />
None of these works begins simply with its characters living in the future as in a lot of later sf. James Blish deliberately reverted to the earlier narrative style when he wrote <i>Midsummer Century</i> (London, 1975) in the early 1970s. Having emigrated from the US to England, he created a fictional character, John Martels, who had emigrated in the opposite direction. Chapter <b>1</b>, pp. 3-6, not only is set in the then "present" but is as full of that "present" as its author can make it:<br />
<br />
Martels is part of "...<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_capital_flight">the brain-drain</a>..." (p. 3);<br />
<br />
the US gives him higher pay, lower taxes and <i>apparent</i> classlessness although there is ferocious discrimination against blacks, Mexicans and the poor and political opposition is becoming increasingly dangerous, indeed would lose Martels his passport or his citizenship;<br />
<br />
originating from a working-class background in Doncaster, Martels speaks in a regional accent that excludes him from upper class British society and that also obliges him to drink in public bars, not in lounges or saloons;<br />
<br />
the British population includes "...smuggled Pakistani immigrants..." (p. 4);<br />
<br />
Martels' school was not fee-paying and his D.Sc., First class, in astrophysics is not from Oxbridge but from a new redbrick polytechnic;<br />
<br />
(much more recently, all "polys" have been upgraded to Universities - my Postgraduate Certificate in Education was from Manchester Polytechnic which has become Manchester Metropolitan University);<br />
<br />
in the US, Martels is judged not by his accent but by his grammar, vocabulary and knowledge;<br />
<br />
he is at a university in the <a href="https://poulandersonappreciation.blogspot.com/search?q=midwest">midwest</a> (remember Everard and other Anderson characters);<br />
<br />
he <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planing_(boat)">sailplanes.</a><br />
<br />
In true Blish style, the text refers to:<br />
<br />
"...Ursa Major No. 2, a cluster of galaxies half a billion light-years away..." (p. 4)<br />
<br />
When Martels begins to be projected into the future, Blish switches to the omniscient narrator mode used by Wells in "A Story of the Days to Come." We are informed, although Martels, whose point of view we have shared until now, certainly does not know this, that Thor Wald will be born in 2060. We see Wald in 2090-'91 in <i>The Quincunx Of Time</i>.<br />
<br />
These two companion volumes by Blish, <i>The Quincunx Of Time</i> and <i>Midsummer Century</i>, are worthy successors of Wells' <i><a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/35/35-h/35-h.htm">The Time Machine</a> </i>although what a long way we have come from Wells' Mr. Morris to Blish's John Martels. Wells' description of Mr. Morris' half-timbered house passing away reminded me of passages in <i>The</i> <i>Time Machine</i> and in Anderson's <i>There Will Be Time</i> that I compared <a href="https://poulandersonappreciation.blogspot.com/2018/06/the-history-of-house.html">here</a>.paulshackley2017@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17704115766930975286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6328478605002875085.post-16898809465287919182018-09-25T07:50:00.002-07:002018-09-25T07:50:47.133-07:00Judgment<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw0ciQ-hhSnlgNGySEq-0gk0kfXw7_reR38TFnpWDZoGOUXaEIxJG0d8VsWjlojkfY3gFys1PxY0bD57uiyRtemPxENen70FeK2SOlJc0OG0Ok6YAZnVFRFgPg-e3DtPn7Rlji3CzSrAg/s1600/midsummercenturyfrontandback.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="198" data-original-width="255" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw0ciQ-hhSnlgNGySEq-0gk0kfXw7_reR38TFnpWDZoGOUXaEIxJG0d8VsWjlojkfY3gFys1PxY0bD57uiyRtemPxENen70FeK2SOlJc0OG0Ok6YAZnVFRFgPg-e3DtPn7Rlji3CzSrAg/s400/midsummercenturyfrontandback.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
See <a href="https://poulandersonappreciation.blogspot.com/2018/09/doomsday-and-wine.html">Doomsday And Wine</a>.<br />
<br />
James Blish has a scientific end of the universe in <i>The Triumph Of Time</i> and a supernatural end of the world in <i>Black Easter. </i>The end of the universe involves anti-matter and is called the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginnungagap">Ginnungagap</a> because it is followed by new creations whereas the end of the world involves demons and is Armageddon with an unexpected outcome.<br />
<br />
In Blish's <i>Midsummer Century</i>, John Martels dies and finds that he is being asked questions lacking semantic content. He wonders:<br />
<br />
"Was this the Judgment?"<br />
-James Blish, <i>Midsummer Century</i> (London, 1975), <b>10</b>, p. 84.<br />
<br />
No. His consciousness has merged with an advanced computer to which questions are being inputted. <i>Midsummer Century </i>is sf and its accounts of mystical states are rationalized. But someone from Martels' post-Christian milieu is bound to wonder about "Judgment."paulshackley2017@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17704115766930975286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6328478605002875085.post-20606624008037602132018-09-25T00:46:00.001-07:002018-09-25T00:46:07.643-07:00Every Option<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisPaJhnie5aZg8k34Y-O2tYrCXsElWy0wGBrKihC15GGBnwz4yYW7aw-t6VEBrKveWyKWeYT21O__CieREmPXbmaACNrUB8-VZ4jtd1jZaxKsQEmymm8cRF3lDNEWohqRdZPrqrGMA9TQ/s1600/theseedlingstarscrash.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="322" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisPaJhnie5aZg8k34Y-O2tYrCXsElWy0wGBrKihC15GGBnwz4yYW7aw-t6VEBrKveWyKWeYT21O__CieREmPXbmaACNrUB8-VZ4jtd1jZaxKsQEmymm8cRF3lDNEWohqRdZPrqrGMA9TQ/s400/theseedlingstarscrash.jpg" width="257" /></a></div>
Adapted Men colonize extrasolar planets and Okies trade with extrasolar colonies. Volume I of <i>Cities In Flight </i>describes the discoveries of anti-agathics and antigravity that made the Okies possible. However,<i> The Seedling Stars</i>, in which Adapted Men spread through the galaxy, is not Volume II of this tetralogy because the two series developed towards different conclusions. See <a href="http://jamesblishappreciation.blogspot.com/2018/09/interstellar-travel.html">Interstellar Travel</a>. They also acquired different beginnings, making them distinct series, unlike the Haertel Scholium where four futures share a common beginning.<br />
<br />
Earth is ruled by:<br />
<br />
the Russian Bureaucratic State in<i> Cities In Flight</i>;<br />
<br />
an American Port Authority in <i>The Seedling Stars</i>;<br />
<br />
a UN where entire cities have become underground "Shelters" in <i>A Case Of Conscience</i>;<br />
<br />
a peaceful UN in the Heart Stars novels.<br />
<br />
Blish presents four rationalizations of parapsychology, two in the Haertel Scholium and two in independent works. He gives the impression of addressing every option like Poul Anderson with interstellar travel, time travel, aliens and AI.paulshackley2017@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17704115766930975286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6328478605002875085.post-21854671999508984032018-09-24T16:42:00.002-07:002018-09-24T16:42:17.091-07:00Interstellar Communicators<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiO2qhTFyVFVCUBznB2WiCeOF3w9UPxUQOSaVNbDsomCGcOQNw-l-Wj0r-8nwB7Q22YoWWYoJhbp8yb7PT9YAKQfYDsaxmMBmDPCMWXGVOcObMYSnCu-2kT8tDYnAHBtsEok6tVYIfkGQ/s1600/thestardwellersnew.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="228" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiO2qhTFyVFVCUBznB2WiCeOF3w9UPxUQOSaVNbDsomCGcOQNw-l-Wj0r-8nwB7Q22YoWWYoJhbp8yb7PT9YAKQfYDsaxmMBmDPCMWXGVOcObMYSnCu-2kT8tDYnAHBtsEok6tVYIfkGQ/s320/thestardwellersnew.jpg" width="202" /></a></div>
Ultrawave/ultraphone: FTL but not instantaneous.<br />
CirCon: instantaneous.<br />
Dirac transmitter in <i>Cities In Flight</i>: instantaneous.<br />
Dirac transmitter in <i>The Quincunx Of Time</i>: instantaneous but also receiving messages from the past and future.<br />
<br />
The Angels and the Heart Stars also have some means of instantaneous communication.<br />
<br />
See the previous <a href="https://jamesblishappreciation.blogspot.com/2018/09/interstellar-travel.html">post</a>.<i> The Quincunx Of Time</i>, "A Style in Treason" and<i> Midsummer Century </i>are set in different periods of a single Haertel overdrive timeline. All three have ultrawave. <i>Quincunx</i> and <i>Century also </i>have the Dirac. "Treason" seems not to have it although <i>Quincunx</i> contradicts this. Apparent contradictions are to be expected, especially since there is a Traitors' Guild in "Treason."paulshackley2017@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17704115766930975286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6328478605002875085.post-87144142233110367732018-09-24T14:42:00.000-07:002020-05-05T15:15:39.053-07:00Interstellar Travel<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4uSVfH1VBJN-hYvrGx_B96UIQ-Z1czZK58LDLT08P_DFyGzeQYjv7OrcrW6FwztBxn3eKnvP_zgvBcQDDhC_ZXzT_AhBNshbLCt1OXfu6E6FIvsPhGla8PMYTXoLKDQPzcVq_f0_JEwQ/s1600/citiesinflight3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="284" data-original-width="179" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4uSVfH1VBJN-hYvrGx_B96UIQ-Z1czZK58LDLT08P_DFyGzeQYjv7OrcrW6FwztBxn3eKnvP_zgvBcQDDhC_ZXzT_AhBNshbLCt1OXfu6E6FIvsPhGla8PMYTXoLKDQPzcVq_f0_JEwQ/s400/citiesinflight3.jpg" width="250" /></a></div>
James Blish conceptualizes requirements or adjuncts of interstellar travel:<br />
<br />
the spindizzy or the Haertel overdrive and its successors;<br />
<br />
the ultrawave/ultraphone, the Dirac transmitter, the CirCon radio;<br />
<br />
the germanium-based Oc dollar, the Traitors's Guild;<br />
<br />
the anti-agathics;<br />
<br />
pantropy.<br />
<br />
<i>Cities In Flight</i> has the spindizzy, the ultraphone, the Dirac transmitter, the Oc dollar and the anti-agathics;<br />
<br />
<i>The Seedling Stars </i>has an unspecified overdrive, the ultraphone, the Oc dollar and pantropy;<br />
<br />
<i>The Quincunx Of Time </i>has the Haertel overdrive, the ultraphone and the newly invented Dirac transmitter;<br />
<br />
"A Style in Treason" has the Imaginary Drive, the ultraphone and the Traitors' Guild (an interstellar<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bourse"> bourse</a>);<br />
<br />
<i>Midsummer Century</i> has ultrawave and Dirac; <br />
<br />
<i>A Case Of Conscience </i>has the Haertel overdrive and the newly invented CirCon (circum-continuum) radio; <br />
<br />
Narratives diverge. <i>Anti-agathics</i> entailed the possibility of some characters living until the end of the universe which, however, for fictional convenience, was brought unexpectedly close to the present whereas <i>pantropy</i> entailed the possibility of Adapted Men inhabiting the entire galaxy millennia hence.<br />
<br />
Although the Dirac transmitter was introduced in the first written Okie (<i>Cities In Flight</i>) story, the propagation of Dirac pulses in a four-dimensional continuum had consequences that did not fit into that series so the idea was developed more fully elsewhere. The stories of the discoveries of the spindizzy and of anti-agathics were incorporated into Volume I of <i>Cities In Flight </i>whereas the invention of the Dirac transmitter is described in <i>The Quincunx Of Time</i>.<i> </i>paulshackley2017@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17704115766930975286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6328478605002875085.post-65875512193895843112018-09-24T11:19:00.002-07:002018-09-24T11:19:22.784-07:00The Two Tetralogies<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6ENMpCLhbwU8bwFIp3tV0L2-L23vn9_A4JidW73EFNgURHkXk27DP5oPzdEeQw_LF1FXsnE8Sg4chFNGNXutnw-XaW1lKC7qSsX29O7hqBkIl25URbcfmfs0DVGOclSl3etOAuJ0VVH0/s1600/theseedlingstars.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="278" data-original-width="181" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6ENMpCLhbwU8bwFIp3tV0L2-L23vn9_A4JidW73EFNgURHkXk27DP5oPzdEeQw_LF1FXsnE8Sg4chFNGNXutnw-XaW1lKC7qSsX29O7hqBkIl25URbcfmfs0DVGOclSl3etOAuJ0VVH0/s400/theseedlingstars.jpg" width="260" /></a></div>
The pantropy series originally had five installments encompassing a beginning, an intermediate stage and a culmination. However, two of the intermediate installments, set on the same planet, were amalgamated when the series was collected as <i>The Seedling Stars</i>, thus generating a tetralogy covering:<br />
<br />
experimental colonization of Ganymede;<br />
<br />
routine colonization of an extrasolar planet;<br />
<br />
three time periods on a planet where the crew of a crashed spaceship have to genetically engineer microscopic human beings to inhabit small pools of water;<br />
<br />
a far future culmination when Adapted Men return to the Solar System to recolonize the changed Earth.<br />
<br />
The Okie series, four stories with a definite conclusion, were collected as <i>Earthman, Come Home</i>. However, Blish added a prequel, a sequel and a juvenile novel, thus generating a total of four volumes collected in one omnibus volume as<i> Cities In Flight</i>.<br />
<br />
The prequel, <i>They Shall Have Stars</i>, jointly novelizes two stories with new material. The three alternating narrative strands cover:<br />
<br />
biology, culminating in the anti-agathic drugs;<br />
physics, culminating in antigravity;<br />
politics, culminating in escape from dictatorship.paulshackley2017@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17704115766930975286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6328478605002875085.post-36859351785322625632018-09-24T11:01:00.002-07:002018-09-24T15:29:55.828-07:00Four Main Bodies Of Work<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwY12zz9fJb0vNShi1B5glJFy0Ng61uBwzEzMOvOL5PKJvmS7zX8qqKIh5GqqH23ud7VzthvSi9y11Hzc1VvbPgeE_NX5vYEfjd8mHx5lgoWs1hc3xqWSmgXM0a9bMElZGZmYqww06MRE/s1600/theseedlingstarsmine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="194" data-original-width="259" height="299" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwY12zz9fJb0vNShi1B5glJFy0Ng61uBwzEzMOvOL5PKJvmS7zX8qqKIh5GqqH23ud7VzthvSi9y11Hzc1VvbPgeE_NX5vYEfjd8mHx5lgoWs1hc3xqWSmgXM0a9bMElZGZmYqww06MRE/s400/theseedlingstarsmine.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
Volume III of the <i>After Such Knowledge</i> Trilogy is one of the four futures of the Haertel Scholium whereas the two tetralogies, <i>Cities</i> <i>In Flight</i> and <i>The Seedling Stars</i>, are independent and parallel future history series. Thus, the relationships between James Blish's four major bodies of work can be encapsulated in a single and aesthetically pleasing sentence. There are:<br />
<br />
two tetralogies which are also future history series;<br />
three volumes of the trilogy;<br />
four fictional futures referring to Adolph Haertel who also appears in one novel and one short story.<br />
<br />
I became fascinated with this emergent structure which, of course, is not what the individual works are about. Each of the stories or novels is of high quality quite independently of its place in this structure.<br />
<br />
Book I of <i>A Case Of Conscience</i> is part of a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Petrified_Planet"><i>Twayne Triplet</i></a> and part of <i>A Case Of Conscience </i>which is part of <i>After Such Knowledge</i> and of the Haertel Scholium. Further, <i>A Case Of Conscience </i>is about the planet Lithia which becomes relevant and therefore is mentioned in the culminating installment of the pantropy series collected as <i>The Seedling Stars</i>.paulshackley2017@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17704115766930975286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6328478605002875085.post-76427463974127884642018-09-23T15:44:00.004-07:002018-09-23T15:56:47.986-07:00Freedom In Two Haertel Overdrive Futures<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTm4rXgr085_V6FQPKX9qA0hUYX2RtRi5FHHG3tibnhyZ8JoeAcphyphenhyphen7-psBeUgJ__X_SlAkKpBTUFTfAxs1B2aqeqz3U4rZc3he3zpv6ZZwyM_cYWOWFnTOtBVU8DPxau563sb_tg1TS0/s1600/thequincunxoftime.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="268" data-original-width="163" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTm4rXgr085_V6FQPKX9qA0hUYX2RtRi5FHHG3tibnhyZ8JoeAcphyphenhyphen7-psBeUgJ__X_SlAkKpBTUFTfAxs1B2aqeqz3U4rZc3he3zpv6ZZwyM_cYWOWFnTOtBVU8DPxau563sb_tg1TS0/s400/thequincunxoftime.jpg" width="243" /></a></div>
<u>The Dirac Transmitter Future</u> <br />
"'...the more you know, the wider your field of possible operations becomes, and the more fluid and dynamic a society you need. How could a rigid society expand to other star systems, let alone other galaxies? It couldn't be done.'"<br />
-James Blish, <i>The Quincunx Of Time</i> (New York, 1983), <b>AN EPILOGUE</b>, p. 106.<br />
<br />
"'...we know that the consciousness of the observer is the only free thing in the universe. Wouldn't we look foolish trying to control that, when our working physics shows that it's impossible to do so? That's why the Service is in no sense a thought police. We're interested only in acts. We're an Event Police.'" (<i>ibid</i>.)<br />
<br />
(The abomination of a Thought Police exists in <i>1984</i> and in the Bureaucratic State period of Blish's <i>Cities In Flight. </i>The latter bans even thinking about spaceflight as Unearthly Activities but cannot ban atomic research...)<br />
<br />
<u>The Heart Stars Future</u><br />
In the Heart Stars federation, even the dominant Malans:<br />
<br />
"...are slaves to their own laws and the machines that interpret them. All these planets are also very low on curiosity, except in very limited areas, and they make sure to keep those areas harmless.'"<br />
-James Blish, <i>Mission To The Heart Stars</i> (London, 1980), <b>CHAPTER ELEVEN</b>, p. 123.<br />
<br />
Earthmen learn that they must not join the Heart Stars federation but build a free alliance against it.paulshackley2017@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17704115766930975286noreply@blogger.com0