Sunday 24 September 2017

The Evolution Of Future Histories

Extrasolar colonists and interstellar traders are complementary, not contradictory. Thus, James Blish's Okies could have traded with his Adapted Men. However, the logic of the pantropy series took it into a remote future when Earth had changed enough to be recolonized by Adapted Men whereas the logic of the Okies with their antiagathics had some of them surviving until the end of the universe which, for narrative purposes, came sooner than expected with a cosmic collision. The two series, having acquired incompatible endings, also acquired different although parallel beginnings. References to Oc dollars, the ultraphone and "gods of all stars" in The Seedling Stars suggest a stage in their composition when the two series could have been one.

Poul Anderson's Technic History features a Terran Empire ruled from Archopolis whereas both his "The Star Plunderer" and his "The Chapter Ends" refer to a First Empire ruled from Sol City. However, "The Star Plunderer" became a pivotal story in the Technic History whereas "The Chapter Ends" became the culmination of the Psychotechnic History.

In Robert Heinlein's works, Dahlquist, the Space Patrol, Rhysling, a Stone Family in Luna City and particular versions of Martians and Venerians link five early Scribner Juveniles to The Green Hills Of Earth, Volume II of the Future History, but the Juveniles are incompatible with the Future History as a whole. Thus, Heinlein wrote what I call a Juvenile Future History.

So far, this post has referred to three sf authors each writing two future histories but the real situation is more complicated. Anderson wrote several future histories (see here). Blish gave his Okies the instantaneous Dirac communicator but then had to develop the full implications of this communicator in a third future history. My advice: read them all.

8 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

As for the problem posed by mention of a "Sol City" in "The Star Plunderer," one way of "saving the appearances" in that story would be to consider it a slightly fictionalized account of the origins of the Terran Empire.

Sean

David Birr said...

Paul and Sean:
Alternatively, Archopolis was RENAMED Sol City at some point before the Empire's fall.

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Yes, there are various ways to account for differences of nomenclature.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, DAVID and Paul!

But I like the name "Archopolis," it's a very apt name for the capital of the Empire, meaning "City of the Ruler." I would be reluctant to have give up the name. Another way of "saving the appearances" is to think "Sol City" was what the capital was called very early in the history of the Empire. And soon renamed "Archopolis."

Sean

David Birr said...

Sean:
YOU like "Archopolis," and I agree that it's apt. Someone in the waning days of the Empire may have disagreed with us. Obviously a person of no taste or class.

Does "The Chapter Ends" specify that Sol City was the capital? Because "The Star Plunderer" DOESN'T. So, depending on what "TCE" says, we could imagine Sol City as being ANOTHER important city of the Empire, NOT Archopolis under a different name.

Yet another possibility is that either "Archopolis" or "Sol City" was not the official name, but a widely used nickname, much as New York City is sometimes called Gotham. Houston, Texas, has an OFFICIAL sobriquet of "Space City" (as well as several other nicknames).

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, DAVID!

I checked, and the "Introduction" to "The Star Plunderer" does not call "Sol City" the capital of the Empire. It might have been, as you suggested, another city on Terra, and not Archopolis under a different name. "Sol City" might have been a nickname for Archopolis? Possibly!

I also went thru "The Chapter Ends" to find the reference to Sol City, and this is what I found on page 272 of STARSHIP (Tor, June 1982): "Sol City, capital of the legendary First Empire, had been enormous." And rest of the paragraph makes it plain it could not have been Archopolis."

Sean

Jim Baerg said...

Re: Archopolis and Sol City.
See the names Byzantium, Nova Roma, Constantinople, and Istanbul. Particularly the way the 3rd morphed into the 4th.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Jim!

I actually thought of that in other comboxes, at different times. I even thought or suggested Constantinople was chosen by Manuel Argos as the capital of the new Empire and renamed Archopolis.

Ad astra! Sean