Saturday 14 September 2019

Two More Triads

CS Lewis replied to Wells and Stapledon on the themes of space travel, time travel, interplanetary invasion and future society. Thus, these three authors present a dialectical triad. Stapledon expanded the Wellsian vision whereas Lewis reaffirmed a Biblical, Platonic, Arthurian world view. Then James Blish wrote a post-Lewis trilogy and Philip Pullman writes anti-Lewis fantasy: a second dialectical triad.

We note how much Poul Anderson contributed on the above themes, even incorporating both space opera and historical analysis into the Dominic Flandry series which is part of the Technic History.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

If writers want to use FICTION to seriously present ideas about human beings, their societies, their histories, their faiths and philosophies, etc., then they will have to be entertaining, to be interesting, to convince readers they want to read these stories. So sometimes I feel impatient with those (not including you) who sneer at and look down their nose at space opera, adventure, and derring do.

Ad astra! Sean