Friday 20 May 2022

Conceptual Universes II

Poul Anderson's Time Patrol series is ambiguous on the central question in the history of Christian civilization. Carl Farness implies that he could not in honesty argue for Christ but Manse Everard reflects that a fellow Patrol agent might be a devout Catholic.

Anderson's There Will Be Time approaches the question but then veers away from it. Mutant time travellers visit not Easter Sunday but Good Friday and then use that date only as a convenient rendezvous point.

Back in the Time Patrol timeline, the Patrol obviously knows what happened and guards that event like every other but Poul Anderson does not tell us what it was. The series raises more questions than it answers.

2 comments:

S.M. Stirling said...

Compulsive world-builders like me have to keep in mind that the purpose of world-building is to support the -story-. Answering questions is relevant only if it does that. Otherwise it's sort of pointless.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Sometimes there were times when Anderson raised more questions than he answers in his stories. But Stirling's comments explains why PA wrote the stories you cited as he did.

Ad astra! Sean