More Ishtarian Superiority

In Poul Anderson's Fire Time (London, 1977) -
Originally published on Poul Anderson Appreciation, 9 Feb 2013.
 
(i) " 'The Ishtarian on foot can travel faster than a man, including a man on a horse, and for much longer at a stretch without tiring. He can see quite well by night, so the shorter day is no inconvenience. He rarely needs shelter, and if need be he can live indefinitely off whatever herbage grows along his path. It's no particular bother to camp out on the job. In short, he's a better traveler than we are, with more speed and scope.' " (p. 112)

Ishtarians can travel faster and further because they are quadrupeds. I had thought that a future evolutionary stage might be a being with at least human intelligence but with a body at home in the natural environment, not requiring clothes, shelter or specially prepared food.

(ii) Because of their longevity:

"A bright young Ishtarian might study under a master, be in the prime of life when the catastrophes began, and survive to teach in the next cycle." (p. 117)

This personal continuity, together with storehouses of books and instruments, enable the Ishtarians to weather periodic catastrophes that would otherwise destroy civilisation completely.

(iii) "(Also there seemed to be the factor of creativity. If most men are at their most original between the ages of, say, twenty and thirty-five, the corresponding Ishtarian ages would be about fifty to one hundred fifty, with all the advantages of accumulating wisdom and insight.)" (p. 117)

One hundred years of creativity and learning as against fifteen! One Lawspeaker with "...an excellent memory and a gift for seeing the total picture..." had presided in the Gathering for three hundred years (p. 117).

(iv) "Ishtarians...have less innate violence, power hunger, and general irrationality than men..." (p. 118)

(v) " 'Ishtarians are better than us at producing and hearing sounds. Their music, like their dance, is nearly always incredibly sophisticated by our lights.' " (p. 124)

Despite all this, Anderson did not set out to describe a perfect or, in theological terms, an unFallen race:

"...they were equally able to see that robbery often yields more fun and profit than honest labor..." (p. 118)

Hence the need for the legions:

"The legions were the nearest thing to governed organizations [but] they were autonomous." (p. 118)

There is another small detail. The Lawspeaker observes:

" 'No doubt this assembly will stand for longer than expected...' " (pp. 120-121)

A quadrupedal assembly does not sit but stands.

A Body Of Armed Ishtarians

Originally published on Poul Anderson Appreciation, 9 Feb 2013.

A state is, most basically, a body of armed men. In Poul Anderson's Fire Time (London, 1977), Ishtarian civilisation has developed without a state, yet there are bodies of armed Ishtarians, the legions, with names like "the Zera Victrix". How does this work?

"Beronnen...had no government...The legions...were autonomous. They hired out to whoever would pay, on whatever terms could be mutually agreed on - though never to anyone who attacked Beronneners." (p. 118)

The legions sell "...protection, plus valuable civilian services; a legion was by no means exclusively military." (p. 118) It begins to look as though "legion" is not a fully accurate translation.

For Beronnen and surrounding areas, it is considered a good idea to meet occasionally in order to share information, settle disputes and plan undertakings so societies of widely diverse kinds, some analogous to Terrestrial social arrangements but others not, send their leaders or representatives to an assembly that recommends but does not legislate. Minorities usually prefer conformity to isolation.

The assembly must discuss:

"...how much territory civilization might reasonably hope to hang onto..." (p. 114)

during the next approach of the red sun.

" 'The role of the legions in this latest chaos time is likely to be more civil than military, more engineering than fighting.' " (p. 116)

- so the speaker proposes that the assembly should request that the Zera return. As when writing, in the History of Technic Civilization, about the winged and carnivorous but intelligent Ythrians, Anderson imagines genuinely different politics for an alien species.

Ishtar

Originally published as "Fascinating Aliens" on Poul Anderson Appreciation, Fri 8 Feb 2013.

Why are human beings the way we are, biologically, psychologically, socially and spiritually? This question easily arises in science fiction when an author compares us with his imagined aliens, unless he pointlessly makes them exactly like us.

Characters in Poul Anderson's Fire Time (London, 1977) make two significant points:

(i) " '...beyond a certain point there is no selection pressure to increase brain power further, and indeed this would grotesquely unbalance the organism.' " (p. 83)

(ii) Hastily evolved human beings have three brains, the reptilian stem, the mammalian cerebellum and " '...the over-developed cerebral cortex...' " unharmoniously cobbled on top of each other, " '...hence ax murders, mobs...' " etc (p. 85).

All that I had remembered about the Ishtarians from an earlier reading of Fire Time was that they were quadrupedal. In hexapodal evolution, the forelimbs come to be freed from locomotion for manipulation so that the dominant species is quadrupedal, sort of leonine centauroids. In addition, however, a human colonist on Ishtar believes that the native Ishtarians " '...are a more advanced form of life than us.' " (p. 82)

(i) Not even their most violent barbarians are casually bloodthirsty. They have never tortured or massacred prisoners and have not exterminated the small, rarely seen, semi-intelligent "goblins" (p. 82).

(ii) Civilisation has developed without a state. (Neat.)

(iii) Regular scorching of Ishtar by the periodically approaching red giant star prevented reptiloid evolution and gave mammalian types longer to evolve.

(iv) They have evolved elaborate symbioses, including even plants that grow on their bodies, can be eaten in emergencies and then grow back quickly.

(v) They can live on a wide variety of foods and are less wasteful of water.

(vi) Their mutation rate is probably higher because their body temperature is.

(vii) Genes governing a metabolic function that is taken over by a symbiont are freed to do something else.

(viii) They have no insanity and little disease.

(vix) They are not culture shocked by the arrival of Terrestrials.

(x) They live for three to five hundred years which probably conserves their adaptations to the red star cycle.

Anderson indeed put a lot of thought into making Ishtarians different from human beings.