Saturday 7 March 2015

Rackham And One Other

SM Stirling, The Peshawar Lancers (New York, 2003).

We already know something of Disraeli, Kipling and the painter Leighton after the Fall. See here. Now we learn that Arthur Rackham illustrated Legends From Lost Homeland and that a certain author:

was born in the old Empire;
came to India with the Exodus;
said that, when the impossible has been eliminated, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth;
believed that he could photograph fairies;
wrote escapist detective stories "...set in a paradisal world where the Fall had never happened..." (p. 24).

Paradisal indeed! So the post-Fall Imperialists read the same Sherlock Holmes stories that we do! Maybe fiction writers, like the Sisterhood of True Dreamers, can tune into alternate realities? (-which is how DC Comics explained their different versions of Superman: a version that was fiction on one Earth was real on another and there is, unlikely though it seems, one Earth with not a single superhero.)

Imperialist physics approaches the idea that reality is fundamentally not deterministic but probabilistic. Cassandra (!) King speculates that the human brain is compact yet complex enough to "...operate at or around that level..." (p. 245), thus explaining the Russians' ability to breed human beings able to sense alternative probabilities. The novel's two premises are a single premise after all.

There is church-state conflict in the Russian Empire because Count Ignatieff, devotee of a god of destruction, conceals the approaching end of the world from his political masters who would surely want to prevent it.

It can no longer be doubted that this is excellent post-Anderson sf.

4 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Hi, Paul!

Again, I'm sorely tempted to say things that would be spoilers! (Smiles) But I do recall mention of how Arthur Conan Doyle survived the Fall and lived to write what can only be called science fictional Sherlock Holmes mysteries. I mean set in a world where the Fall did not occur. Prince Charles or Cassandra King did mention that many who survived the Fall and its immediate chaos were never again quite sane.

And the idea that some persons (Yasmini and her fellow Dreamers and possibly Doyle) might be able to sense or contact alternate universes is intriguing. I first came across that notion from reading Anderson's THREE HEARTS AND THREE LIONS.

The reason why there was some at least "underground" conflict between Church and State in the Russian Empire lay in the insane hatred of the Satanist Church for ANY life. While, by contrast, the Tsar was, however loudly he prayed to Malik Nous in public, not so eager to meet him. Rather, he wanted to preserve a functioning heritage and realm for his descendants.

Again, I'm trying not to spill too many spoilers! I do agree S.M. Stirling is A worthy successor to Poul Anderson. But I do wonder if you would like all that he wrote. Mainly, I'm not sure you would quite like either his Draka or Change/Emberverse series. It's possible you would like CONQUISTADOR or his two "Lords of Creation" books better.

Sean

Paul Shackley said...

Sean,
I will find out!
Paul.

Paul Shackley said...

Sean,
There have to be some pragmatic constraints on religious insanity. I think that one Protestant Reformer said that a Catholic Mass was more fearsome than an enemy army but he would hardly convince any secular ruler of that!
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Hi, Paul!

And I will be curious to know what you think of any others of Stirling's books!

And I absolutely disagree with what that Protestant said about the Mass. As a Catholic I believe nothing can be more sacred and awe inspiring than the Most Holy Eucharist.

And some secular rulers in the 1500s did become Protestant because Lutheranism and Anglicanism was more submissive to state domination than a Catholic Church led by popes who often resisted the demands and encroachments of the state.

We have both recently reread GENESIS, recall how Poul Anderson described a Mass celebrated in a York Minster still Catholic as dignified and beautiful. And recall Anderson even saying he PREFERRED the Mass in Latin in the prefatory notes he wrote for "Kyrie" in GOING FOR INFINITY.

Sean