David "PiperFan" Johnson  11-21-2017
04:00 UT
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Svants and Thorans
If you have Rogue Games' ~Transmissions
from Piper~, a Traveller role-playing game supplement based upon Beam's
yarns "Naudsonce," "Last Enemy" and "Ministry of Disturbance," then
you've already seen (a black-and-white version of) this illustration of a
Thoran by Jeff Preston:
https://roguegamesblog.wordpress.com/2008/...-piper-art-preview/
This
Thoran "hillman" is a bit more humanoid than I'd pictured them--and the
kilt is not nearly as garish as I'd imagined--but it's great to finally
see them depicted.
There are also a couple of wonderful illustrations of Svants by Alfredo Lopez, Jr., including one of "Sonny" and "Mom."
~Transmissions
from Piper~ doesn't seem to be in print any more, but you can still
find used copies at ABEBooks.com. You can get a PDF version here:
https://studio2publishing.com/products/tho...ions-from-piper-pdf
Enjoy,
David
--
"I
saw a man shot once on Mimir, for calling another man a son of a
Khooghra. The man who shot him had been on Yggdrasil and knew what he
was being called." - Jack Holloway (H. Beam Piper), ~Little Fuzzy~
~
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David "PiperFan" Johnson 11-11-2017
15:28 UT
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The Return on eBay
A great-priced (so far!) copy of ~The
Science-Fictional Sherlock Holmes~, which contains the original,
expanded version of Piper's and McGuire's "The Return" is now on offer
on eBay:
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/312000217545
(The plot, of course, was spoiled by the yarn be collected in this anthology!)
I'm not the seller (and I already have a copy so I won't be bidding).
Bon chance!
David
--
"Do
you know which books to study, and which ones not to bother with? Or
which ones to read first, so that what you read in the others will be
comprehensible to you? That's what they'll give you [at university].
The tools, which you don't have now, for educating yourself." - Bish
Ware (H. Beam Piper), ~Four-Day Planet~
~
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Tanith in Oz 11-03-2017
13:03 UT
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So after doing some sleuthing I’ve determined that “sociology” as
it came to be known did not have an official governing body in Australia
until 1963. There were various institutes at the University of Sydney,
Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide etc… but there was no centralized
authority. Sociology, in Australia as it turns out was governed
under the Education Workers Association in each state before the
incorporation of the Sociological Association of Australia and New
Zealand (SAANZ) in 1963. It seems there was a very long and
torturous history for the field in Australia, and it took until the 60s
for it to crystalize a governing body. There are many reasons for this,
but the primary one is that each state liked to run its own affairs and
distrusted Federal government mandates. This tended to manifest in the
way Aboriginals, the poor/destitute and wards of the state were treated
and how in many ways this conflicted with other jurisdictions. However
in the late 1980s New Zealand decided to split off and go it alone.
This forced the remaining Australian States to form The Australian
Sociological Association (TASA) in 1989. This organization continues to
today. TASA runs annual conferences in Australia, allowing
various universities to bid for the right to host. In 2018 it will be
held at the University of Western Australia. Now, given Piper
preferred to use the term “sociography” it’s possible that something
like TASA could have formed and run conferences in his universe. A
Federation Sociography Association I guess, an organisation separate to
the Extraterrestrials' Rights Association. I think this is
a likely extrapolation and would provide a plausible reason for
visiting academics from aboard to have been at one of these conferences.
They would then be stuck in Adelaide unable to return to France. This
then would lead to a choice to try to return to a "French" colony, or
to remain in Adelaide (or other places in Australia). Most of the
contingent choose to stay and are incorporated into the University of
Adelaide. I like it. I think bringing a small part of the
Sorbonne into Adelaide university culture is an interesting idea. And
it then makes Adelaide Uni much more prestigious and could have started
the academic notoriety that was eventually mentioned by Piper in Uller
Uprising. And it might not end there. The same thing also
could have happened at the University of Montevideo. Say visiting
academics from Cambridge got stuck there. Or maybe Yale? The sky's the
limit on this but I could see this being a reasonable possibility. Therefore
applying the same method the "Melbourne Times" might not be a physical
relocation of the entire Times organization from London. But some of
their journalists could have gotten trapped in Melbourne too. Lets say
they were traveling with members of the British Royal Family when the
4th war happens. Stuck in Melbourne they either start up their own
version of their paper from back home or they take over a smaller paper
and rename it. Either way it certainly works better than saying the
whole thing moved. So yeah. Regards Terry Edited 11-03-2017 14:08
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Tanith in Oz 11-03-2017
05:08 UT
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~
Jon Crocker wrote:
> There's always some university
researchers doing field work, so if it just happened that a handful from
one big > european university were in town, sure.
This is a
fair point Jon. I do like the idea of some members of the Sorbonne
being down under when the balloon goes up. Perhaps some of them were in
Adelaide for a conference, or a symposium, or something academic
related. Whatever the reason they were in Adelaide they stay when it
becomes obvious Paris has been destroyed.
Staying in Adelaide
they join the school of Sociology, later Sociography and then steer the
reputation of Adelaide Uni over the centuries.
I think this is a good solution and its rather elegant.
Regards
Terry
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David "PiperFan" Johnson 11-03-2017
05:08 UT
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~
Terry "Tanith in Oz" Glouftsis wrote:
> Given that the London Times went to Melbourne
> it occurs to me that many other institutions may
> have also gone down under too.
Jon
makes some excellent points here and he's correct that we don't
ultimately know how to explain this. His musings about the amount of
time between (genuine concerns about) the outbreak of the Fourth World
War and the destruction of civilization in the Northern Hemisphere
(presumably including London) are spot on. But my sense--just my sense,
I can point to no other evidence in his work--is that Beam was telling
us something about how that war unfolded here.
> Previously the idea of the British Royal family
> coming to Australia had been touted
A
couple of points. First, we know that there is extensive damage in the
North in the Thirty Days' War which in and of itself might lead some
Northern nations to move some government functions to the South in the
"interwar" years. The folks who do that are going to tend to be the
Northern Thirty Days' War "victors"--the Americans obviously--and they
will tend to move to "available" territory in the South. But the hitch
here is that much of the South is _already_ inhabited by nations that
_don't_ suffer much in the Thirty Days' War.
That's what helps to
make things like an American move into Antarctica make more sense: it's
a place the Americans can go to without having to fight others who are
already established here. (It also helps here that we know _someone_
ends up settling in Antarctica and that they have surnames like
"Murell.")
The British, even if they stay out of the American-led
(first) Terran Federation likely still remain allied against the
Eastern Axis in the Thirty Days' War. That means Britain may suffer in
that war too.
Unlike the Americans, the British have have some
places where they might go in the South where they likely don't have to
"fight their way in." Namely, the Commonwealth nations. The
Commonwealth had already stopped being "British" (formally, at least) by
the time Beam was writing but a great deal of affinity nevertheless
remained between Britain and nations like Australia. And then, of
course, there is the ~Melbourne Times~. . . .
So, if the Fourth
World War unfolds in ways that leave time for the British to evacuate
their government it's not unreasonable to guess that they might do so to
a Commonwealth nation like Australia.
(Here's the intriguing
thing about Melbourne. In the early period of Australia's independent
nationhood--before Canberra was established as the federal
capital--Melbourne was the seat of the monarchy. If Australia finds
itself playing host to a British monarch-in-exile during the Fourth
World War there are good reasons why it might nevertheless not want to
be seen as being _too_ close to Britain. Sequestering the British
monarch away from the Australian capital--in the monarchy's "old digs"
in Melbourne--might very well help to serve that purpose. This is all
conjecture, of course.)
> Now the French. We've also spoken about there
> being a lack of French references in the Federation
> and that had they gone south they may have gone
> to Madagascar (also a strong possibility).
Perhaps.
The fact remains that the French seem to play no role of prominence in
the Federation (or later) eras. The French may evacuate to Madagascar
or elsewhere in the South but this will be a much smaller presence than
that of any Americans in Antarctica or of any Britons in Australia. (On
the other hand, if the French are allied with the British in some
manner--perhaps in joint opposition to the early, American-led Terran
Federation, perhaps they end up having a not-insubstantial presence in s
few former Commonwealth nations too. Again, just conjecture here.)
> So what I wanted to ask is what about the Sorbonne?
> Adelaide University is mentioned a number of times
> as having a strong Sociography department. Given
> that the French have a strong sociology tradition at
> the Sorbonne is it possible that elements of that
> institution fled to Adelaide? Perhaps not the whole
> organisation, but some of it?
Possible,
yes. Likely? Who knows? We have little evidence either way. But for
this to happen, two other circumstances would seem to be required.
First, Jon's musings about how the Fourth World War unfolds would have
to be resolved with an assumption that there was enough "advance notice"
for this sort of thing to take place. Second, evacuated French
institutions in Australia raises the likelihood of some sort of
Anglo-French affinity in the "interwar" years.
> I think it's possible to argue for it, but I do agree it
> could also be a stretch.
I think you have that just about exactly right. ;)
Tchau,
David
--
"I
was trying to show the results of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire
after the First World War, and the partition of the Middle East into a
loose collection of Arab states, and the passing of British and other
European spheres of influence following the Second." - Edward Chalmers
(H. Beam Piper), "The Edge of the Knife"
~
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Jon Crocker 11-03-2017
04:20 UT
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We'll never know for certain what exactly that term means, "The Times went to Melbourne."
Did
far-seeing individuals in that worthy news organization put contingency
plans in place that were eventually activated? Did a portion of the
staff of The Times quietly move down under?
Or, after the balloon
went up, did a few surviving reporters from the southern hemisphere
congregate in Melbourne, along with a couple of the editors that had
been vacationing with family around Australia & NZ? "I say, Nigel,
these Aussies mean well, but they need a guiding hand, being colonials
and all. What do you say we show them what's cricket?"
There's
scant evidence either way. If it was just a few people involved, it
would be easy for that exact beginning to be a bit obscured over the
centuries.
There's always some university researchers doing field
work, so if it just happened that a handful from one big european
university were in town, sure.
Heads of State are easier to explain - people were thrown on planes and headed south on pre-planned routes.
A
lot of it depends upon how quickly WW4 broke out - years or months of
tensions? Lots of people have lots of warnings and move. If it burst
out of nowhere, not so much.
You could always have one or two big
organizations be deemed to have been 'extra-prepared' - someone high up
in the organization is determined to keep 'the firm' running no matter
what, so keeps a few extra people tucked away down under. But that
really only works for one or two organizations and could easily be over -
used.
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Tanith in Oz 11-03-2017
03:10 UT
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Hi all I've just got a quick question for the group.
Given that the London Times went to Melbourne it occurs to me that many other institutions may have also gone down under too.
Previously the idea of the British Royal family coming to Australia had been touted (a possibility that I tend to agree with).
Now
the French. We've also spoken about there being a lack of French
references in the Federation and that had they gone south they may have
gone to Madagascar (also a strong possibility).
So what I wanted
to ask is what about the Sorbonne? Adelaide University is mentioned a
number of times as having a strong Sociography department. Given that
the French have a strong sociology tradition at the Sorbonne is it
possible that elements of that institution fled to Adelaide? Perhaps
not the whole organisation, but some of it?
Let me know what you think about this. I think it's possible to argue for it, but I do agree it could also be a stretch.
Regards
Terry
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