Saturday 25 February 2017

Intersecting Histories

Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization is remarkable not only for its many successive periods but also for its many intersecting narrative strands. Earlier episodes contribute background details that enrich later episodes and thus also the unfolding history. No single summary can possibly do justice to this aspect of the series. However, I will present some partial summaries in order to convey the richness and complexity of the Technic History. For convenience, I refer to dates as given in Sandra Miesel's Chronology but, for a discussion of the details of the Chronology, see here.

Terrestrial Religions And Wodenites
In the 21st century, there is a Jerusalem Catholic Church on Earth.
In the 25th century, Nicholas van Rijn, Catholic, employs Adzel, a Wodenite convert to Buddhism.
In the 29th century, a Terran Admiral from Nuevo Mexico is Catholic and a Lieutenant from Earth is Jerusalem Catholic.
In the 31st century, there are Jerusalem Catholics on Daedalus and a Galilean Order mission to Woden converts Axor who is ordained.
Thus, Jerusalem Catholicism, introduced in the 21st century, and Wodenites, introduced in the 25th century, although mentioned earlier, interact in the 31st century.

To be continued.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

And you suggested that the Jerusalem Catholic Church is our Roman Catholic Church after the Papacy, for reasons unknown, relocated to Jerusalem. I can imagine some disaster happening to make Rome uninhabitable, and thus forcing Papacy to move to another city. For all I know it was only meant to be a relatively short stay--till Rome again became habitable. But somehow that did not happen!

A real world analogy comes to mind. From about 1305 to 1377 the Popes dwelt in Avignon, largely because Clement V (first of the Avignon popes) was a weak man cowed by the threats and pressures of Philip IV of France. What if, instead of returning to Rome in 1377 the Popes had remained in Avignon? Would we now be calling the Catholic Church the Avignon Catholic Church?

Sean