Sunday 21 March 2021

Phases Of Civilization

The Solar Commonwealth is the first phase of Technic Civilization. The Terran Empire is its Indian summer, according to Dominic Flandry. Everything after the Long Night is "post-Technic," I think, although not, of course, post-technological.

Nicholas van Rijn presents a critique of the declining Commonwealth at the end of Mirkheim. We read critiques of the Empire by Lord Hauksberg, Ydwyr the Seeker, Cerdic of Scotha, Chunderban Desai and Dominic Flandry, all discussed in various earlier blog posts. Three men and two aliens present an essentially consistent narrative of rise and decline from diverse perspectives. Cerdic's denunciation is simplistic, possibly disingenuous and partly truthful.

A convincing history and its interpretation emerge across the course of no less than forty three stories and novels.

3 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

There was also the period immediately before Technic Civilization took its definite form, the time of Chaos, which is OUR time. We can only hope something like a real Technic Civilization might arise around AD 2100 and that a FTL drive is invented by then.

Ad astra! Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,

Maybe a post on Flandry's, Aycharaych's and Bond's attitudes to death sometime tomoz but not first thing.

Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

A topic worthy of comment, considering how empathically Flandry and Aycharaych disagreed about death. But I still need to relearn more about Bond's views on such things.

I've reached Chapter 6 of MOONRAKER, and I'm taking note of Fleming's loving description of gentlemen's clubs. And, even now, London and other major cities capitals of many nations still have that quintessentially English innovation!

Ad astra! Sean