Calidore  08-18-2019
03:32 UT
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David “Piperfan” Johnson wrote,
>Then I read for the first time, King Solomon’s Mines and it was obvious that
>Von Schlichten was modeled on Haggard’s Captain John Good, not just in
>how he looks, but his personality as well. It’s uncanny actually.
When
I first read King Solomon’s Mines back around 2007, I made much the
same connection. Not necessarily in personality; Captain Good is the
least of Haggard’s three main characters, and seems to provide a greater
share of the comic relief, unlike the more serious and lordly Sir Henry
Curtis, or the worldly and practical Quatermain. In addition, John in
unlucky in love in KSM and its sequel Allan Quatermain, while Carlos is
successful with Paula Quinton. And finally, Good has two sets of false
teeth (KSM, p. 6), while I’m pretty sure Carlos has all his natural
dental equipment! (In this, Captain Good parallels Beam Piper rather
than von Schlichten.)
But in outward appearance and profession,
you’re right. Unlike the bearded Quatermain and Curtis, Captain Good
is a clean-shaven military man, like General von Schlichten, and his
immovable monocle definitely stands out. It stays put through all their
journeys in southern Africa; across deserts, over mountains, through
battles, and even during falls into rivers and down slopes. After the
climactic battle in Kukuanaland between the forces of the usurper King
Twala and the rightful King Ignosi, Quatermain and Curtis look for and
find their friend. “Good did not move, and we concluded that our poor
comrade was done for. Sadly we came towards him, and were indeed
astonished to find him pale and faint indeed, but with a serene smile
upon his face, and his eyeglass still fixed in his eye.” Later, the
three escape from King Solomon‘s mines, “And yet it is a solemn fact
that Good‘s eyeglass was still fixed in Good‘s eye. I doubt whether he
had ever taken it out at all. Neither the darkness, nor the plunge in
the subterranean river, nor the roll down the slope, had been able to
separate Good and his eyeglass.” (ibid., pp. 157, 205)
Similarly,
General von Schlichten’s monocle stays put through many events in Uller
Uprising. Particularly several battles, which include Carlos engaging
in hand-to-hand fighting against a mob of Ullerans in Konkrook and then
King Firkked in Skilk. Even when King Yoorkerk turns Rakkeed the false
prophet over to the Terrans, it doesn’t surprise von Schlichten enough
for it to fall out. This causes one of his officers to lose a bet.
“Pay me, Them; he didn’t drop it.” (UU, pp. 18-20, 128-129, 143)
Of
course, we all know that von Schlichten finally loses his monocle at
the end of the story. “I never expected to see it, but at that it took
three A-bombs to blow you loose from your monocle.” But von Schlichten
denies the eyepiece was forced out. “I didn’t lose it…I just jettisoned
it. Don’t you know, lieutenant, that no gentleman ever wears a monocle
while he’s kissing a lady?” (ibid., p. 185)
But that Carlos loses
his monocle is perfectly appropriate, because Good finally loses his.
Near the end of the sequel Allan Quatermain (spoiler alert), the three
men are involved in another war, this time in central Africa. And
Quatermain receives a wound that proves mortal. As his death draws
near, Good weeps, and his monocle falls out. Allan tries to smile. “At
last…I have seen Good without his eye-glass.” (AQ, p. 273)
So
it’s an emotional outburst (great sadness) which forces Good’s monocle
out, paralleled by the emotional outburst (great passion) which led
Carlos to lose his monocle.
While Piper gives his main
character a happier ending than Haggard, there is nonetheless another
parallel. Because Captain Good is a lesser character; more of a
parallel with the junior Terran officers than with General von
Schlichten. And in AQ, the more lordly Sir Henry falls in love with
Queen Nyleptha of the Zu-Vendi, and becomes King-Consort of the land
after leading her forces to victory in a civil war. This is paralleled
by Carlos von Schlichten, who falls in love with Paula Quinton, becomes
King of Skilk through conquest, and leads his forces to victory over the
Uprising. Paula says that “one of my great-grandmothers was a Freyan”
(UU, p. 55), quite possibly making her a descendant of nobility, if not
royalty. And once she marries Carlos, Paula will effectively become
Queen of Skilk, paralleling Nyleptha.
Furthermore, Carlos’
title as Governor-General of Uller is confirmed after defeating the
Uprising, essentially making him ‘king’ of the whole planet. In that
sense, the Uprising can be considered a civil war, since some of the
native rulers (such as King Kankad and King Jonkvank) fight alongside
the Terrans against their fellow Ullerans. This parallels the Zu-Vendi,
some of whom fight for Queen Nyleptha while others support her sister,
Queen Sorais.
So Beam seems to have combined elements of Captain
Good (military man, monocle) and Sir Henry Curtis (a great warrior who
wins the heart of a queen and becomes a king) in the character of Carlos
von Schlichten. He may have also included the worldliness and
practicality of the iconic Quatermain, who sees things as they are and
has no illusions about his fellow men, white or black. Because Carlos
seems to be very much that sort of leader, whether it involves Terrans
or Ullerans. Thus, although Piper used the Sepoy Mutiny as his
historical model, I certainly agree that he included a Haggard element
in Uller Uprising.
And after reading the first two books, I also
agree that Haggard is well worth reading on his own account, not just in
relation to Piper!
John
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Gregg Levine 08-16-2019
05:55 UT
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Well stated and quoted Jon.
I've got a batch of books to read as
it happens, I'm going to add the three Fuzzy books, in hardcopy to that.
It happens I'm reading the Del Rey book "Nerves". He mentions in the
book, (which first came out in 1942) an incident at a plant (Nuclear) in
Croton. I've been wondering how the heck he figured we'd have a
facility near there...... And look what happened in one of Piper's short
stories on Nuclear power.
As for what you said after that DJ, I know you weren't. You were simply noting the confirmation of a factoid.
We
know where the books are. Some of us own them in paperback, and some of
us own the original hard copies. I wonder where the original
manuscripts are stored.
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Jon Crocker 08-16-2019
01:18 UT
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For the "Colonel Klink" image, I guess I was going more off of the
comment Sid Harrington made towards the end of chapter two - "Why don't
you invite her (Paula Quinton) to make the trip with you? You can be
quite attractive to young ladies, when you try." But, I guess Mrs.
Klink thought the Colonel handsome enough.
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David "PiperFan" Johnson 08-16-2019
01:07 UT
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~
Gregg Levine wrote:
> So I am allowed to error in caution, here. However the
> circumstances were correct.
My apologies, Gregg. It was not my intention to criticize you.
That
tidbit may very well also appear in one of Wolf's books. I pointed to
the original, Piper source because, as I said, it's always struck me as
being at odds with much of the rest of Beam's work.
Cheers,
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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Gregg Levine 08-15-2019
15:25 UT
|
Remember DJ, when I wrote that I was working from memory. I normally
remember the things I've read. But with these Piper books, which I have,
I have not read then in a longish while.
So I am allowed to error in caution, here. However the circumstances were correct.
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David "PiperFan" Johnson 08-15-2019
14:31 UT
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~
Gregg Levine wrote:
> Somewhere in one of Wolf's Fuzzy books, it is mentioned
> that Von finds himself becoming the Governor General of
> Uller, because of the company via its offices back here. I
> won't cite the obvious, but we know that the AE date is
> 526 for Uller, that means that the events there, take
> place well before t the events of the Fuzzy books.
"The
Chartered Uller Company was taken over by the Government after the
Uprising, in 526; the Government simply confirmed General von Schlichten
as governor-general and payed off the stockholders at face value."
- Leslie Coombes (H. Beam Piper ), ~Fuzzies and Other People~, p. 28.
I
have wondered though whether that bit, and the bit that follows about
Fenris, wasn't perhaps added to the posthumously-discovered text by an
(Ace?) editor. These sorts of fully-detailed tags to other Terro-human
Future History works don't really seem like Beam's style.
Then
again, Beam was likely not in a good place by the time he was writing
this one, so who knows how that might have affected his writing?
Cheers,
David
--
"The
Federation Government owns a bigger interest in the Company than the
public realizes, too. . . ." - Carlos von Schlichten (H. Beam Piper),
~Uller Uprising~.
~
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Gregg Levine 08-15-2019
02:47 UT
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For all of my efforts in understanding Uller Uprising, as published
by those clods at Ace, and also now available from Gutenberg, I'd
always thought he would look rather like a younger version of the actor
behind Klink. And yes because of his monocle. Having not read Rider
Haggard's best known work, I would have to agree with you based on your
statement. Somewhere in one of Wolf's Fuzzy books, it is mentioned that
Von finds himself becoming the Governor General of Uller, because of the
company via its offices back here. I won't cite the obvious, but we
know that the AE date is 526 for Uller, that means that the events
there, take place well before the events of the Fuzzy books. Edited 08-16-2019 04:41
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David "PiperFan" Johnson 08-15-2019
02:46 UT
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~
Tim Tow wrote:
> One thing I just noticed from the cover illustrations
> posted is that the cover illustration for Uller Uprising,
> showing the robot heads with women inside them, was
> from the Space Science Fiction magazine cover and
> probably is for another story. Right?
Yep.
That's an unrelated cover illustration by Alex Ebel from the issue in
which the original serialization of "Ullr Uprising" appeared:
http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?181977
> That Uller Uprising illustration is it actually the cover of
> a book as it is also shown as the cover image for the
> Uller Uprising hardback on sale on Amazon?
Yeah,
AEgypan goofed there, using the unrelated ~Space Science Fiction~
illustration--and mis-crediting it to Paul Orban, who did the original
"Uprising" interior illustrations--for their print-on-demand reprint of
~Uprising~:
http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?368872
Still,
AEgypan--and Wildside--were the first publishers to re-issue Beam's
work when it went into the public domain--often publishing a given work
within months of each other--and we can thank them for much of Beam's
public domain work that's now in (POD) print.
Cheers,
David
--
"I
believe the first one, also a General von Schlichten, was what was then
known as a war-criminal." - Carlos von Schlichten (H. Beam Piper),
~Uller Uprising~
~
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David "PiperFan" Johnson 08-15-2019
02:20 UT
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~
A while back, Jon Crocker wrote (about the Paul Orban illustration for "Ullr Uprising" on the lower portion of the page here
http://www.zarthani.net/future_history_gallery.htm ):
> I have to say that the artist who did the two panel
> picture of Uller Uprising from Project Gutenburg had
> a very different take on General Von Schlicten. For
> some reason the General I pictured looked something
> more like Sean Connery, that one looks like he was
> Himmler's stunt double.
For
a long time, after I'd first read ~Uprising~, I'd always assumed Von
Schlichten looked something like Col. Klink from ~Hogan's Heroes~,
mostly because of Klink's monocle.
Then I read, for the first
time, ~King Solomon's Mines~ and it was obvious that Von Schlichten was
modelled on Haggard's Captain John Good, not just in how he looks, but
his personality as well. It's uncanny actually.
~Mines~ is a good read too!
Znidd Suddabit!
David
--
"I
was going to write like James Branch Cabell, which would have taken a
lot of doing. Before that, I was going to write like Rafael Sabatini,
and like Talbot Mundy, and like Rider Haggard, and even, God help us
all, like Edgar Rice Burroughs. . . . Eventually I decided to write
like H. Beam Piper, only a little better. I am still trying." - H. Beam
Piper, "Double: Bill Symposium" interview
~
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Tim Tow 08-14-2019
13:05 UT
|
 Interesting find on absolute primogeniture in the Sword-Worlds. Piper merits so much close reading. One
thing I just noticed from the cover illustrations posted is that the
cover illustration for Uller Uprising, showing the robot heads with
women inside them, was from the Space Science Fiction magazine cover and
probably is for another story. Right? Unless my memory is failing me as
it did with Cosmic Computer, that scene wasn't in the book. But then again I don't remember robot dogs in Space Viking either. :) That Uller Uprising illustration, is it actually the cover of the Amazon hardback on sale on Amazon? Edited 08-14-2019 13:22
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David "PiperFan" Johnson 08-14-2019
04:17 UT
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~
Absolute Primogeniture in the Sword-Worlds
Though we never
see a Sword-World or Space Viking ruler who is female it seems the
Sword-Worlders did indeed practice absolute primogeniture, where the
succession of a noble position goes to the eldest child, regardless of
gender.
It is Andray Dunnan who tells us this, in laying an
informal, unrecognized claim to the ducal throne of Wardshaven.
Dunnan's mother is the younger sister of Duke Angus--as far as most
people are concerned--but Dunnan "claims that his mother was born a year
and a half before Duke Angus and the true date of her birth falsified
to give Angus the succession."
If the Sword-Worlds practiced
"ordinary" or "traditional" primogeniture, where the succession went to
the eldest male child, Dunnan's claim about his mother's earlier birth
would not matter. The succession would have gone to Angus as the eldest
male child. Dunnan's mother--Angus's sister--only enters into the line
of succession if it's absolute primogeniture which determines the right
of succession.
Cheers,
David
--
"You are my chieftain. That's another mark of the barbarian." - Otto Harkaman (H. Beam Piper), ~Space Viking~
~
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