David "PiperFan" Johnson  03-22-2017
01:30 UT
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~
"It had been two hours to Litchfield when the Countess Dorothy rose from the airship dock at Storisende." - H. Beam Piper, Junkyard Planet
".
. . the face of Dorothy altered . . . and she became the Countess
Dorothy whom Jurgen remembered as Heitman Michael's wife." - James
Branch Cabell, Jurgen: A Comedy of Justice
I've often
wondered who was the namesake of the airship which brings Conn Maxwell
the last leg of his journey home from Terra. The answer, it seems,
rests again with old Genji Gartner and his fascination with Cabell's Jurgen.
Obviously, "Gartner's" appreciation of Cabell must reflect that of
Beam himself. It would take more than a casual familiarity with
Cabell's work to pull that sort of detail for the name of an airship.
A close reading of Junkyard Planet
makes clear that Beam was using bits and pieces of Cabell's work
throughout the novel. What's fascinating is not so much what this tells
us about Gartner's--and Beam's--appreciation for Cabell but rather what
it also suggests about Gartner's place in Poicstesme's history. Sure,
it makes sense that the many planets and moons of the Gartner Trisystem
got their names from Cabell (via Gartner) but here are Gartner's
descendants, two centuries later, still naming ships for characters from
Cabell's work. (True, the Countess Dorothy might be decades old but surely it must have been laid down decades after Genji Gartner's body began "mouldering" in his tomb!)
Remember Ashmodai! Remember Belphegor!
David
--
"A
girl can punch any kind of a button a man can, and a lot of them know
what buttons to punch, and why." - Conn Maxwell (H. Beam Piper), Junkyard Planet
~
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David "PiperFan" Johnson 03-14-2017
02:15 UT
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~
Dale Ridder wrote:
> In the book on the science fiction background to the Traveller
> science-fiction role-playing game, two of Piper's books are
> mentioned at 2 and 3: The Cosmic Computer and Space Viking.
> The Space Viking is pretty obvious based on the presence of
> Sword Worlders in the game.
My
favorite Piper connection in Traveller is the "Casual Encounter"
article by J. Andrew Keith (writing under the pen name Keith Douglass)
which appeared in ~Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society~ No. 20. It
features Gamaagin Kaashukiin, the former Baroness of Klavos (on the
planet Adabicci in Lunion subsector), who sells her barony to raise the
funds to purchase a ~Broadsword~ class "mercenary cruiser"--much smaller
than Trask's ~Nemesis~ but very much the same concept--to go hunting
the Sword Worlders who killed her husband.
As you mention,
Traveller's Sword Worlds were clearly inspired by ~Space Viking~ but
I've had more difficulty finding Traveller linkages to ~Junkyard
Planet~/~The Cosmic Computer~.
Happy Travelling,
David
--
"Ideas
for science fiction stories like ideas for anything else, are where you
find them, usually in the most unlikely places. The only reliable
source is a mind which asks itself a question like, 'What would happen
if--?' or, 'Now what would this develop into, in a few centuries?' Or,
'How would so-and-so happen?' Anything at all, can trigger such a
question, in your field if not in mine." - H. Beam Piper, "Double: Bill
Symposium" interview
~
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Dale Ridder 03-13-2017
16:59 UT
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Greetings All,
Jon Crocker mentioned a computer game in the 1990s
that may have used Piper. In the book on the science fiction
background to the Traveller science-fiction role-playing game, two of
Piper's books are mentioned at 2 and 3: The Cosmic Computer and Space
Viking. The Space Viking is pretty obvious based on the presence of
Sword Worlders in the game. I suspect that Piper's direct conversion of
nuclear energy to electricity also plays a big role in having
fusion-powered vehicles about the size of existing ones. Oddly enough,
collapsium is not used in the game.
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David "PiperFan" Johnson 03-13-2017
14:58 UT
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~
Jon Crocker wrote:
> It had Fort Huachuca on it of course, and at that scale it looks
> close to the Mexican border.
I
think, ". . . we're from Arizona, near the old Mexican border . . ."
would have been an even better way to locate Fort Ridgeway (but also
leaves me doubting that Piper and McGuire really had an actual place in
mind).
'Ware the Scowrers!
David
--
"Altamont sat in
silence, smoking his pipe and trying to form some conception of the
wealth under that concrete floor. It was no use. Jim Loudons probably
understood a little more nearly what those books would mean to the world
of today, and what they could do toward shaping the world of the
future." -- H. Beam Piper, "The Return"
~
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Jon Crocker 03-13-2017
03:39 UT
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Great stuff - I always thought it was just a fictional place, never thought it would map to a real location.
I
have a copy of a 1942 Union Pacific "Military Map of the United States"
that shows dozens of military posts, then has the nearest station and
postal information for each. It had Fort Huachuca on it of course, and
at that scale it looks close to the Mexican border. Of course, the map
states, "censorship prevents listing of many newer facilities. Keep 'em
rolling for Victory!"
Around 1989 or so, there was a computer
game called Wasteland, a post-WW3 adventure where the heros hailed from
an old US Army base, and once I read that story I wondered if the game
writers had read Piper.
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David "PiperFan" Johnson 03-09-2017
03:03 UT
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~
". . . we're from Arizona. A place called Fort Ridgeway."
- Jim Loudons (H. Beam Piper & John J. McGuire), "The Return," 1954
Throughout
the decade I lived in Arizona I always wondered where Fort Ridgeway
might have been but Piper and McGuire give us few clues. They tell us
that Fort Ridgeway was originally "a military research and development
center" but give no details about where "in what had once been Arizona"
it might be.
Fort Ridgeway seems to be a fictional name. There
has never been a military base with that name in Arizona. It seems
likely that Piper and McGuire named the fort after General Matthew
Ridgeway, who commanded UN forces in Korea after MacArthur was relieved
of command. Ridgeway was U.S. Army Chief of Staff--after a post-Korea
assignment as Supreme Allied Commander, Europe (taking over from
Eisenhower)--when "The Return" was published in January 1954.
(Intriguingly, Ridgeway retired to suburban Pittsburgh--where the events
depicted in "The Return" take place--in 1955, though whether or not
Piper or McGuire knew that was in the works when they were writing their
yarn is anyone's guess.)
The largest military base in Arizona at
the time Piper and McGuire were writing "The Return" was Davis-Monthan
Air Force Base near Tucson. Davis-Monthan had primarily been a bomber
base rather than a research and development center. Luke Air Force Base
near Phoenix, was (and remains) primarily a fighter training facility.
Fort Huachuca in southern Arizona was an Army construction engineering
facility during the Korean War and did not begin its transition to an
electronic warfare research and development facility until 1954, after
"The Return" was published. The former Williams Air Force Base, also
near Phoenix, was another fighter training facility but did have a brief
role as a gunnery research and development site early in the post-WWII
period.
There are don't seem to be any immediately likely
candidates for Fort Ridgeway among these bases. There were other
military facilities in Arizona at the time Piper and McGuire must have
been writing "The Return" but there's nothing about any of them to
suggest it might be the site of Fort Ridgeway either.
One last
clue is the war which has devastated the former United States in "The
Return." Events depicted in the yarn take place two hundred years after
this war, which occurred in 1996--some 40+ years into the future from
the time Piper and McGuire were writing. Given the scale of the
apparent destruction it seems less likely that Fort Ridgeway would have
been on the site of Tucson's Davis-Monthan or of Luke or Williams in
metropolitan Phoenix. This would seem to leave Fort Huachuca--renamed
for General Ridgeway and far from a major population center--as the most
likely site of Fort Ridgeway.
It's elementary. ;)
David
--
"You
either went on to the inevitable catastrophe, or you realized, in time,
that nuclear armament and nationalism cannot exist together on the same
planet, and it is easier to banish a habit of thought than a piece of
knowledge." - H. Beam Piper, ~Uller Uprising~
~
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David "PiperFan" Johnson 03-05-2017
18:56 UT
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~
Dale Ridder wrote:
> What city and state is this Waffle House located in? I am guessing
> that the state is Pennsylvania, but the city is not possible to guess.
State
College, Pennsylvania. I've been twice--though it's been a few years
now--and it's always been a great time. You can see a bit about a few
previous Irregulars' Musters here:
http://hradzka.dreamwidth.org/290128.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20090109135721...lvan/muster2008.htm
https://web.archive.org/web/20080819174120...an/Hostigos2004.htm
Down Styphon!
David
--
"I
have heard it argued that fandom tends to make a sort of cult of
science fiction, restricted to a narrow circles of the initiated. This I
seriously question." - H. Beam Piper, "Double: Bill Symposium"
interview
~
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Dale Ridder 03-05-2017
18:49 UT
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Greetings Mr. Carr,
My apologies for my ignorance, as I am new to
the forum. What city and state is this Waffle House located in? I am
guessing that the state is Pennsylvania, but the city is not possible to
guess.
Sincerely Yours,
Dale R. Ridder
Hi Folks,
This
year's Irregulars Muster will take place on Saturday, May 20, 2017. We
will be meeting at the Waffle House located on 1229 North Atherton
Street at 10:00 a.m.
Dennis Frank will take us on a tour of
"Hostigos" and places important to H. Beam Piper canon -- including the
Kalvan transposition site. Time and erosion have taken their toll on
the transposition site. In a few years, the turn-around will be nothing
more than a small gap along the roadside. I suggest, if you'd like to
see it, this is the time to visit.
All Piper fans are
welcome to join us for a day of good company, great food, congenial chat
about our favorite author and a tour of Piper Country.
John F. Carr
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John F. Carr 03-05-2017
00:36 UT
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Hi Folks,
This year's Irregulars Muster will take place on
Saturday, May 20, 2017. We will be meeting at the Waffle House located
on 1229 North Atherton Street at 10:00 a.m.
Dennis Frank
will take us on a tour of "Hostigos" and places important to H. Beam
Piper canon -- including the Kalvan transposition site. Time and erosion
have taken their toll on the transposition site. In a few years, the
turn-around will be nothing more than a small gap along the roadside. I
suggest, if you'd like to see it, this is the time to visit.
All
Piper fans are welcome to join us for a day of good company, great
food, congenial chat about our favorite author and a tour of Piper
Country.
John F. Carr
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David "PiperFan" Johnson 03-04-2017
04:22 UT
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~
Welcome, Dale.
> Has anyone ever drawn or worked up pictures of the various
> animals mentioned in the Piper books? One I have been thinking
> of is the Colada Marsh Pigs, that Otto Harkonen hunted when a kid.
> I was thinking of them looking like a pygmy hippopotamus with a
> head resembling that of a wart hog, but broader. As for the
> Zarathustra Damnthing, more of a bad-tempered three-horned
> eland that wants meat.
Whelan's damnthing is the best, I think:
http://www.michaelwhelan.com/wp-content/uploads/runforcover.jpg
His Jarvis's sea-monster was also pretty good:
http://www.michaelwhelan.com/wp-content/uploads/fourdayplanet.jpg
though I think Eddie Jones did a good job too:
http://www.sf-hefte.de/BILDER_T/TERRA_ASTRA_505.JPG
Leo Morey did a nice job with the Svant's "cattle":
http://www.zarthani.net/Images/naudsonce-morey_p28.png
I like your description of Harkaman's marsh pigs.
Monster Ho!
David
--
"I
was born in Antarctica, on Terra. The water's a little too cold to do
much swimming there. And I've spent most of my time since then in
central Argentine, in the pampas country." - Glenn Murell (H. Beam
Piper), ~Four-Day Planet~
~
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Dale Ridder 03-04-2017
03:48 UT
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Has anyone ever drawn or worked up pictures of the various animals
mentioned in the Piper books? One I have been thinking of is the Colada
Marsh Pigs, that Otto Harkonen hunted when a kid. I was thinking of
them looking like a pygmy hippopotamus with a head resembling that of a
wart hog, but broader. As for the Zarathustra Damnthing, more of a
bad-tempered three-horned eland that wants meat.
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Dale Ridder 03-03-2017
13:42 UT
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A "Thank You" to David for inviting me to join the forum. I have been
reading Piper since the early 1960s when I first read "Little Fuzzy",
then the "Styphon" series in Analog, and "Space Viking" and "The Cosmic
Computer" when they came out. Piper is one of my favorite authors and
some of his military ideas are now common place, such at using TV drones
for reconnaissance. I have been working on adapting some of Piper's
ideas to the Traveller science-fiction role-playing game, so you might
start seeing some of that.
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